Welcome in, 2007

1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before?

Most notably, had a C-section. My first surgery ever!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I didn't make any resolutions in 2006. Too exhausted I guess. My new year's resolutions this year are simple-be nicer, gossip less, and simplify everything. Sort of vague, but I think I can actually stick with it!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Ah...yes, I gave birth this year, 3 people at work did too. Most notably, Free had a baby 2 days before me and we didn't even know about it until September. Very amazing!


4. Did anyone close to you die?

No family, but a handful of patients.

5. What countries did you visit?

No foreign travel for me in 2006. Boohoo.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?

Patience. An exercise regimen.

7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

It would have to be January 20th, the day Penny was born. Also January 18th, which was my due date. Just sitting around feeling sorry for my big, fat, pregnant self...feeling the lack of contractions or any other unusual activity of the uterus and just knowing that I was going to be pregnant for the rest of my life :-P

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Surviving day to day life as a mother of an infant and teenager.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Sheesh, I don't know. Letting the laundry pile up? Not saving as much money as I would've hoped. Having another bad hair year in my bad hair life...

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Well, I recovered from my C-section. No major illnesses, thank God. I come from a hardy Slavic stock of people, so generally we are resistant to disease until old age :-P

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Best thing I bought? Probably the Medela breast pump.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Let me pick some unsung heroes-social workers.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

George W. Bush.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Mortgage, daycare, car payments and insurance, the usual.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Whenever we took advantage of rare opportunities to get out for the night, just the 2 of us.

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?

Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?

Happier, Thinner, Poorer (but only because we've both been on disability 3 months a piece during the past year!)

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Chilling out, not being a tightly-wound ball of nervousness.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worrying

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

We had it at our house.

21. Did you fall in love in 2006?

With Penelope.

22. How many one-night stands?

This question is just ridiculous. None. Would anyone even answer this truthfully if their answer was yes?

23. What was your favorite TV program?

The Office leads the pack of favorites, but I also love CSI Las Vegas, House, and every single program on Food Network and HGTV. I can't get enough of those real estate shows. Oh, wait, the ones where they go into total pig-sty houses and make the occupants throw out a bunch of crap, and then rearrange everything so it actually looks like it's not inhabited by bums or squatters? Those are MY kind of shows. I love when they tell the people that their junk isn't doing anything positive for them and it's time to get rid of it, thin it out, let go of the past.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Ain't no time to hate, barely time to wait! Oh ho what I want to know, where does the time go?

25. What was the best book you read?

Unfortunately I didn't read enough new books (re-read a few old favorites, as I am apt to do) but I guess The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan is the first one that comes to mind. It was a gift from JH last Christmas and I read it on my maternity leave.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Rediscovering Metallica. (Sounds like the title to some MTV show 20 years in the future where they resurrect Lars, James, and Kirk, all balding and paunchy, and launch a contest to appoint the "next" bassist, who will probably be a female this time around."

27. What did you want and get?

A healthy baby, teenager, and husband.

28. What did you want and not get?

Horseback riding lessons.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?

Well, since I don't usually see any movies until they hit Blockbuster, my favorites weren't from 2006. Most were 2005 or earlier. And the winners are:

Crash, 40 Year-Old Virgin, Batman Begins, Wedding Crashers, Sin City, Everything is Illuminated, V for Vendetta, Jarhead, Brokenflowers, Transamerica, The Jacket, The Matador.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Went to work-it was a Friday-injection day, which is my favorite. Went out to dinner. Had a nice evening. I turned 32.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Less obnoxious traffic.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?

Hide the flub as much as possible.

33. What kept you sane?

Humor.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Fancy as in think was hot as hell? I've already gone over that. Or fancy as in admire? I liked the former acting governor of NJ, Richard Codey. He tried to do a lot for the mentally ill of our state, including his war on stigma. He came to work to speak, but I didn't get to hear any of it because I was stuck in the back doing injections. A lot of the clients got to hear him speak, so it was nice for them.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

The politics of health (i.e. stem cell research, Medicare "reform,"), women's rights, the war.


36. Who did you miss?

Everyone I care about who isn't part of my day to day life.

37. Who was the best new person you met?

Some really interesting clients, but I haven't really "met" anyone new in my personal life in a long time.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.

Less is more, especially when I'm the one who's talking, especially if I've had a couple of glasses of wine and the audience just doesn't get it.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

In another time's forgotten space
your eyes looked through your mother's face
Wildflower seed on the sand and stone
may the four winds blow you safely home
~Robert Hunter

Wrapping up the Year

I have been strangely calm through most of this holiday. I had a small meltdown in mid-November, probably related to my birthday. If I had to blame it on something. Maybe it had more to do with the activity in our household at that time. At any rate, Free sent me an email entitled "Negative Energy Cripples the Human Spirit" or something to that effect. It wasn't the easiest thing for me to read since saw a lot of myself in that essay and realized that I was crippling my own spirit. Anyway, kudos to Free for keeping it mad-real.

Sometimes the things that are hardest to hear are the things we need to hear the most.

So after I got over myself in November I got really into things for the holiday as you can tell some of my last couple of postings. I wouldn't say I went overboard at all, and I'm quite happy with the way the holiday turned out for us. I just tried to simplify and I feel like this method made me succeed at enjoying the season.

Some things that were more low-key this year

• Gift buying-I began slightly earlier than usual, some of it in November, some of it very early in December. I only bought for those closest to me and decided in advance just to give one or two people cash only. I went with a lot of first instinct purchases that were within my budget. I used some coupons.
• Wrapping-As soon as the gifts started coming into the house, I wrapped them all and stored them in the attic. To make this possible I cleared off the dining room table and set it up as a gift wrapping station with the tape, the paper, name tags, etc. It made my life so much easier to do this.
• Cooking-rather than take on the daunting and impossible task of cooking the perfect turkey again, plus cooking a million different side dishes, I focused on 4 really good foods that pleased the gang. For Christmas Eve we had stuffed shells. And bread. And butter. The end. And everyone enjoyed it. And for Christmas we had filet mignon, sea scallops, mashed potates, asparagus, and carrots. Five simple foods that don't need sauces, accoutrements, complicated cooking techniques, just a little bit of attention. The result was delicious.
• (A side note about the filet mignon-we went to BJ's and got a whole 5 1/2 pound tenderloin that I carved at home into about 5 different meals, reserving the best, most uniform steaks for our dinner. So in the end I saved about $5 per pound, which is a lot of money.)
• Cookies-picked a handful of easy recipes and just went to town over the course of a few days. Wouldn't have been possible to enjoy this much time in the kitchen baking if I hadn't taken care of the gifts and everything else the way I did.
• Delegate-I actually shared a little bit of the duties with others this year. I normally don't do it, it's a habit, and I'm trying to reform myself into a person who will actually accept the help and kindness from others. Kinda still makes me feel funny, but...

There you have it. These few changes and improvements helped me enjoy the holiday, Rob, the girls, my family a bit more. Now I'm at the point where I feel like we wrapped the year up really nicely and I feel comfortable with life for a change.

The tree is down and I don't think I took a picture. Hmm, I'll have to see what I have if anything. The tree was nice, same artificial tree we've had for a couple of years now. It's a good enough tree. I actually didn't jam every single ornament on this year, but I think it looked better that way. More tree, less crap.