Letter to My Future Self, 2013 Edition
Dear Future Xia,
Well, we managed to post this before February, so that's good? We're still lacking in any sort of time management skills, however, so it's not like everything has turned rosy and wonderful.
Crafting mostly didn't happen this year, which is disappointing. I'm still working on the sock I cast on in February, the day I met Pavel, and I haven't even turned the heel on it. I knitted a hat on the flight to Hawaii just so I could say I'd completed something in 2013. The sewing project I started with Nami still isn't finished, and I have stuff that needs fixing. And scrapbooking for anything, let alone that Japan trip from 2011, needs to still happen.
But, we did make time for socializing a bit more, and that paid off pretty quick early this year. There were some false starts, like getting hit on by someone grossly young at the anti-Valentine's day party and by a more reasonably younger guy at the Evil Dead showing with Bruce Campbell live, but so far it's been good. The trick now is to socialize more with a wider range of people... Which I think if I pay attention to it might actually work out.
Health I was kind of on track with until the latest onslaught of "overtime, all the time" hit. I need to lay off the Starbucks, and probably stop snacking. Spurred by my health thing at work to keep a food diary this week (as in January 2014), I've also noticed that I've been snacking more since losing regular internet access at work. Trying to nip that in the bud, and coming to grips with the fact that Pavel may be right about me not getting quite enough protein in my diet and that I may be suffering some adverse affects of that. Something to work on.
Anyhow, we're all here for the meme, so let's do it.
The Meme:
1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?
Went to a live soccer game. Several, in fact.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Ah, resolutions. I got my weight down a bit during the first half of the year, so I guess I sorta kept that half-resolution thing, but then when the stress hit it went right back up. I think my focus, if there is going to be a resolution for 2014, is going to be trying to fix my awful posture. It's bad enough that my back actually aches a lot now, and I've come to realize that it has nothing to do with my bed or sleeping position.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I don't think so? I found out more of my high school friends had babies in 2012 than I hand known, though o_0 Babies everywhere, yikes!
4. Did anyone close to you die?
This might be the point where I'd ask a person asking this question to define 'close.' My other (maternal) grandmother kicked it on December 14th, and I found out on the 15th. Also, while this is technically a 2014 thing, I found out my uncle (dad's brother) died on January 9th, and I'm not sure when he actually expired (and I don't remember what from, but it was some illness caught in Ireland).
I think the worst part of these deaths has been that I don't feel like I am particularly mournful. I kind of understand the lack of mourning for my maternal grandmother ("ah-poh" is what I called her, but that may be Hakka rather than Mandarin Chinese)--she's been ill a while, and was, at least by my mother's accounts, pretty unhappy about her living situation. She wanted to go home all the time, but needed to live in a nursing home due to her rapidly deteriorating health, which was also (as I understand it) causing her pain. The doctors apparently had said she wouldn't make it through December, but we kind of hoped she'd hold on long enough for my mom to fly out when she appeared to have stabilized temporarily... Mom was two days late. So I think the lack of mournful feeling is because we knew it was coming, and she's no longer suffering, although it's never happy to have anyone pass away, even the ones we may not like as much.
My uncle may or may not fall into that category; I am of mixed feelings about that. Sure, he tried to get me written out of my (paternal) grandmother's will and I believe did go ahead with writing me out of his own, on top of trying to keep my father from inheriting any more than the bare minimum, but I feel like any slights he may have put on my branch of the family were less out of malice and more out of, well, greed. It's not good to speak ill of the dead, but he very much believed in his birthright by way of primogeniture--a word he learned at some point in his youth and held on to. (I had to look it up, which is mildly embarrassing given that I am usually proud of my vocabulary.) To his credit, he pursued his beliefs to the best of his ability, and had self-confidence to spare. He lived life richly, even if he couldn't entirely afford the quality of life to which he had become accustomed. His death was actually not a terrible surprise to me, even if it did come out of the blue (my dad found out because my aunt informed a friend of his, who then called him, if that's any indication of the strain of family ties at the moment); he and my aunt never cooked, and tended to eat out for every meal, with fast food for lunch and/or breakfast frequently. I think we all sort of knew it would catch up to him sooner or later, as he'd already had a heart attack. A part of me wishes I were more broken up about this. I never was sure how he felt about me, as he had himself purposefully opted to have golden retrievers (my furry cousins) instead of children, and my aunt and uncle have on occassion given some hilariously confused gifts, such as a Paddington Bear puzzle (I believe marketed towards the 3-year-old crowd) while I was, I believe, in middle school. He seemed proud of my education and/or academic achievements, but I was never clear on whether it was pride in me or pride in having some genetic relative that he could talk about being educated at a well-known university. On the other hand, I know a lot of my opinion of him is colored by my mother's representation of him. Hopefully my aunt is doing alright. Since we weren't officially invited, we sent flowers :/
Okay, wow, yeah, that turned into a wall of text o_0 Whoops.
5. What countries/places did you visit?
Portland, Oregon is not another country, but it is a place I'd never been to before. I went with Mike, Kerry, Dylan, Mike's parents, and Pavel to support Mike in the Portland Marathon and basically drink coffee the whole time we were there. Oh, and eat Voodoo Donuts! The vegan ones are delicious, but I was way more fond of the plain ones than the fancy ones. (Also, I regret not getting one of the bumper stickers, which says "I got VD in Portland.")
6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
Still a house. And a new job. And better posture.
7. What dates from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Cheesy, but most memorable will probably be March 9th, my first date with Pavel that was supposed to be just late morning coffee, but turned into lunch AND dinner. I'll probably also remember February 23rd, but I might forget the exact date on that one, but that's when I met him. Oh, and on a less cheesy and boyfriend-centered note, Oct. 10th, the day my wisdom tooth died D:
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I feel like I did a LOT more than what I was comfortable with at work this year, which I guess is a bit of an achievement. I pointed out some doofus, time-consuming things we were doing in our documentation that turned out to have gotten stuck into the template because somewhere along the line someone did it in one of their documents on a whim and it somehow became the norm. But did any of us pulling the crazy hours really get much recognition? Nope.
Outside of work, I raised $1000 for the Tour de Cure, which is the first time I've raised that much and I got to go to the "Champions" events and whatnot--it was fun :D I don't know what magical mix of things happened this year, but that's going to be a tough act to follow this year ^^;;
9. What was your biggest failure?
Getting on a higher-up's shit list for being honest. Oops :/ But he seems to have forgiven me since.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Well, I had a chunk of my jawbone hacked out and a wisdom tooth yanked out, which caused a quarter of my face to go numb for a while. I still don't quite have all the feeling back in some of my teeth on that side, but they all feel something. Also, I smacked my leg pretty hard when my bicycle slipped on mud on the way to work... There's still a slight lump on my shin bone. I think that's it, though!
11. What was the best thing you bought? What was the worst?
Best thing I bought was this haircut--no joke. My hair looks better than I think it ever has, and the cut actually makes it a bit easier to manage, if that makes any sense. My stylist may cost a pretty penny, but she's worth every last cent. Also, buying a digital antenna for my TV and cutting that part of my cable bill was probably a good decision. I don't watch straight up TV anyway :/
I didn't buy it in 2013, but I'm just now beginning to fathom how much of a lemon my current phone (an LG G2X, an android) is. I rooted and installed CyanogenMod 7 on it (Gingerbread), and it's a little better now, but I'm a bit miffed that even now, there isn't a stable kernel for it beyond Gingerbread.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Strangely, my mother's. She handled the death of her mother like a champ, and I was really proud of her for coming to terms with having missed seeing her one last time really quickly. That has the be the first true good I've seen her religious/spiritual crazy produce.
Actually, both my parents also deserve a nod for the awesome job they did with the kitchen renovation--they did the tiling and demo on their own and definitely did some finishing touches on their own as well. It looks really good :)
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Not strangely, my mother's. She's now trying to "block" what she considers to be the smell of one of our neighbors smoking marijuana (which she thinks is the WORST POSSIBLE DRUG ANYONE CAN TAKE EVAR, bless her naive heart) with storage sheds and pieces of fabric strung in the trees. I am ashamed of my once-tasteful childhood home in a bunch of ways.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Shamefully, food and Kickstarter. I went a little crazy on the Kickstarters this year, and that's got to calm down a bit for me or I'm going to have a lot harder a time saving up for a house :(
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Excited? Hmn. I was extremely anxious about the wisdom tooth removal, but I don't think that counts?
16. What craft/project will always remind you of 2013?
Probably the race bib & medal display plaques I made for Mike & Kerry for Christmas (plus a prototype which ended up being mine, full of the mistakes I made learning to make the things). I definitely looked at the inspirational piece on Etsy, though I'd buy it, but then realized that paying that much for something that wasn't even real wood was ludicrous when I could probably mock something up on my own. It went surprisingly well once I had the template idea so I wasn't sanding forever to get rid of pencil marks, and the pine looks significantly better than my basswood prototype :P
Also remarkable mostly for the company and craziness of it, the Halloween costumes a group of us put together for ourselves and several coworkers. Deb does a costume thing every year, I guess, and people opt in not knowing what the theme is, but promising to wear the costume all day at work (minus meetings, which is why the costumes are minimal and easily removed). We did superheroes with a corporate/security bent, while the crafters were the villains. The villains were pretty sorely out-numbered :P It was a wild time trying to get all the costumes together in time, since we were all pretty busy!
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) Happier or sadder? Happier. Send the Devil a parka, stat! :0
b) Thinner or fatter? Fatter, thanks to a Starbucks habit developed in the midst of overtime chaos on top of the stress of overtime chaos.
c) Richer or poorer? I feel poorer, but I'm probably about the same.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Something on the side to brush up on my development skills so I'd be a more viable job candidate. I don't know where I would get this magical extra time from, but I wish I'd somehow crammed it in.
Also, I wish I had cleaned up my apartment more. There are stacks of paper and such EVERYWHERE. And I'd have liked to find more time for knitting and other general crafts, and hanging out with people more.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Consuming calorically dense food and beverages towards the end of the year, definitely. Also, I wish I'd worked less (unpaid) overtime.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent it the same way I do every year, Pinky. Trying to take over the world. Trying to stay sane at my parents' place, probably with a beach visit or two thrown in. There were dolphins at the beach one time when we went, which was new. I'd never seen wild dolphins before in Hawaii, only in California.
21. What was your favorite month of 2013?
October, more for the zaniness of it than anything else. There was the trip to Portland, the zany rush to get Halloween costumes put together, my wisdom tooth coming out (and the inherent loopiness of being put out), and Halloween itself, which is still my favorite holiday--don't tell Christmas.
22. Did you fall in love in 2013?
Yes :3
23. New games you played?
DOTA & Hearthstone are, I believe, the newbies, but I spent a lot of time playing SWTOR. I keep trying to play the Walking Dead Game, but wow, does that game ever make you feel guilty, LOL. Also, I tend to play at night, close to bedtime, and I startle really easily, so I try not to get my adrenaline pumping right before I'm trying to go to sleep.
24. What was your favorite TV program?
I don't think I had any new shows this year? I tried watching some Breaking Bad, but I don't find the characters particularly likeable or relateable at the point I've watched to, and I'm frustrated by their constant stupidity and callousness. (I think I stalled somewhere in the 1st season.) I will probably get around to braving it again, but in the meantime, probably still Doctor Who. (I'm waiting for the last season to get added to Netflix, though... No spoilers, okay?)
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I don't think I really hate anyone particularly much right now. Except maybe FedEx. They lost one of my packages in December.
26. What was the best book you read?
Books, LOL. Actually, I read Howl's Moving Castle right before I left for Hawaii. It's surprisingly different from the Ghibli adaptation. I don't know that I've read any actual books outside of that...
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Another year of no particularly stunning musical discoveries. I'm just not that musical a person...
28. What did you want and get?
Boyfriend. But yeah, that's not something you really "get" like in a box except in cases of Russian mail-order boyfriend.
A bluetooth headset to use while riding my bike on the trainer, so I can watch TV and actually hear it without turning the volume up really loud (which I'm not as fond of). I also got a Bluetooth adapter for the TV... I need to hook it all up and see if it works, still.
29. What did you want and not get?
House. New job. More time and/or a time machine.
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Hard to say. Hobbit was nice, but I expected that if they were going to expand Smaug's dialogue, it would have been better. He's a dragon, people u_u Frozen wasn't bad, but I must say that I liked Tangled better (which is what everyone compares it to).
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Dad made pancakes :) Haven't found a replacement for my favorite dim sum restaurant which shut down the year previous yet, but homemade pancakes are always available.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Either a house or a new job. Either would have significantly improved the year.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
Still forming. (But I did buy a bunch of things in the beginning of the year, like some dresses and blouses for potential workplaces that are not my current sad workplace.)
34. What kept you sane?
Not much, let me tell you :/
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Meh. I didn't really fancy any of them so much--I had my own eye candy this year :P
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I'm quite happy to keep out of politics, again ^^;;
37. Who did you miss?
Kari--I didn't realize she moved away from Hawaii, so I didn't get to see her when I went back. I also didn't manage to meet up with Ross or Bobert-chan, which was poor planning again on my part :/
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Pavel ;)
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:
Working hard doesn't mean you'll be rewarded. No rewards are guaranteed.
40. What new restaurants/foods did you discover this year?
Not so much a discovery as becoming a new frequent venue--The Counter. There's one near where Pavel lives and after I introduced him to it, he's become a huge fan. It's our default place to grab dinner now, as I can get a veggie burger and he can get his bunless mountain of meat on a bed of greens. Plus, I tried fried pickle chips for the first time there this past year, and they've grown on me :P I'm also becoming quite the sucker for Five Guys' Cajun Fries... Not healthy, but delicious!
So that's that. Let's hopefully get to work on fixing things this year.
Over and Out,
Oraxia of 2013
Well, we managed to post this before February, so that's good? We're still lacking in any sort of time management skills, however, so it's not like everything has turned rosy and wonderful.
Crafting mostly didn't happen this year, which is disappointing. I'm still working on the sock I cast on in February, the day I met Pavel, and I haven't even turned the heel on it. I knitted a hat on the flight to Hawaii just so I could say I'd completed something in 2013. The sewing project I started with Nami still isn't finished, and I have stuff that needs fixing. And scrapbooking for anything, let alone that Japan trip from 2011, needs to still happen.
But, we did make time for socializing a bit more, and that paid off pretty quick early this year. There were some false starts, like getting hit on by someone grossly young at the anti-Valentine's day party and by a more reasonably younger guy at the Evil Dead showing with Bruce Campbell live, but so far it's been good. The trick now is to socialize more with a wider range of people... Which I think if I pay attention to it might actually work out.
Health I was kind of on track with until the latest onslaught of "overtime, all the time" hit. I need to lay off the Starbucks, and probably stop snacking. Spurred by my health thing at work to keep a food diary this week (as in January 2014), I've also noticed that I've been snacking more since losing regular internet access at work. Trying to nip that in the bud, and coming to grips with the fact that Pavel may be right about me not getting quite enough protein in my diet and that I may be suffering some adverse affects of that. Something to work on.
Anyhow, we're all here for the meme, so let's do it.
The Meme:
1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?
Went to a live soccer game. Several, in fact.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Ah, resolutions. I got my weight down a bit during the first half of the year, so I guess I sorta kept that half-resolution thing, but then when the stress hit it went right back up. I think my focus, if there is going to be a resolution for 2014, is going to be trying to fix my awful posture. It's bad enough that my back actually aches a lot now, and I've come to realize that it has nothing to do with my bed or sleeping position.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I don't think so? I found out more of my high school friends had babies in 2012 than I hand known, though o_0 Babies everywhere, yikes!
4. Did anyone close to you die?
This might be the point where I'd ask a person asking this question to define 'close.' My other (maternal) grandmother kicked it on December 14th, and I found out on the 15th. Also, while this is technically a 2014 thing, I found out my uncle (dad's brother) died on January 9th, and I'm not sure when he actually expired (and I don't remember what from, but it was some illness caught in Ireland).
I think the worst part of these deaths has been that I don't feel like I am particularly mournful. I kind of understand the lack of mourning for my maternal grandmother ("ah-poh" is what I called her, but that may be Hakka rather than Mandarin Chinese)--she's been ill a while, and was, at least by my mother's accounts, pretty unhappy about her living situation. She wanted to go home all the time, but needed to live in a nursing home due to her rapidly deteriorating health, which was also (as I understand it) causing her pain. The doctors apparently had said she wouldn't make it through December, but we kind of hoped she'd hold on long enough for my mom to fly out when she appeared to have stabilized temporarily... Mom was two days late. So I think the lack of mournful feeling is because we knew it was coming, and she's no longer suffering, although it's never happy to have anyone pass away, even the ones we may not like as much.
My uncle may or may not fall into that category; I am of mixed feelings about that. Sure, he tried to get me written out of my (paternal) grandmother's will and I believe did go ahead with writing me out of his own, on top of trying to keep my father from inheriting any more than the bare minimum, but I feel like any slights he may have put on my branch of the family were less out of malice and more out of, well, greed. It's not good to speak ill of the dead, but he very much believed in his birthright by way of primogeniture--a word he learned at some point in his youth and held on to. (I had to look it up, which is mildly embarrassing given that I am usually proud of my vocabulary.) To his credit, he pursued his beliefs to the best of his ability, and had self-confidence to spare. He lived life richly, even if he couldn't entirely afford the quality of life to which he had become accustomed. His death was actually not a terrible surprise to me, even if it did come out of the blue (my dad found out because my aunt informed a friend of his, who then called him, if that's any indication of the strain of family ties at the moment); he and my aunt never cooked, and tended to eat out for every meal, with fast food for lunch and/or breakfast frequently. I think we all sort of knew it would catch up to him sooner or later, as he'd already had a heart attack. A part of me wishes I were more broken up about this. I never was sure how he felt about me, as he had himself purposefully opted to have golden retrievers (my furry cousins) instead of children, and my aunt and uncle have on occassion given some hilariously confused gifts, such as a Paddington Bear puzzle (I believe marketed towards the 3-year-old crowd) while I was, I believe, in middle school. He seemed proud of my education and/or academic achievements, but I was never clear on whether it was pride in me or pride in having some genetic relative that he could talk about being educated at a well-known university. On the other hand, I know a lot of my opinion of him is colored by my mother's representation of him. Hopefully my aunt is doing alright. Since we weren't officially invited, we sent flowers :/
Okay, wow, yeah, that turned into a wall of text o_0 Whoops.
5. What countries/places did you visit?
Portland, Oregon is not another country, but it is a place I'd never been to before. I went with Mike, Kerry, Dylan, Mike's parents, and Pavel to support Mike in the Portland Marathon and basically drink coffee the whole time we were there. Oh, and eat Voodoo Donuts! The vegan ones are delicious, but I was way more fond of the plain ones than the fancy ones. (Also, I regret not getting one of the bumper stickers, which says "I got VD in Portland.")
6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
Still a house. And a new job. And better posture.
7. What dates from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Cheesy, but most memorable will probably be March 9th, my first date with Pavel that was supposed to be just late morning coffee, but turned into lunch AND dinner. I'll probably also remember February 23rd, but I might forget the exact date on that one, but that's when I met him. Oh, and on a less cheesy and boyfriend-centered note, Oct. 10th, the day my wisdom tooth died D:
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I feel like I did a LOT more than what I was comfortable with at work this year, which I guess is a bit of an achievement. I pointed out some doofus, time-consuming things we were doing in our documentation that turned out to have gotten stuck into the template because somewhere along the line someone did it in one of their documents on a whim and it somehow became the norm. But did any of us pulling the crazy hours really get much recognition? Nope.
Outside of work, I raised $1000 for the Tour de Cure, which is the first time I've raised that much and I got to go to the "Champions" events and whatnot--it was fun :D I don't know what magical mix of things happened this year, but that's going to be a tough act to follow this year ^^;;
9. What was your biggest failure?
Getting on a higher-up's shit list for being honest. Oops :/ But he seems to have forgiven me since.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Well, I had a chunk of my jawbone hacked out and a wisdom tooth yanked out, which caused a quarter of my face to go numb for a while. I still don't quite have all the feeling back in some of my teeth on that side, but they all feel something. Also, I smacked my leg pretty hard when my bicycle slipped on mud on the way to work... There's still a slight lump on my shin bone. I think that's it, though!
11. What was the best thing you bought? What was the worst?
Best thing I bought was this haircut--no joke. My hair looks better than I think it ever has, and the cut actually makes it a bit easier to manage, if that makes any sense. My stylist may cost a pretty penny, but she's worth every last cent. Also, buying a digital antenna for my TV and cutting that part of my cable bill was probably a good decision. I don't watch straight up TV anyway :/
I didn't buy it in 2013, but I'm just now beginning to fathom how much of a lemon my current phone (an LG G2X, an android) is. I rooted and installed CyanogenMod 7 on it (Gingerbread), and it's a little better now, but I'm a bit miffed that even now, there isn't a stable kernel for it beyond Gingerbread.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Strangely, my mother's. She handled the death of her mother like a champ, and I was really proud of her for coming to terms with having missed seeing her one last time really quickly. That has the be the first true good I've seen her religious/spiritual crazy produce.
Actually, both my parents also deserve a nod for the awesome job they did with the kitchen renovation--they did the tiling and demo on their own and definitely did some finishing touches on their own as well. It looks really good :)
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Not strangely, my mother's. She's now trying to "block" what she considers to be the smell of one of our neighbors smoking marijuana (which she thinks is the WORST POSSIBLE DRUG ANYONE CAN TAKE EVAR, bless her naive heart) with storage sheds and pieces of fabric strung in the trees. I am ashamed of my once-tasteful childhood home in a bunch of ways.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Shamefully, food and Kickstarter. I went a little crazy on the Kickstarters this year, and that's got to calm down a bit for me or I'm going to have a lot harder a time saving up for a house :(
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Excited? Hmn. I was extremely anxious about the wisdom tooth removal, but I don't think that counts?
16. What craft/project will always remind you of 2013?
Probably the race bib & medal display plaques I made for Mike & Kerry for Christmas (plus a prototype which ended up being mine, full of the mistakes I made learning to make the things). I definitely looked at the inspirational piece on Etsy, though I'd buy it, but then realized that paying that much for something that wasn't even real wood was ludicrous when I could probably mock something up on my own. It went surprisingly well once I had the template idea so I wasn't sanding forever to get rid of pencil marks, and the pine looks significantly better than my basswood prototype :P
Also remarkable mostly for the company and craziness of it, the Halloween costumes a group of us put together for ourselves and several coworkers. Deb does a costume thing every year, I guess, and people opt in not knowing what the theme is, but promising to wear the costume all day at work (minus meetings, which is why the costumes are minimal and easily removed). We did superheroes with a corporate/security bent, while the crafters were the villains. The villains were pretty sorely out-numbered :P It was a wild time trying to get all the costumes together in time, since we were all pretty busy!
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) Happier or sadder? Happier. Send the Devil a parka, stat! :0
b) Thinner or fatter? Fatter, thanks to a Starbucks habit developed in the midst of overtime chaos on top of the stress of overtime chaos.
c) Richer or poorer? I feel poorer, but I'm probably about the same.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Something on the side to brush up on my development skills so I'd be a more viable job candidate. I don't know where I would get this magical extra time from, but I wish I'd somehow crammed it in.
Also, I wish I had cleaned up my apartment more. There are stacks of paper and such EVERYWHERE. And I'd have liked to find more time for knitting and other general crafts, and hanging out with people more.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Consuming calorically dense food and beverages towards the end of the year, definitely. Also, I wish I'd worked less (unpaid) overtime.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent it the same way I do every year, Pinky. Trying to take over the world. Trying to stay sane at my parents' place, probably with a beach visit or two thrown in. There were dolphins at the beach one time when we went, which was new. I'd never seen wild dolphins before in Hawaii, only in California.
21. What was your favorite month of 2013?
October, more for the zaniness of it than anything else. There was the trip to Portland, the zany rush to get Halloween costumes put together, my wisdom tooth coming out (and the inherent loopiness of being put out), and Halloween itself, which is still my favorite holiday--don't tell Christmas.
22. Did you fall in love in 2013?
Yes :3
23. New games you played?
DOTA & Hearthstone are, I believe, the newbies, but I spent a lot of time playing SWTOR. I keep trying to play the Walking Dead Game, but wow, does that game ever make you feel guilty, LOL. Also, I tend to play at night, close to bedtime, and I startle really easily, so I try not to get my adrenaline pumping right before I'm trying to go to sleep.
24. What was your favorite TV program?
I don't think I had any new shows this year? I tried watching some Breaking Bad, but I don't find the characters particularly likeable or relateable at the point I've watched to, and I'm frustrated by their constant stupidity and callousness. (I think I stalled somewhere in the 1st season.) I will probably get around to braving it again, but in the meantime, probably still Doctor Who. (I'm waiting for the last season to get added to Netflix, though... No spoilers, okay?)
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I don't think I really hate anyone particularly much right now. Except maybe FedEx. They lost one of my packages in December.
26. What was the best book you read?
Books, LOL. Actually, I read Howl's Moving Castle right before I left for Hawaii. It's surprisingly different from the Ghibli adaptation. I don't know that I've read any actual books outside of that...
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Another year of no particularly stunning musical discoveries. I'm just not that musical a person...
28. What did you want and get?
Boyfriend. But yeah, that's not something you really "get" like in a box except in cases of Russian mail-order boyfriend.
A bluetooth headset to use while riding my bike on the trainer, so I can watch TV and actually hear it without turning the volume up really loud (which I'm not as fond of). I also got a Bluetooth adapter for the TV... I need to hook it all up and see if it works, still.
29. What did you want and not get?
House. New job. More time and/or a time machine.
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Hard to say. Hobbit was nice, but I expected that if they were going to expand Smaug's dialogue, it would have been better. He's a dragon, people u_u Frozen wasn't bad, but I must say that I liked Tangled better (which is what everyone compares it to).
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Dad made pancakes :) Haven't found a replacement for my favorite dim sum restaurant which shut down the year previous yet, but homemade pancakes are always available.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Either a house or a new job. Either would have significantly improved the year.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
Still forming. (But I did buy a bunch of things in the beginning of the year, like some dresses and blouses for potential workplaces that are not my current sad workplace.)
34. What kept you sane?
Not much, let me tell you :/
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Meh. I didn't really fancy any of them so much--I had my own eye candy this year :P
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I'm quite happy to keep out of politics, again ^^;;
37. Who did you miss?
Kari--I didn't realize she moved away from Hawaii, so I didn't get to see her when I went back. I also didn't manage to meet up with Ross or Bobert-chan, which was poor planning again on my part :/
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Pavel ;)
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:
Working hard doesn't mean you'll be rewarded. No rewards are guaranteed.
40. What new restaurants/foods did you discover this year?
Not so much a discovery as becoming a new frequent venue--The Counter. There's one near where Pavel lives and after I introduced him to it, he's become a huge fan. It's our default place to grab dinner now, as I can get a veggie burger and he can get his bunless mountain of meat on a bed of greens. Plus, I tried fried pickle chips for the first time there this past year, and they've grown on me :P I'm also becoming quite the sucker for Five Guys' Cajun Fries... Not healthy, but delicious!
So that's that. Let's hopefully get to work on fixing things this year.
Over and Out,
Oraxia of 2013