love, actually
So, it's 2009. I feel old. Lot of drama, but I've scraped by once again. Hopefully, my luck'll hold for 2009 too.
Got new glasses today. They don't feel right to me though. They have those nosepad things and it's giving me a headache... I might take them back and have them put new lens in my old frames instead.
Francis flew back yesterday. Miss him already.
Not sure that I'm ready for the next semester to begin. It's going to be a crazy semester, with all the honors classes I'll be taking. Still need to drop one of them. I'm tempted to drop two of them, just because life is already crazy enough, but I don't want to get behind on things.
Looking back on the year, I have to say... life is good. A lot of things could have gone wrong this last year, but.... didn't. I don't know if it's luck or karma or some higher power or what. Life is good.
Oh, yea, and my mom's starting the whole menopause thing. It's pretty bad. omg. Certifiably grade-A batshit crazy does not even begin to describe it.
1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before
Tried shrooms, got an internship, voted in a presidential election, took honors classes, went to the wedding of a friend the same age as me, stayed at a paying job for over a year, been arrested and did the whole court thing [got cleared of all charges; judge said this was a complete waste of the court's time], done injections on another living creature [mice at the lab], made quiche
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I never make resolutions
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No, but one will be this summer
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No
5. What countries did you visit?
None; almost went to Canada, but that didn't pan out
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Free time, more of a social life, a cat farm
7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
None were really memorable enough to remember the specific date, but then again, numbers never were my thing
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not having a nervous breakdown. Instead, managing to pull it all off pretty damn well. Straight A's, not getting fired, doing well in the lab... Got a little iffy in the middle of things, but I managed to pull it all off in the end.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Taking on too much - AGAIN. I sign up for too many responsibilities and then everything [and everyone] gets neglected and half-assed because I don't have the concentration or time to handle everything at once. It'd be nice to have the time and breathing room to do things well and not just manage to pull it off.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not really. Just chronic exhaustion, but that doesn't really count...
11. What were the best things you bought?
Time
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Francis - he's been so good to me, no matter how busy or tired I am. I'm really lucky to have him.
13. Whose behavior appalled you?
Psycho ex-roommates Jo and Gopal, my brother and my mother's whole conflict, my brother in general
14. Where did most of your money go?
Paying the bills. Hell, it's really kind of a luxury to spend money on myself.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Making good grades despite everything going on, BeeBee making me her top underling, being offered a paid summer internship thing at the lab this next summer
16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Can't think of any right now...
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? Same as always
iii. richer or poorer? Probably richer, give or take
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Making time for Francis, making time for friends in general, planned more on what I'm doing as far as graduate school goes
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Worried
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it in New York with my parents
21. How will you be spending New Years?
Spent it with Francis and my parents in New York
22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
I've fallen even more in love with Francis - does that count?
23. How many one-night stands?
None
24. What was your favorite TV program?
House, Firefly, CSI, etc.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Maybe the psycho ex-roommates, but I don't really think I hate them anymore. I don't really care enough to bother thinking about them anymore.
26. What was the best book you read?
I finally read the Harry Potter series all the way through. Francis' sister got me into these vampirey sex novels for a while. I read a crap ton of textbooks. I read Donna Brazile's autobiography for a class - it was actually pretty okay. Got me mad all over again about the 2000 Florida elections fiasco. I still can't believe Bush got away with that.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Francis finally teaching me how to use bittorrent. Finally.
28. What did you want and get?
Good grades, more hours at work, an internship, Francis
29. What did you want and not get?
My mother and my brother to come to an understanding, a cat farm
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Can't really say
31. What did you do on your birthday?
Went out to Lowe's and bought a gardenia and planting materials and planted a bunch of plants for the front, then went out and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Francis and Chris
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A cat farm, having more spare time
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Hey look! This is mostly probably clean! I think I'll put it on!
34. What kept you sane?
Francis and Kitty
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Obama
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Obama and the downfall of the whole Bush-McCain-Palin trifecta. I'm not entirely Democrat, but I've been anti-Republican ever since I was 12 and Bush started fucking up everything he could possibly get his evil little hands on. The past eight years have been a continuous descent into [inter]national hell. Four more years of this crap and I'm not sure anyone would've been left standing to point out how fucked up everything is.
37. Who did you miss?
My life, my friends at the Beach, my sanity...
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Who knows. 2008 wasn't a really outgoing and social year for me. Sarah's been pretty cool though.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Realizing that I can handle a lot more than I [and probably a lot of other people] ever gave me credit for. And that I can do it well, to the letter, without missing a beat.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can. Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores
and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can. Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized;
women who reached for the ballots;
a President who chose the moon as our new frontier;
and a King who took us to the mountain-top and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
(yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can…)
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can. Si Se Puede
(yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can…)
We know the battle ahead will be long,
but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way,
nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We want change!
(We want change! We want change! We want change…)
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant.
We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check.
We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. We want change!
(We want change! I want change! We want change! I want change…)
The hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA;
we will remember that there is something happening in America;
that we are not as divided as our politics suggests;
that we are one people;
we are one nation;
and together, we will begin the next great chapter in America’s story with three words that will ring from coast to coast;
from sea to shining sea - Yes. We. Can.
(yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can…)
Will I Am, "Yes We Can"