1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?
Got married. Changed my name. Discovered it's a pain in the ass to change your name.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I kept the two most important ones: I kept mon coeur happy long enough to trap him into marriage (ha), and I fit into my wedding dress. My ones for next year are not yet fully formed, but I will have some.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My cousin Erin had her baby Paul, who is the cutest little chunk in the world.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Not this year.
5. What countries did you visit?
This one.
6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
School, pride in my work, and the ability to see things through.
7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
April 29th- big white dress day. May 16th- day Paul was born (and the day we all discovered Erin was pregnant... it was a very big to-do).
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I don't really know that getting married was an achievement. Achievement-wise, mostly I just earned some self-respect back by quitting a job that was wearing me down, and realized I have a lot of learning to finish before I can really call myself a full-time professional singer.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Being unemployed for the first half of the year. And then subsequently getting overemployed to the point of my husband getting very, very upset with me.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not so much. Flu/bronchitis in early January, just before Whorehouse opened. And then a cold here and there, including today. Mostly I just bang into things and get bruises.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
my own Netflix account- it's gotten a lot of mileage. And the big rug in the living room, which I still think is utterly GORGEOUS (and $90 for an 8'x5' wool rug is quite a steal; it looks like it cost twice that much).
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Mon coeur. My wonderful family, especially in the days approaching the wedding. And Bork, for being there in weird moments.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Sometimes the in-laws caused a great deal of stress, but that's life. Weddings have to have SOME hitches in the plans, right?
Nimsay also made me quite appalled in the beginning of the year, but let bygones be bygones.
And of course, the Asshat director who drove me to quit my singing job. But I'm better off.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Food, either groceries or eating out. We try to keep most other expenses down.
15. What events did you get really, really, really excited about?
The big white dress day, obviously. The honeymoon. Seeing Vienna Teng live. Getting a JOB. And eventually, the prospect of getting two days OFF from the job (for Christmas).
16. What song will always remind you of '06?
The entire wedding mix CD, which I poked and prodded for months to make the perfect compilation (Kate Callahan, Blue October, Vienna Teng, etc). And Regina Spektor.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
I. Happier or Sadder?
About the same, I think... less confused, maybe.
II. Thinner or Fatter?
Thinner, but only just.
III. Richer or Poorer?
Personally, I earn more. As a couple, we're about the same.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Exercise.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
shoving aside personal relationships for activities that excluded friends and family.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Worked the 24th from 8-4, then drove like a bat out of hell for Hometown for C-Eve with the family. Dinner, gifts, and midnight mass. Lounged around Monday, then drove to spend the 26th with extended family at the grandparents'. They let us have our own bedroom, like a proper Married Couple. It was very exciting.
21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
I have no clue. Bork and I had marathon conversations, but my husband and I call each other about twice a day for something or other.
22. Did you fall in love in 2006?
Over and over again.
23. How many one-night stands?
None.
24. What was your favorite TV program?
Grey's Anatomy edged out Gilmore Girls ONLY because I hated that Lorelai and Luke weren't working out.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No, although there are some people I disliked last year that I have found a sort of connection with (in-laws specifically... I TOLD you they'd like me once they got to know me).
26. What was the best book you read?
My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. Or maybe Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire. No, wait, Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte. (Oh, I don't know.)
27. What was your greatest musical discovery or rediscovery?
Regina Spektor.
28. What did you want and get?
Size 12 pants that fit.
29. What did you want and not get?
a chance to start grad school.
30. What were your favorite films of this year?
The Departed and Blood Diamond. It's awful that my favorites were both incredibly bloody and both starred Leonardo DiCaprio. Oh, but I also liked Little Miss Sunshine, Half Nelson, The Queen, and... romantic comedies were crap this year, so yeah. That's it.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
24, had dinner with friends and received a garnet bracelet from my husband. Birthday was very low-key, due to the previous months (and months) of money being spent on the two of us.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Knowing how quickly mon coeur would find a job after leaving the Air Force. We could've gotten me started with grad school, taken that great townhouse, and it would've saved me ages of worry.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
GodDAMN, she's thinner now.
34. What kept you sane?
My boy.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most/least?
Most: Mark Ruffalo. Least: John Malkovich, yet again.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The same one as always: if you have the temerity to love the "wrong" person, clearly you are a pervert and have no right to marry or live peacefully or enjoy the same financial rights to one-ness that the rest of the world gets to have. Just let gays marry, already. I swear, it won't disturb your peaceful little Republican suburb life one tiny bit, and it will make a huge portion of the population delirious with joy.
37. Whom did you miss?
Miller. Dr T. Jae.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
I'm going to say Wendy and Bork, because technically I didn't *really* get to know them until this year. And Mariam, Charles, and Andrew (from the singing job I left). I will miss them so much.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006:
Sometimes, earning a paycheck in a job you can stand to keep is better than letting your pride keep you from working until the magical perfect job comes along. There's always time to move up later, when it does actually sidle by.
40. Do you have any lost feelings of others?
Lost feelings of others? If you mean unrequited feelings... sometimes I feel that those I care about are too tied up in their other friends (all my friends seem to have a large posse that I'm unacquainted with surrounding each of them), and that they don't really care for me equally (because why would they?) but I usually discover that I'm just selling myself short again.
41. Quote a song that sums up your year:
This is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
and try to love the things you took
And you take that love you made
And stick it into some- someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
You're walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does, you'll just do it all again.
...Even if it does, we'll just do it all again.
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