rivers_bend

Apparently I'm addicted to end-of-year memes :)


1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
ate alligator meat; broke a lease; bought a smartphone

2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't think I made any. I tend to feel more contemplative and reflective in the summer than the winter, and mostly I just resolve every day to find silver linings.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
no one particularly close to me, but I work with pregnant and postnatal women, so lots of them gave birth, and a few of them I'd gotten close enough to that I teared up when I met their babies for the first time.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
I am extremely thankful that I can say no.

5. What countries did you visit?
Canada. I was tragically bereft of a trip across the pond this year.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
a road trip; more time with my niece and nephew; a baby of my own

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
May 25th, which is when I got to escape and go back to Vancouver, and can I count the second week of October as a date? (or the turning of the second week into the third week?) Wincon was amazing.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I got the hell out of the apartment that was making me absolutely fucking miserable and into a place where I can have peace and quiet. I started teaching again. I wrote a novel. (an explicit, underage, rpf novel, so it's not really publishable, but publishable wasn't the point.)

9. What was your biggest failure?
I was hoping that moving would magically make me take better care of myself, but apparently I have to actually WORK at that. Who knew?

10. Did you suffer illness or injury
I threw my neck out and was in agony for three days and pain for a couple more, but other than that, just a few colds and stress-related stomach upsets.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
plane tickets (to Vancouver, NYC, and NOLA), and my iPhone

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
I think a lot of people's behaviour merited celebration this year, but I want to give kudos to Zach Quinto for both his decision to come out, and the way he did it. That was one thing in the media that made me happy this year.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
What the actual fuck is going on with the government of this country? The tea party, the GOP, the democrats who cave to them over and over... We really need to stop with the hate and the self-centeredness.

14. Where did most of your money go?
rent, health insurance, and groceries. and happy new year to me, my health insurance just went up again. Gah, I miss England.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
what DIDN'T I get really, really, really excited about? Come on. Have you met me? To be more specific: FANGIRLS; Glee (even though I hate it, too); MCR; bandom; writing; Adam singing with Queen; Adam's new single; FANGIRLS; Chris Colfer and Darren Criss; Santana and Mercedes singing at me; FANGIRLS; Gerard/Frank; Mikey Way; Spencer/Brendon BDSM fic; podfic; FANGIRLS; writing; Killjoys; voice memes; picspams; FANGIRLS; seeing my niece and nephew; Wincon; Vancouver; my iPhone; writing; and FANGIRLS.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
Someone Like You by Adele

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? Same
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer (in terms of savings; richer in terms of monthly income)

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
travelling. I want to do ALL THE TRAVELLING. for someone who's always considered herself a total homebody, I'm remarkably keen to get rid of everything but my computer, my phone, and my favourite jeans, buy an RV, and live on the road. (I suppose I should take a few shirts, too.)

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
binge eating until I felt sick

20. How did/will you spend Christmas?
My mom and dad came down from Oregon, and we rented an apartment in SF, and we had a wonderful Christmas eve shopping and going to see the SF Gay Men's Chorus, and then on Christmas we had our traditional sticky buns, and opened presents, and got laughing so hard we couldn't breathe over the fact that I ended up buying my mom the TOTALLY wrong box set of DVDs, and not only that, told my father to buy her the sixth season that was missing from the box set. SO MUCH PRESENT FAIL. Then we went and spent the afternoon with miss_begonia and her family, eating delicious brunch and walking the Marin Headlands on a gorgeous day. I was honestly expecting to be pretty low, given it was the first Christmas since my parents sold their house, but it turned out to be pretty much the perfect weekend from start to finish. If I'd gotten Mom Slings and Arrows like she wanted, instead of Foyles War (don't even ask how that mistake got made), we wouldn't have had so much to laugh about, and Mom wouldn't have a story she's gonna dine out on for months, so even the bad turned out good.

21. What did you want and get?
A massage and body work appointment with my mom's friend who does amazing massage and body work.

22. What did you want and not get?
Christmas with my niece and nephew.

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I actually had to go back and look on my LJ to see how I spent my birthday, which probably says something. I turned 39 which I was really unhappy about, and I spent the day packing up my apartment with my parents' ~help. I did get to go out to dinner with them and miss_begonia though, and tasty tiramisu was involved.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
a matter transporter or unlimited time off and plane tickets.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
When I think of "fashion concept" i think Adam Lambert or Lady Gaga. When I think of me, I think "clothes". If I had my druthers, I'd wear jeans, a t-shirt, and flipflops 365 days a year, with maybe the occasional foray into snazzy shoes and a nicer top an evening or two a week. Sadly, winter happens (don't laugh. Northern California totally gets winter), so I have to wear long sleeves and cardigans and jackets and stuff now. And at work I have to wear not-jeans (much to my eternal dismay) and also closed-toed-and-heeled shoes. BOO, I say. BOO.

26. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
well I still want to marry Rachel Maddow, though I don't watch her show anymore because I can't actually handle the news, and I still want to marry Cat Deeley, and Kirsten Vangsness, and UNF Naya Rivera and Amber Riley (I don't know enough about them to want to marry them, and I don't want to marry either of their Glee characters), and OMG Sasha Mallory, you are hilarious and hot and a phenomenal dancer, but I think you might drive me crazy if I married you, and *flailhands* P!NK. I think those are the ones on the MOST list.

27. What political issue stirred you the most?
queer rights, access to health care, and the state of the economy

28. Who did you miss?
my niece, nephew and brother, and my girls. I have friends who are so so dear to me who live all over the world, and some of them I only got to see once, and some I didn't get to see at all, and it makes me achy in my heart parts.

29. Who was the best new person you met?
Oh, man. Wincon was GREAT for meeting new people this year, and I got a new colleague at work who I've really clicked with. Also, my new landlords are insanely kind and generous. I've met wonderful, wonderful people this year.

30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
putting off doing things to make your life better because it's easier not to change things isn't actually easier in the long run.

31. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
And if we can't find where we belong
We'll have to make it on our own
Face the pain and take it on
~My Chemical Romance: The Only Hope for me is You


Happy New Year to you all! <3333