& in the end we're all okay
Memeage: Year 8. As usual, excessively long and meandering, and exceptionally focused on my own navel.
1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
Took 8 round trip plane flights in one year. Went to three weddings. Got a job as a graphic designer (ha!). Took a meditation class. Learned to scull. Volunteered with refugees. Launched a web store. Worked for two international NGOs. Joined an invite-only writing workshop. Introduced my boyfriend to my parents. Saw the Dalai Lama. Went camping in Georgia.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My resolution was to find some frigging professional direction in life; I haven't written about this here at all, but I'm applying to grad school for an MA in international development. Fortunately the three programs I'm applying to are all amazing, and this is the field I've wanted to get into for years and years, and it would open tons of doors professionally. Unfortunately they all have an acceptance rate of about 8%. So I'm not holding my breath, but we'll see. And even if I don't get in, we're moving to DC this fall anyway, for Andrew's post-MBA job, and I'll have way way more nonprofit job opportunities there, so I have a backup plan and everything. (It involves lots of networking.) And even if school doesn't work out, it feels so good to have a goal to be working toward, you know?
(Also, Did You Know? Applying for grad school takes up all your time! I've been up to DC twice to visit schools and sit in on classes and meet with faculty. And let's not even talk about the GRE, or recommendation letters, or prereq classes, or volunteering, or etc etc.)
Apparently I also wanted to get better at keeping combinations of food in the house that can be made into meals. I definitely cooked more this year (unless life got hectic, in which case it was the first thing to go), but I still tend to plan meals that requires a trip to the grocery store, rather than using what's at hand. It's hard, because I always want to try new recipes! And have fresh vegetables.
Resolutions this year, hmm. Learn French FOR REALS THIS TIME. Be a nicer person to be in a relationship with. Journal more, whether here or on paper. (I so hate the idea of forgetting huge swaths of my life.) Send stuff I write out to journals instead of slaving over it and then just letting it die in a drawer. Read 50 books (as usual). Learn to say no to overwhelming work projects that will ruin my life, even if that means turning away money. Ha, I'm ambitious this year!
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
A girl I grew up with just had her second kid. Second!
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.
5. What countries did you visit?
Mexico! For about two seconds! While renting a beach house in Texas with cheapmetaphor. Also I saw a lot of the eastern US: New York, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Chicago, DC (twice), Boston (twice), Tampa, Cincinnati, Louisville, Chattanooga, Southwest Florida. Oh, and California, to visit ke_rose_ne!
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
Health insurance! .... a real job or a grad school acceptance letter. To live in a city with public transportation good enough that I can go back to a carless lifestyle.
7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Eh.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting a shockingly good and totally undeserved GRE score, after studying my ass off. (Know what you don't remember after 11 years of not doing it? Math!) Getting a sense of purpose back.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Not getting a career-track job. Spending so much time and energy on one miserable freelance project that was supposed to take 2 months and is now up to 6. Launching a web store: hard; doing it with a wildly understaffed Nicaraguan NGO, and buggy software: way harder.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
This year I ~*~bartered~*~ for physical therapy for my stupid SI joint, and my PT has turned out to be amazing, the best I've ever had, which is great, because I've got to get this shit under control, man. No colds or flu, though! Must be all my handwashing and 8 hours of sleep a night. Or good luck.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
MY NEW CONTACTS! For the past four years I've only had 20-60 vision, since my last eye doctor told me that was the best I could get (I'm REALLY nearsighted) and I found an amazing eye doctor this year who has me back at 20-20. I LOVE HER. I CAN SEE AGAIN. THE TREES HAVE LEAVES.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My boyfriend is endlessly amazing in 80 different ways. My friends, who are so funny and sympathetic and interesting. My brother, so grownup and putting himself through school.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Ha, have I ever answered this question without mentioning my ever-fraught relationship with my parents? Also the Tea Party, Fox News, the willful spread of misinformation, etc etc. (I get more politically outraged the older I get; shouldn't it be the other way around?)
14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, travel, food&coffee, clothes-I-don't-really-need.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
MOVING TO DC. MOVING TO FRANCE!! OH YEAH, MAYBE I SHOULD MENTION THAT I'M MOVING TO FRANCE. DETAILS BELOW.
16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
Kid Cudi/Best Coast - All Summer; Sleigh Bells - Rill Rill; Florence and the Machine - The Dog Days are Over; Cee-Lo Green - Fuck You; The Shins - We Will Become Silhouettes; Fountains of Wayne - Places; Fiona Apple/Jon Brion - So Sleepy (the lyrics are by 826LA kids!); Thao with The Get Down Stay Down - Bag of Hammers; The Black Keys - Tighten Up; Black-Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling; Freelance Whales - Hannah
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happierrrrr, omg. I was so miserable and directionless last winter.
ii. thinner or fatter? About the same.
iii. richer or poorer? Mint.com says: richer! Until I have to pay it all in freelance taxes, aaahhh!
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Journaling. Appreciating my life.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
W-O-R-R-Y-I-N-G. Dicking around online. Complaining. Running late.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it in Florida, introducing A to the wonders of the holiday. Then we saw True Grit (so good!). It was so cold in Florida this year! Very disappointing, warmth in December is the one thing I like about the whole state.
21. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Ah, meme. You never change.
22. How many one-night stands?
Ha!
23. What was your favorite TV program?
Mad Men, Community, Friday Night Lights, The Office.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope.
25. What was the best book you read?
The Goodreads rundown of my 5-star books in 2010: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (David Mitchell, marry me); The Birthday of the World (Ursula K. Leguin -- alien ethnographies!); The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood, write me dystopic apocalypses forever); Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout, way to make me cry like 50 times); The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger, yeah, shut up). Read them all immediately, please!
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Blogs that tell you the name of every song on Friday Night Lights? Also Janelle Monae!
27. What did you want and get?
To have things still be so good with this boy. To rock the GRE. To figure out where I'm trying to go. To make closer friends in Atlanta.
28. What did you want and not get?
Health insurance, a real job. Those new fleece-lined leggings (have you seen them?!).
29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Hmm. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Exit through the Gift Shop were both fun. Like everyone else, I enjoyed Inception and The Social Network. Usually I roundly hate all the Harry Potter movies (Steve Kloves, you have no sense of nuance!), but this one was the best since Prisoner of Azkaban. I was surprised how much I hated both Alice in Wonderland and The Kids are All Right. I have totally failed to answer this question.
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 28! It may actually have been my greatest birthday ever. Indian food and ice cream the night before. Surprise bagels, a tour of the city, a new dress, scallops and grits for dinner.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
That one absolute dream job I interviewed for. Or that other absolute dream job I interviewed for.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
L-leggings? I know, I know! Leggings and skinny jeans, I've become everything I hate. Sweater tights and ruffly shirts, headbands and layers. And my ugly, comfortable Oxfords that everyone apparently likes.
33. What kept you sane?
A, sunshine, poetry, Google.
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I still want to be best friends with Mindy Kaling. And has anyone noticed how charming Donald Glover is? Oh, and Conannn.
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Rape apologist Julian Assange supporters. The massive economic inequality in American society and its perpetuation by big business and government policy. The awfulness of the food industry. The general racism and sexism of society, etc. Oh, also health care, DADT, inaccurate budget rhetoric. Big business. (Go see Inside Job, the documentary on the financial crisis; I knew a lot of the facts from Planet Money, but it was suuuper well done and really illuminating. By which I mean infuriating.)
36. Who did you miss?
annakovsky, my long-distance lady wife, cheapmetaphor (sorry, I mean DOCTOR cheapmetaphor!), throughadoor, holding down the Boston fort.
37. Who was the best new person you met?
I... don't know!
38. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
I meant to get up at 7 to get a lot done, but slept past 8 because I stayed up too late last night playing Bananagrams and drinking beer with Andrew's brothers. Walked down to the hipster coffee shop for a work extravaganza. And it's GORGEOUS out today, so now I'm sitting in the sun without a coat (!) eating a veggie wrap and alternating between working and writing this. Tonight we're going to book club (In Defense of Food) and a party, and then maybe another party. Tomorrow maybe we'll make waffles. It's a good way to end the year.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:
To swallow my pride when I need to. To say no to work projects that are going to destroy my life/take up 16 hours a day, or at least write much, much stricter contracts. That Pittsburgh is awesome. That I'm much, much happier when I have a creative outlet. That it's worth trying things even if they're hard. To trust more. To say yes to the heavy bangs. To say no to the red wine.
--
And since it didn't really fit above...
OH HEY, GUESS WHAT, WE'RE MOVING TO FRAAAANCE! For three months. Andrew got into the exchange program his business school has with HEC, the schmancy grande ecole, and I'm going along because I can bring my work. And also finally hopefully drag my French up to fluency level, which I need if I'm going to work or go to school in development. (Thanks, colonialism!)
This is extra-amazing because as very long-time readers of this journal may recall, when I was 22 I stupidly turned down a job teaching in France, and it's been my Great Life Regret ever since. So now I get a do-over! I don't deserve this much awesomeness.
So this is what my year is looking like:
January-April, Atlanta: work, two econ classes as optimistic grad school prereqs, two French classes.
May-August, Paris: travel, freelancing, improving my français, eating cheese & pastries on patios with cheapmetaphor.
August/September-onward: find a DC apartment, move there, set up fabulous DC life, become best friends with Sasha and Malia, etc.
So yeah, I'm pretty pumped for 2011.
Happy New Year! I hope you have excellent-slash-cozy plans. And are ready for your personal hovercraft, because 2011 definitely sounds like the year we all get those, right?
1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
Took 8 round trip plane flights in one year. Went to three weddings. Got a job as a graphic designer (ha!). Took a meditation class. Learned to scull. Volunteered with refugees. Launched a web store. Worked for two international NGOs. Joined an invite-only writing workshop. Introduced my boyfriend to my parents. Saw the Dalai Lama. Went camping in Georgia.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My resolution was to find some frigging professional direction in life; I haven't written about this here at all, but I'm applying to grad school for an MA in international development. Fortunately the three programs I'm applying to are all amazing, and this is the field I've wanted to get into for years and years, and it would open tons of doors professionally. Unfortunately they all have an acceptance rate of about 8%. So I'm not holding my breath, but we'll see. And even if I don't get in, we're moving to DC this fall anyway, for Andrew's post-MBA job, and I'll have way way more nonprofit job opportunities there, so I have a backup plan and everything. (It involves lots of networking.) And even if school doesn't work out, it feels so good to have a goal to be working toward, you know?
(Also, Did You Know? Applying for grad school takes up all your time! I've been up to DC twice to visit schools and sit in on classes and meet with faculty. And let's not even talk about the GRE, or recommendation letters, or prereq classes, or volunteering, or etc etc.)
Apparently I also wanted to get better at keeping combinations of food in the house that can be made into meals. I definitely cooked more this year (unless life got hectic, in which case it was the first thing to go), but I still tend to plan meals that requires a trip to the grocery store, rather than using what's at hand. It's hard, because I always want to try new recipes! And have fresh vegetables.
Resolutions this year, hmm. Learn French FOR REALS THIS TIME. Be a nicer person to be in a relationship with. Journal more, whether here or on paper. (I so hate the idea of forgetting huge swaths of my life.) Send stuff I write out to journals instead of slaving over it and then just letting it die in a drawer. Read 50 books (as usual). Learn to say no to overwhelming work projects that will ruin my life, even if that means turning away money. Ha, I'm ambitious this year!
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
A girl I grew up with just had her second kid. Second!
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.
5. What countries did you visit?
Mexico! For about two seconds! While renting a beach house in Texas with cheapmetaphor. Also I saw a lot of the eastern US: New York, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Chicago, DC (twice), Boston (twice), Tampa, Cincinnati, Louisville, Chattanooga, Southwest Florida. Oh, and California, to visit ke_rose_ne!
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
Health insurance! .... a real job or a grad school acceptance letter. To live in a city with public transportation good enough that I can go back to a carless lifestyle.
7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Eh.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting a shockingly good and totally undeserved GRE score, after studying my ass off. (Know what you don't remember after 11 years of not doing it? Math!) Getting a sense of purpose back.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Not getting a career-track job. Spending so much time and energy on one miserable freelance project that was supposed to take 2 months and is now up to 6. Launching a web store: hard; doing it with a wildly understaffed Nicaraguan NGO, and buggy software: way harder.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
This year I ~*~bartered~*~ for physical therapy for my stupid SI joint, and my PT has turned out to be amazing, the best I've ever had, which is great, because I've got to get this shit under control, man. No colds or flu, though! Must be all my handwashing and 8 hours of sleep a night. Or good luck.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
MY NEW CONTACTS! For the past four years I've only had 20-60 vision, since my last eye doctor told me that was the best I could get (I'm REALLY nearsighted) and I found an amazing eye doctor this year who has me back at 20-20. I LOVE HER. I CAN SEE AGAIN. THE TREES HAVE LEAVES.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My boyfriend is endlessly amazing in 80 different ways. My friends, who are so funny and sympathetic and interesting. My brother, so grownup and putting himself through school.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Ha, have I ever answered this question without mentioning my ever-fraught relationship with my parents? Also the Tea Party, Fox News, the willful spread of misinformation, etc etc. (I get more politically outraged the older I get; shouldn't it be the other way around?)
14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, travel, food&coffee, clothes-I-don't-really-need.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
MOVING TO DC. MOVING TO FRANCE!! OH YEAH, MAYBE I SHOULD MENTION THAT I'M MOVING TO FRANCE. DETAILS BELOW.
16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
Kid Cudi/Best Coast - All Summer; Sleigh Bells - Rill Rill; Florence and the Machine - The Dog Days are Over; Cee-Lo Green - Fuck You; The Shins - We Will Become Silhouettes; Fountains of Wayne - Places; Fiona Apple/Jon Brion - So Sleepy (the lyrics are by 826LA kids!); Thao with The Get Down Stay Down - Bag of Hammers; The Black Keys - Tighten Up; Black-Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling; Freelance Whales - Hannah
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happierrrrr, omg. I was so miserable and directionless last winter.
ii. thinner or fatter? About the same.
iii. richer or poorer? Mint.com says: richer! Until I have to pay it all in freelance taxes, aaahhh!
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Journaling. Appreciating my life.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
W-O-R-R-Y-I-N-G. Dicking around online. Complaining. Running late.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it in Florida, introducing A to the wonders of the holiday. Then we saw True Grit (so good!). It was so cold in Florida this year! Very disappointing, warmth in December is the one thing I like about the whole state.
21. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Ah, meme. You never change.
22. How many one-night stands?
Ha!
23. What was your favorite TV program?
Mad Men, Community, Friday Night Lights, The Office.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope.
25. What was the best book you read?
The Goodreads rundown of my 5-star books in 2010: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (David Mitchell, marry me); The Birthday of the World (Ursula K. Leguin -- alien ethnographies!); The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood, write me dystopic apocalypses forever); Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout, way to make me cry like 50 times); The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger, yeah, shut up). Read them all immediately, please!
26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Blogs that tell you the name of every song on Friday Night Lights? Also Janelle Monae!
27. What did you want and get?
To have things still be so good with this boy. To rock the GRE. To figure out where I'm trying to go. To make closer friends in Atlanta.
28. What did you want and not get?
Health insurance, a real job. Those new fleece-lined leggings (have you seen them?!).
29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Hmm. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Exit through the Gift Shop were both fun. Like everyone else, I enjoyed Inception and The Social Network. Usually I roundly hate all the Harry Potter movies (Steve Kloves, you have no sense of nuance!), but this one was the best since Prisoner of Azkaban. I was surprised how much I hated both Alice in Wonderland and The Kids are All Right. I have totally failed to answer this question.
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 28! It may actually have been my greatest birthday ever. Indian food and ice cream the night before. Surprise bagels, a tour of the city, a new dress, scallops and grits for dinner.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
That one absolute dream job I interviewed for. Or that other absolute dream job I interviewed for.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
L-leggings? I know, I know! Leggings and skinny jeans, I've become everything I hate. Sweater tights and ruffly shirts, headbands and layers. And my ugly, comfortable Oxfords that everyone apparently likes.
33. What kept you sane?
A, sunshine, poetry, Google.
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I still want to be best friends with Mindy Kaling. And has anyone noticed how charming Donald Glover is? Oh, and Conannn.
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Rape apologist Julian Assange supporters. The massive economic inequality in American society and its perpetuation by big business and government policy. The awfulness of the food industry. The general racism and sexism of society, etc. Oh, also health care, DADT, inaccurate budget rhetoric. Big business. (Go see Inside Job, the documentary on the financial crisis; I knew a lot of the facts from Planet Money, but it was suuuper well done and really illuminating. By which I mean infuriating.)
36. Who did you miss?
annakovsky, my long-distance lady wife, cheapmetaphor (sorry, I mean DOCTOR cheapmetaphor!), throughadoor, holding down the Boston fort.
37. Who was the best new person you met?
I... don't know!
38. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
I meant to get up at 7 to get a lot done, but slept past 8 because I stayed up too late last night playing Bananagrams and drinking beer with Andrew's brothers. Walked down to the hipster coffee shop for a work extravaganza. And it's GORGEOUS out today, so now I'm sitting in the sun without a coat (!) eating a veggie wrap and alternating between working and writing this. Tonight we're going to book club (In Defense of Food) and a party, and then maybe another party. Tomorrow maybe we'll make waffles. It's a good way to end the year.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:
To swallow my pride when I need to. To say no to work projects that are going to destroy my life/take up 16 hours a day, or at least write much, much stricter contracts. That Pittsburgh is awesome. That I'm much, much happier when I have a creative outlet. That it's worth trying things even if they're hard. To trust more. To say yes to the heavy bangs. To say no to the red wine.
--
And since it didn't really fit above...
OH HEY, GUESS WHAT, WE'RE MOVING TO FRAAAANCE! For three months. Andrew got into the exchange program his business school has with HEC, the schmancy grande ecole, and I'm going along because I can bring my work. And also finally hopefully drag my French up to fluency level, which I need if I'm going to work or go to school in development. (Thanks, colonialism!)
This is extra-amazing because as very long-time readers of this journal may recall, when I was 22 I stupidly turned down a job teaching in France, and it's been my Great Life Regret ever since. So now I get a do-over! I don't deserve this much awesomeness.
So this is what my year is looking like:
January-April, Atlanta: work, two econ classes as optimistic grad school prereqs, two French classes.
May-August, Paris: travel, freelancing, improving my français, eating cheese & pastries on patios with cheapmetaphor.
August/September-onward: find a DC apartment, move there, set up fabulous DC life, become best friends with Sasha and Malia, etc.
So yeah, I'm pretty pumped for 2011.
Happy New Year! I hope you have excellent-slash-cozy plans. And are ready for your personal hovercraft, because 2011 definitely sounds like the year we all get those, right?