New Year's Meme 2021
Here's the 2021 edition of that New Year's meme that I've been filling out every year for longer than I can prove (some posts having disappeared in the Purge of Aught-ten). Over the years, I've added one or two prompts to the original question set, and I've deleted others for which I could never, ever think of an answer. This year, there were no changes to the questions from the 2020 version. Oh, and in the interest of full disclosure, I'm posting this later than usual but back-dating it so it'll be in the right spot in the archive.
Still interested?
1. What did you do in 2021 that you'd never done before?
I attended the Baker Street Street Irregulars' annual Dinner back in January. Yes, it was virtual, but it was my first one and I'm counting it.
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Every year, I resolve to eat healthier & lose weight, to de-clutter my house, to worry less about money, to keep up with paper grading (so that I don't develop giant backlogs), and -- my favorite one -- to see (on average) at least one live performance per month.
How did I do?
Still interested?
1. What did you do in 2021 that you'd never done before?
I attended the Baker Street Street Irregulars' annual Dinner back in January. Yes, it was virtual, but it was my first one and I'm counting it.
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Every year, I resolve to eat healthier & lose weight, to de-clutter my house, to worry less about money, to keep up with paper grading (so that I don't develop giant backlogs), and -- my favorite one -- to see (on average) at least one live performance per month.
How did I do?
- Food, weight, etc: After losing weight in 2020, I gained it all back in 2021. FAIL
- Tidying up: I continued the de-cluttering project, and got the house respectable enough to host Thanksgiving dinner. PARTIAL VICTORY!
- Finances: Through circumstances out of my control, I suffered a reduction in income. I did worry, but I kept up with everything. NEUTRAL
- Procrastination station: I think I'll always be a procrastinator, but I didn't get in trouble for anything at work this year, so ... NEUTRAL
- On stage and in person: I started going to live shows again in the summer. Since I seldom hit my target of 12 live shows in a full calendar year, it's no surprise that I didn't hit it in 6 months. However, I did do pretty well. Things I saw included
- July: an outdoor production of Shakespeare's Pericles by Baltimore's Chesapeake Shakespeare Company
- September: a surprising play about female pro-baseball pioneer Toni Stone at Arena Stage in D.C.
- October: a cool "Recovered Voices" concert by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
- November: Al Franken live at the Warner Theatre in D.C.
- December: the First State Symphonic Band's Christmas concert
- August, September: two in-person Orioles baseball games at Camden Yards
Did I make resolutions for 2022? You bet. Are they the same ones? Absolutely.
3. Did anyone close to you get married?
Nope
4. Did anyone close to you get divorced?
Nope -- I was very saddened by some celebrity divorces, though. I need to invest less.
5. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes. My daughter-in-law had her second baby, aka my second grandchild. He was five weeks early but still weighed six pounds, and he's caught up well. And he is, of course, adorable.
6. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes. My mom died at the very beginning of the year after three hard months of home hospice.
7. What countries did you visit?
As usual, I stayed in the US. <*sad trombone*> At least this year I had a partial excuse.
8. What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021?
Here's what I said to the corresponding question last year: "Mastery of grading-related time management. Opportunities to attend fun events in person, safely. Peace of mind about my country's future. Financial opportunities."
In 2021, I got a little bit of a couple of those (some fun events -- see above -- and some post-Trump peace of mind). I think they'll work as a list for 2022, as well.
9. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
The book I co-edited for BSI Press went in on time and with some very good material in it.
10. What was your biggest failure?
I gained back all the weight I lost in Fall of 2020.
11. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing major, no.
12. What was the best thing you bought?
I can't think of an answer, which suggests that I didn't get anything too cool. Okay, the art print I bought for Two and got framed (at tremendous expense!) for his birthday turned out beautiful (you get what you pay for, I reckon) and sparked joy for both of us, so maybe that.
13. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My older grandson constantly delighted me. He turned two in the Spring, and that's such a great age.
14. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
No one in my personal circle sank to that level. I was, as I said above, deeply disappointed regarding some celebrity divorces, but "appalled"? Maybe not.
Politics is a good go-to for appalling and depressing, and Donald Trump was my 2020 answer. I'd actually anticipated repeating him for 2021 after January 6th's events, but as the year progressed there were a lot of awful Republicans and Democrats competing with him for the honor. Fake Dem. Joe Manchin, maybe, or the certifiably insane Marjorie Taylor Greene? How do these people even get elected?
15. Where did most of your money go?
Tuition for Number Three. You can expect this answer for the next two years, I would think.
16. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
That's perhaps too many "really"s for me, but at the BSI Dinner in January, several of my friends were invested (inducted into the group), and I was thrilled for them.
Also, of course, there was the birth of my second grandson in May!
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:- happier or sadder? A little sadder, but whatcha gonna do? My mom's death still hits me hard at unexpected moments.
- thinner or fatter? Fatter. Booooo......
- richer or poorer? Poorer, thanks to all that college tuition. But not much. I guess I saved in other ways.
Reading for pleasure. Attending live performances in the second half of the year. Popping up to NY (I did go for a day with the boys in June, but never found time for a second trip).
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stress eating.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
In the morning, I was at Two's to share breakfast and watch the boys open gifts. Later, One & Three & I visited my dad, eating treats and watching Harry Potter on TV in his bedroom (the planned all-family get-together at my brother's place was spoiled by COVID -- his step-sons are all un-vaxxed, and they all got it, which left Dad, who lives with them, confined to quarters). It was all very chill.
21. How did you bring in the New Year?
I babysat my grandchildren. Three went with Two and his wife to a party at her family's place.
22. Did you fall in love?
Nope
23. What was your favorite TV program?
Oooh. Ted Lasso, I guess. I'd been assured by many that the tone and hero were just my thing, and they were. It was funny and sweet and optimistic, which is generally what I like in stories.
24. What was the best book you read?
Maybe I should say the one I edited (a collection of articles on Sherlock Holmes and music). I mean, for the first half of the year, it was the ONLY book I read.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Not sure I made one this year, except for the things I learned from my contributors to the Holmes & music book. Actually, I was amazed to discover there'd been a Sherlock Holmes ballet, written for and performed by Saddler's Wells, back in the 1950s. Now I need to find and hear the music.
26. What was your favorite film of the year?
I didn't see very many, so I have to pick Spider-Man: No Way Home. It gave joy. Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon was also pretty special.
27. What was your favorite live performance?
Al Franken was pretty great. I thought he got rail-roaded out of town without a fair hearing back when his scandal blew up, and the New Yorker agrees with me. But his stand-up show was not really about that, and it made me cry.
Toni Stone was also a surprise. A story I wasn't familiar with, and a very effective piece of theatre.
28. What did you want and get?
Lots of time with my grandsons. A certain amount of Sherlockian fun, including some in-person events in the Fall. Continued employment (though I did lose a course in the Fall). Freedom from COVID -- somehow I still escaped infection. A return to in-person teaching (but i should have been more precise about what I wished for -- see 31 below).
29. What did you want and not get?
The end of the pandemic. A Democratic Senate that acted like one. Big, extended-family parties (we had two outdoor gatherings in the summer, but we didn't do the big holidays -- Easter, T'giving, Christmas).
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 60, but in the part of the year when everything was still closed, so there was no big celebration. Also, it fell on a work day, so ... eh.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
My mom not dying, but that's a cheat answer, so let's see ...
Not having to teach hybrid classes. Teaching at home over the internet is one thing. Teaching in person in your classroom is another. Teaching in person but being bound to park yourself in front of a webcam in the corner of the classroom so as to broadcast it simultaneously? Yuck.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2021?
Suck in that gut. (I wore my same clothes, but they were tighter.)
33. What kept you sane?
Oh, a lot of the usual --- The sheer existence of my adorable grandsons
- My sons, esp. Number Three, with whom I spend the most time
- My Sherlock Holmes activities, at least the non-canceled, Zoom-able ones
- Political commentary from Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, and Samantha Bee
Stephen Colbert remains my guy. Meanwhile, John Oliver continues to show why he wins all the awards -- in fact, I think someone should nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize.
I cheered hard for John Mulaney during his troubles, but he broke my heart when he left his wife.
35. What political issue stirred you the most?
The attempted coup and its aftermath.
36. Whom did you miss?
My mom.
Also, Number One Son, except for the two weeks he visited. On the plus side of the ledger, I did finally get together with my BFF-since-college, after more than a year of nothing but texting and chat, for several fun times.
37. Who was the best new person you met?
I don't think I met any new people. I mean, we got a new bass player at church, and because of him our band can now do three-part vocal harmony (instead of just me singing a second part), and that's great. But we don't really know each other.
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021.
I could have predicted this before I learned it, but the world without your mother in it is a different place.
39. What was your favorite moment of the year?
There wasn't just one. Top candidates would be meeting my grandson in May, having our outdoor family picnic on July 4 (Mom's would-have-been 80th birthday), and taking Three and my dad to the Orioles game in September.
40. What was your least favorite moment of the year?
The Jan. 6th coup was bad.
My mom dying ten days later was, well, very bad. But at least we saw it coming.
41. If you could go back in time to any moment of 2021 and change something, what would it be?
I've already said that the "mom" answer to this sort of question is cheating, so ... I got nothing. I mean, without super-powers, I couldn't have affected Jan. 6th; meanwhile (maybe surprisingly?), I have no major regrets over any decisions that were within my power.
42. What are your plans for 2022?
Try to lose weight. Write a chapter for someone else's Sherlockian book (due end of year?). Spend money on some home improvements. Maybe sing something classical, with a chorus?