One Year Here.

We rumbled into town before noon on July 2, 2012...and here we are, one year later.  It's been a good one. And I can't say I've had a lot of fantastic years in my life.

I like year-end questionnaires, but I feel like my life kind of began since being here, in a lot of ways, so I'm going to do one for the past year instead of waiting til January to do one for the calendar year. Which I may still do.  But it'll have the same stuff on it.  So.


1. What did you do in the last year that you'd never done before?
Went to Disney World.  Rode the Wonder Wheel. Voluntarily attended Shakespeare; saw Alan Cumming onstage. Went on a Gray Line bus tour. In the freezing rain.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Not applicable but the other things wouldn't automatically renumber so I couldn't just delete it.


3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes! Sarah, then Amanda, then Emily.  YAY BABIES!!


4. Did anyone close to you die?
My favorite aunt, Rae. I called her Aunt Slug when I was little and really mad at her, because it was the worst name I could think to call someone.  Forever after, we were Slug and Aunt Slug to each other. I hate that I never visited her again in her idyllic Mexican town.


5. What places did you visit?
Manhattan and Queens.  St. Louis and Columbia. Orlando. St. Louis and Columbia again. St. Louis and Columbia again.

6. What would you like to have this coming year that you lacked last year?
More motivation to explore.

7. What dates from last year will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 4: The day we got our air conditioners.

September 24: First day of work.

June 7: Pippin.

8. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?
My job. Living in this hard-as-nails city for a year.


9. What was your biggest failure?
That I continue succumbing to my social anxiety and not making an effort to see people.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
None more than usual.  Bad colds, migraines.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Tickets to Pippin. Plane tickets to see people I love.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Behavior?!!  How about "accomplishments"??  Steve's doing great in school and I am so damned proud of him.


13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
This is a terrible question. Alec Baldwin pulls some pretty crappy shit and doesn't get too maligned for it.


14. Where did most of your money go?
Clothes, eating out, having a grand old time.


15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Oh man.  Um, everything? Seeing everyone I missed.  Having visitors.  Seeing people I hadn't visited with in years and years. Seeing shows on the Broadway stage. Museums. Times Square. Flying into NYC at night. Walking down the street in Manhattan every day.


16. What song will always remind you of last year?
Empire State of Mind.  There's nothing you can't do.  So effing true.


17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) Happier or sadder?
Miles happier.
b) thinner or fatter?
Like 30-35 lbs thinner, I think.
c) richer or poorer?
Richer, in almost every way.


18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Seen more theatre.  I'm so lucky that this can change any day of my life now.


19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stayed in on my days off.


20. How did you spend Christmas this year?
With Neil in our apartment.  When evening came, we took a very sparsely-attended subway to Midtown and walked down 20 streets along Fifth Ave enjoying the massive Christmas displays.  Along with every other tourist in NYC. :)


21. Did you fall in love this year?
I definitely did.


22. How was work?
Awful and wonderful.  Challenging.  Never boring. This is what I am meant to do.


23. What was your favorite TV program?
Golden Girls.  Still a comfort. So reliably on 27 times a day, whenever I need it.


24. What did you do for your birthday this year?
Nothing much, but Lindsay's visit the weekend after was basically twelve birthday celebrations in one.


25. What was the best book you read?
Kindle books by Elle Lothlorien.


26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Oooh, so not a music person.  I guess that Imagine Dragons song, Radioactive.  I freaking love it!


27. What did you want and get?
A knockoff Cambridge Satchel Company black and red bag.  It makes me weep it's so pretty.


28. What did you want and not get?
MLB.tv, but there's still time for that.


29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Not really a movie person either.  What did I watch...hmm....Oh, Brooklyn Castles! That was totally cute.  And Twenty Feet from Stardom and Cutie and the Boxer.  Moo Man was great too.  All documentaries!


30. Did you make some new friends this year?
Not really, but became closer with ones I hadn't seen in a long time.  (And sadly, lost a few I didn't know I would.) I'm on the way to making a few more, I hope.


31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A better start to my work.  It started off on the wrongest foot ever, and I made so many social mistakes that first week that I think it branded me as The Unpleasant One.


32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept this year?
I'm caring more than I ever have at this weight, one I'm not comfortable with but am learning to accept.  I loved new clothes when I lost weight, but haven't enjoyed them in years.  So with Lily's help, I am trying to be more fashionable.  Still comfortable, but trying things I wouldn't normally. Like shearling earmuffs and skinny jeans.


33. What kept you sane?
My family and close friends, my cats, a pretty neighborhood, two steady incomes and awesome insurance.


34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Fancy! Hee! Umm.....Oh!  Jon Snow (Kit Harington). And Alan Dale. (I have a silver fox thing.)

Mmm. I'd like to be the middle of this sandwich.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
I am soooo not politicky.  But I like how Christie and Obama got all lovey-dovey after Sandy.


35a. What political issue stirred you the least?
Almost just every single one of them, unless I think/learn more about each one.  Then I'll get stirred UP.


36. Who did you miss?
I miss so many people.  I miss Mom and Dad and Lily and Gilbert and Joe and Steve.  Lindsay and Emily and Shannon and their beautiful families. Sarah and my Millers. Amanda and Brad and their hilarious offspring. I miss people who have fallen away from me in the madness of this move and my moodiness and my unkindness.


37. Who was the best new person you met?
I really enjoyed meeting Emily, the wife of Neil's co-worker Frans.  I hope we get to have a friendship.


38. Burn any bridges?
I feel like I have.  I am in the habit of disappointing people.

39. Best new restaurant you went to?
Ironically, I haven't been blown away, in this city of a million awesome places!  But Nathan's on the Coney Island boardwalk was something else, as is Shake Shack.  Does Rocky's delivery pizza count? Ooh wait--Union Square Cafe was terrific. Lily took me, that precious girl.

40. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned this year.

Just GET OUT and DO THINGS. Look where you are now!!



A few more items of note that happened:


Charlie got a girlfriend, Pippa.


I started watching Pawn Stars occasionally.  So much less trashy than I thought it would be!


I don't enjoy sweet things as much as I used to.  My sweet tooth is either lessening or changing to a more savory one.  I can't hardly take chocolate in candy form anymore.


I culled my books so they take up just two large shelves.  I don't think that's happened in well over a decade.


My grandmother didn't send me a birthday check.  I think it's the end of an era.


I got an expensive haircut for the first time ever.  I love what he did to the back of my hair.


I have a quarter CSA share for the first time ever.  So far I am completely failing in using hardly any of it.  But seriously what am I gonna do with eleven different types of greens every other week?  I'm not really good at making salads.  I like them but only when someone else makes them. And I have never found a bottled dressing (except Olive Garden's) that I can stand.