(Those from 2008 and 2009 are here and here.)
1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
*Joined a gym
*Got a book contract (for a scholarly edition, but still)
*Attended a funeral
2. Did you keep your 2009 resolutions, and will you make more this year?
I completely forgot that I made resolutions last year, although I think I did. Since I fail to remember them, it's a good bet that I also failed to keep them.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I'm a 34-year-old woman. In any given year, probably 20% of my friends are either pregnant or just gave birth (but in 2009, none of my closest friends actually did).
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes: my maternal grandmother and last surviving grandparent.
5. What countries did you visit?
None--not even Canada or Mexico.
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
I feel quite confident that this year I will have a completed book manuscript. So let's shoot for a contract?
7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Professionally: reconceiving my book project and making some real headway on its revision. Personally: repairing or resuming friendships with a number of people I care about: exes, grad school colleagues, and others.
8. What was your biggest failure?
I feel that I was a pretty crap teacher this past semester. I doubt that my evaluations will reflect this--two of my three classes were a ton of fun, and I loved my students--but I felt that I was half-assing everything even more than usual.
9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Despite my crazy hypochondria, just bad allergies in the spring and a lingering cold in the fall.
10. What was the best thing you bought?
My gym membership. I'm using and enjoying it more than I'd ever have imagined.
11. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My mom's, who was my grandmother's primary caregiver for her last nine months.
12. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I'm easily, and always vocally, appalled. But I'm working on not reading the behaviors that make me appalled as MORAL FAILINGS on the part of others.
13. Where did most of your money go?
Food, booze, cat-care, and conference travel. But I did pay off a couple-few thousand in credit card debt.
14. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
Happier and slightly richer (which is only to say: slightly less in debt). I weigh almost exactly the same.
15. What do you wish you'd done more of?
The same damn things: saved more money/gotten out of debt. Finished my book.
16. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Sat around on my ass/left things to the last minute.
17. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Yes.
18. What was the best new book you read?
Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics
19. What was your favorite film of the year?
Probably Duplicity.
20. What kept you sane?
All the people in my life.
21. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
It's really not that hard, none of it: work, love, life. Just get off your ass, take a chance, and try to follow through.
Happy 2010 to you and yours~~
6 comments:
Hmm, I'll have to think about your valuable life lesson and see if I believe it. If all of it -- work, love, life -- really isn't that hard if one just gets off one's ass, that would be pretty damn cool, wouldn't it? (Perhaps it might even motivate me to get off my ass!)
Happy new year!
I haven't decided yet whether I'm more happy about your book contract or your having fallen in love. Let's call it a tie. Happiest to you and to all y'all.
WN: well, it's a valuable lesson that I learned about life in 2009; I don't imagine that it's true every year, in every circumstance, for everyone.
That is, life, love, etc., are hard. But maybe, sometimes, they're not as hard as we make them out to be, or as we fear.
Happy New Year!
I think the hardness depends on a lot of things out of our control. But fear of the difficulties causes more than it's share of... erm... difficulty.
Flav and Bard: I couldn't agree more. Fear is a huge impediment, at least for me.
I like the idea that, most of the time, work, life, love, etc. should not FEEL difficult. Difficult circumstances will present themselves, yes, and there are times when you're putting extra effort in at your job or in your relationships, but when you have "work at it" all the time, then you might want to consider the possibility that you're in the wrong field or position, with the wrong person, etc. When you're in the place that's right for you, with the people who are right for you, things tend to fall into place.
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