Every year we resolute
1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
I started grad school! I courted someone.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Again, the grad school thing. I applied to and was accepted to a good program, so yes sort of. The goals for next year are to figure out and apply to PhD programs, do a triathlon, and learn how to do research/actually do research.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No babies alas. How I miss their fuzziness.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Another year and my dad is still around, praise everything.
5. What countries did you visit?
POUT none. But I got to go to NY a lot, which is kind of like leaving the country.
6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
Consistent physical activity. Maybe a boyfriend. A better CV. A publication in the works.
7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Everyone keeps saying the Obama victory, but I don't actually remember the date. It was definitely a Tuesday. :D Valentine's Day is easy to remember.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I passed my first semester of grad school! I was accepted to TA for a class and also to do work for a community mental health center.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I don't even want to think of what a terrible job I did applying to grad school. I made a number of poor personal decisions and some decisions I cannot yet say were good or bad.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I had a a reemergence of my panic/anxiety disorder(s) and ended up in the ER worried that I was having a heart attack. When I was x-rayed, the radiologist found a pulmonary nodule in my lung, which turned out to be benign, but was still pretty fucking frightening.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
I got these really gorgeous orange leather loafers that I'm pretty in love with.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
I love Hilary Clinton and Rachael Maddow.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Uuuugh congress.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, New York, cardigans.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I did things besides getting into grad school last year but none of them really mattered. I reconnected with someone special and that made me really happy.
16. What song will always remind you of 2012?
Not a lot of music for me in 2012. I feel like 2012 was my year of the Kinks.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder? Happier, for sure. This time last year Mat and I'd just broken up (again), I was unemployed, and still hadn't managed to apply to grad school.
ii. richer or poorer? Oh good god poorer. Hello grad school loans.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Sleeping, running, push-ups, studying those topics which are actually of interest to me.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Sitting around losing time staring into space/the internet.
20. Who was the best new person you met?
While I made a number of new friends, many of whom are wonderful people, the best new person I met was Dr. Druss, who's going to oversee my masters thesis and taught me many things about mental health and disability.
21. Did you fall in love in 2012?
Maybe? No, that is too strong a word. But I had the privilege of spending more time than before with someone worth loving, whom I could fall in love with, and would like to if/when circumstances change.
22. What was your favorite TV program?
Oh Downton Abbey. Oh Deep Space 9, you old beloved standby you.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I've added some members of the government to the list.
24. What was the best book you read?
Visit from the Goon Squad probably tops the list.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I went back to classical music this year. Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Mozart, the big names.
26. What did you want and get?
Maybe I didn't do anything but get into grad school. But I wanted to get in and I did.
27. What did you want and not get?
A grad school I was really suited to, a relationship with the right person, mental health.
28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Probably Moonrise Kingdom? Possibly Argo.
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old?
I turned the big 3-0 this year. Some friends took me to a bizarre "classic" strip club the week before and then Mat came down on my actual birthday for a lovely weekend of cuddles and brunch.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I was "behind" in 2012, and allowed my anxiety and unhappiness to really hold me back.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Cardigans and hats and more pants than 2011.
32. What kept you sane?
I really didn't stay especially sane in 2012. I took a bit of a sanity step back, actually. But I told myself every day that it was temporary and there is some possibility that I am making a comeback, as it were.
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I'm always really hot for James Spader.
34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Deviating here between trying to keep politicians the fuck away from women's bodies and Medicaid expansions.
35. Who did you miss?
Oh I missed so many people after moving to Atlanta. I miss the Chicago folks, Mat especially but all that huge set of friends. Seeing Gareth multiple times of course resulted in missing Gareth, which is rather counter-productive I realize.
36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012:
I did not actually learn to be happy without expectations. But this is what I have to learn, apparently. I am never satisfied with what I have, I am always wanting more of something, particularly in my romantic relationships. So I learned a valuable lesson in things I have to learn for 2013.