New Year Meme

This was intended to be an end-of-year meme (thanks, Cynthia!), but I’m only now catching up on blog-reading, and I like the idea of starting off this year with an eye on the last one. Also, I’ve actually been thinking about it a lot, so it’s relevant. Happy 2008, everyone!

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?
I worked a real job and didn’t hate it. (Really, until I started freelancing a few years ago [which I tend to refer to as not being a real job, though of course it’s real work and wonderful], I had never met a job I didn’t end up hating. I still love my job.) Also, something I haven’t mentioned in public before, I got pregnant (ectopically, no less; therefore I also terminated a pregnancy, which, obviously, was another first). I’m not traumatized, and I likely won’t blog about it more. Suffice it to say I’m now fine, I know a lot more about my body, and I’m looking forward to not spending as much time in 2008 getting poked, prodded, cut into, and drugged.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s Resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t make resolutions.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Our good friends did, as did a cousin. Such cute behbehs!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, but people I love lost loved ones.

5. What countries did you visit?
The U.S. and Mexico.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
More balance between work and play.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
February. The whole month. It was when we learned I was pregnant and couldn’t be, also my in-laws both spent time in the hospital and recovering. Our friend’s mom died. It was the darkest month I’ve experienced.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I worked a full-time job and also put out three books (that I’d lined up long before the magazine gig came up), had a health crisis, traveled more for work than ever before, and managed both to end up on one piece with good perspective on the past and the future, and I didn’t sabotage my marriage.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I sacrificed my social life.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
See above.

11. What was the best thing someone bought you?
Joy sent me a package that arrived at the perfect time for some much-needed cheering-up.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My husband’s. For being a partner and a caretaker and getting very little in return but grief. 2008 is about giving back to him.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Out of the realm of politics and government? Nobody’s.

14. Where did most of your money go?
To the bank. No time for fun in 2007!

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Working at Interweave and being a magazine editor.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
I can’t think of one…

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? More mellow, but just as happy.
b) thinner or fatter? About the same.
c) richer or poorer? About the same.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Spend time with my friends. Had fun. Felt carefree.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Spend time in bed. Visit doctors. Express sympathy to people I love.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
In Mexico with my family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?

22. How many one night stands?
Um, none.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Heroes. (Also, there was all the Buffy watching, but that was on DVD.)

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
In no way intended to be self-righteous, I have better things to do.

25. What was the best book you read?
Nonfiction: The Professor and the Madman
Fiction: The Yiddish Policeman’s Union

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Hard to say. Arcade Fire. That I no longer think Feist is overrated.

27. What did you want and get?
This is a weird question.

28. What did you want and not get?
Also weird.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
No Country for Old Men.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Mmm, I can’t even remember. But I turned 31 in July.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
See above. Draw conclusions.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Same as in the past: At home, comfy leaning toward sloppy. At work, fun. I’m moving into a new personal-style era; more about it as it evolves.

33. What kept you sane?
Greg. Family. Friends. Amaretto.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Ira Glass. Joss Whedon. I’m still in love with Bruce Springsteen.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
That climate change is even an issue. Church and state.

36. Who do you miss?
New York.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
This one’s tough. There’s no best.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007?
Eventually, time passes.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
“It’s the end of the world as we know it.” (That’s freaking cliched. Some things that really suffered in 2007 are my imagination and sense of humour. They’re coming back, though. I’m eagerly awaiting them.)