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End-of-Year Meme!
1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Arguably a lot… I visited a trailer park after midnight, I became friends with people I called for political purposes, I got a job that required me to sign a contract, I moved to Maryland… that was definitely a first…
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I can’t remember whether or not I made resolutions last year. I probably won’t remember next year whether or not I do this year.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No, but, people who I knew in middle school friended me on Facebook and have apparently in the intervening years since I’d last spoken to them become single moms, which weirds me out significantly.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thankfully.
5. What countries did you visit?
I was more concerned with counties than countries this year.
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
someone to cuddle.
7. What date(s) from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
November 4. “If there is anyone out there, who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible… tonight is your answer.”
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Helping get Barack Obama his new job (and turning Jackson County blue for the first time in history), and I guess getting my own job, too.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I failed to find a beautiful, veggie-loving Obama volunteer to adventure around with. I also failed to be as good a teacher as I should be.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
actually, I was probably as healthy as I’ve ever been in a calendar year, after last fall being sick either physically or mentally or both for like, all of it.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Three-way tie between Infinite Jest, Rock Band and my new computer.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
All the volunteers I met along the way; all the people who let me stay with them for a night or two or six in the name of volunteering for Barack; the states of Ohio, North Carolina, Indiana, and Virginia, especially; all the teachers I worked with who helped me and did their best everyday to help their kids; my parents, who started to get used to the idea of me being a grown-up; and most of all my friends, who kept in touch, and always made me feel special by remembering me in any small way, and some who did so in big ways, like flying out to see me in Maryland, or calling me up out of the blue before I left wanting to see me again, or who were willing to keep me company for any of the countless lonely hours I’d have otherwise had to have spent. I am grateful for them all.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
McCain/Palin/Clintons/Jesse Jackson/Blagojevich/hedge-fund managers and CEO types
14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, followed closely by gas, food, and mi computadora
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Barack Obama, and the act of volunteering for him, and friends coming out to Maryland to see me.
16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
“Heretic Pride” by the Mountain Goats
“Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Stevie Wonder
The entirety of “Feed the Animals” by Girl Talk
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier. But, to be fair, I’d have been pretty hard pressed to become sadder than I was at this point last year.
ii. thinner or fatter? I've inhabited the same five or so pound weight zone since the beginning of high school. I'm still there, despite some efforts to leave it.
iii. richer or poorer? I feel like I could build a vault and swim in all the money I have now, a la Scrooge McDuck. I seriously don’t know what to do with myself.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
talked to people/played real instruments/done things in the real world
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Mindless procrastination.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
waking up at noon, opening markedly fewer presents than in years past, playing rock band with my brother for half the day, reading more Infinite Jest, and watching Tropic Thunder with my family.
22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
No, but then again, I wasn’t really trying to, after I decided to get out of Michigan for good.
23. How many one-night stands?
ummmmmmmmmm almost one?
24. What was your favorite TV program?
hmmm… well, early on in the year I watched a lot of scrubs… then I really didn’t have a tv or do much online viewing… oooh, other than This American Life on instant-watch Netflix, which was very good.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I try not to do that. But Sarah Palin’s pretty far down on my list, now. And this kid in my one of my classes who hurled racial and religious epithets at a sweet Pakistani girl who wears a headscarf.
26. What was the best book you read?
Infinite Jest! But I haven’t gotten all the way through that yet, sooooo tie between The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The NightWatchman! And probably the Avett Brothers/Hold Steady, too. And re-discovering that a lot of the old stuff I listened to in high school actually still sounds pretty good.
28. What did you want and get?
President Obama and financial independence.
29. What did you want and not get?
A peace corps assignment starting in 2008, hugs (I did get some, but they were far too few and far between), peace of mind.
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Wall-E! I… might have gone to see it five times in theatres… and only two of them were with other people…
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
When I turned 22, I vaccuuumed, called Lindsay in Mozambique for the first time on Skype, went to a meeting about possibly teaching summer school in Detroit, and planned lessons for the next day. More than a bit of a letdown, compared to turning 21 in Montreal, surrounded by friends who drunkenly serenaded me on my way to the bathroom.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A romantic relationship. Or even the possibility of one would have been nice.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Ultra-formal in work situations (tie, dress shirt/pants daily) counterbalanced by ultra-informal immediately after work (pajama pants + undershirt, or jeans + t-shirt if I was going out anywhere). I also think I lent some cred to homeless people who wear two zip-up sweatshirts instead of a real jacket by endorsing the look myself.
34. What kept you sane?
My friends, Music, and My bed, in that order.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
oh come on, too easy.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Above all, probably the idea that the politics of hope and transparency triumphed over the politics of division and outright lies. This played out in Obama v. McCain, Obama v. Clinton, and though less publicized nonetheless notably in E. Dole v. Kay Hagan for senate in North Carolina (Dole had the ad that had someone say “There is No GOD!” over Kay Hagan’s picture, implying that Hagan was an Atheist when in fact she taught Sunday School). North Carolina really deserves a national round of applause, I think, for not re-electing Dole AND in the end going for Obama.
37. Who did you miss?
Everyone. All the people in Michigan who I was suddenly too far away from to drop in and see whenever I wanted to, my friends who moved overseas or to different states; I missed everyone.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Probably Joy, my department chair. She’s great, and I wouldn’t have come to Baltimore if I hadn’t met her.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
When you have a chance to be a part of history, do it. You won’t remember how tired you were the next day as much as you would regret not having done it in the first place.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
“I feel so, proud, to be alive; and I feel so, Proud When The Reckoning Arrives!” - The Mountain Goats