2012: Wha Happened?

Internet: Where did this year go? I’ve spent a great deal of time over the past few days trying to wrap my mind around how 365 days can pass by so damn quickly…but I kept getting happily distracted by the events at hand.

You may see an adorable chile; all I see is a gaudy pink princess trash can that is now a permanent member of our family.

Before I launch into ye olde yeare ende liste, I want to say that I hope that you all are in the midst of a gloriously happy and healthy holiday season. Mine has been wonderful (some health issues in the extended fam notwithstanding, but hoping all are on the mend now), and my birthday? TOP NOTCH.

I was given this card first thing in the morning, and my heart has been fully melted ever since.

I was treated to some spicy food paired with fresh margaritas (a.k.a. the drink that makes me pine for spring and summer, DAMN) and spoiled with awesome gifts. When getting older happens like that, what’s not to love?

And now! The list!

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before? Got totally fired. Had two months of legit, non-maternity leave SAHM-ing. Became one of those people who actually enjoys her job (gross). I gotta tell you, though, that I sometimes still can’t believe I don’t work at my old job anymore. And then I remember WHY I don’t work at my old job anymore, and my mind gets blown all over again. This may indicate that getting fired was my biggest life event of 2012, but it more likely indicates that my mind is easily blown.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Failed this one with flying colors. My New Year’s resolution for 2012 was to write a full-length play, and unless I churn some shit out in the next couple of days, I’m going to have to chalk this up as a loss. I still want to do it, though, so writing a full-length play is all primed to be my 2013 fail resolution.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Nope. Not a big year for babies in my neck of the woods, although the holidays are always when I reach my baby-feverest. Something about being all cozy and heart-warmy during the holidays makes me want to have a whole litter of younguns to maximize the baby snuggles I get to experience in my lifetime. But then I somehow spend four hours watching A Christmas Story two times in a row in TV despite not really liking it in the first place, and I forget all about my grand plans of procreation.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Nope. And don’t even want to talk about it.

5. What places did you visit? Arizona, the Laurel Highlands, and West Virginia. Oh! And Erie, which isn’t the most exotic place on Earth but has still managed to give me some of my most favorite memories. Big ups, Erie.

Some may call you polluted, I call you generous for bestowing a little something extra upon God’s creatures.

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012? Last year I said: “a way to be able to spend more time with Sadie during the week. I don’t want to jinx it, but I feel like I might actually get closer to this in 2012.” HA! Oh, 2011 Me, how right you were.

Anyhoo, this year I’d like to have more perspective in my day to day life. This is not always easy for a woman who prefers to sweat the small stuff, but I’m going to try. You don’t need to look far for a reminder of all that is good in your life, you know?

Exhibit A: This highly addictive shit Brad found and put in my stocking, OH MY GOOD GODDAMN.

7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? September 20th (a.k.a. the day I got canned and dropped a lot of profanities in a conference room) remains a benchmark date in my mind, so I’d say that’s a biggie.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I think this is partly due to luck, but I am so, so happy to finally be in a job that I enjoy. I suppose it was mostly luck that I applied, but this bitch is solely responsible for nailing the interview process.

Actual footage of my second interview.

I’m also super proud of the show that I wrote for Bricolage with Brad & Joe. It was pretty damn funny if I do say so myself. And I do. So there.

Also? Losing my job served as some sort of magical pause button on my family drama, and when we had something bigger taking up our attention, we seemed to let all the other stuff go. And now that I’m employed again, I’ve been really trying to keep up the positive progress. At the risk of jinxing it, I think it’s working.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not quitting my damn crap job two years ago before it got to the “being escorted off the premises” point. But I prefer things to be a bit on the dramatic side anyway.

In other failures, I know I fell victim to all those irritable, snappy moods that I am always so determined to force myself out of. But if I’m not a giant unreasonable bitch every once in a while, how will the people around me ever appreciate my good moments? Sound reasoning.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I tend to get sick in those “when it rains, it pours” moments in life, and this year when I lost my job, I apparently also lost my damn immune system. I was pretty miserable for a stretch of days there, but on the whole I’ve been pretty healthy…except for this hellacious mystery pain/sensitivity I have in one of my molars. I’ve been examined and x-rayed eight ways to Tuesday and the dentist pretty much thinks I’m crazy but IT HURTS SOMETIMES. Or perhaps it’s all in my head, and I’m directing all of my emotional pain to my top left molar?

FEELING ALL THE FEELS.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Our museum membership, our fall getaway, clothes for my new job (turns out getting a little dressed up for work makes me feel better about myself in general EW GROSS I KNOW IT’S LAME, but after eight years of jeans every day, it’s been really nice), and–MIRACLE OF MIRACLES—a second car. Did I tell you guys we finally bit the bullet and became a two-car household? Pretty much had to with the new job being across town from Brad’s job, and it has changed our fucking LIIIIIIVES. We do not live in a very public transit-friendly area of town anymore, so this has been a long time coming and LORD I’m so glad we did it.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Brad and Sadie, as usual, but also all the people at my new job who have seriously gone out of their way to make me feel welcome and who have created a workplace in which everyone feels respected (NOVEL CONCEPT) and people are given the ability to put their families first (turns out when people are happier and feel valued, they work harder? WHO KNEW).

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Oh, I always manage to pull some impressive shit, but my antics don’t hold a candle to some of the terrible stuff going down in the world. Let’s not go down that road right now, OK?

14. Where did most of your money go? The shorty, the house, and the cars (yay for adulthood). With a few hundred bucks thrown at the sick cat. But we did pay off some credit card debt that was hanging on since the good old (read: BROKE ASS) days, and that was nice.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Well, I am an easily excited sort, so I can tell you right now that I get really, really, really excited about maybe five things each week (GOING TO THE MOVIES! COFFEEMATE IS ON SALE! SPAGHETTI FOR DINNER!1!!111!!), but I got pretty stoked about the new job, our show being produced at Bricolage, and the ongoing opportunity to watch Sadie experience all the fun things about growing up and becoming an honest-to-goodness little girl.

16. What song will always remind you of 2012? Well, this has been one of my all-time favorites ever since Sadie & I heard it on the radio one fall day during my two months of SAHM-ing and we both agreed that it was pretty rad. And although I’ve been listening to them for years, Band of Horses will always remind me of this year because I got to see them live in August when they opened for My Morning Jacket. I like MMJ too, but they tend to get a little trippy and jam-band-y for my taste, and once we hit the point in the evening where the lead singer was wearing a black-lit poncho and one song lasted a full 25 minutes, we decided to call it a night.

 

Hey, look! It’s the poncho! Although up close it looks like something from the Red Riding Hood collection.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier.
b) thinner or fatter? Pretty much the same, according to my jeans.
c) richer or poorer? Poorer, thanks to the temporary joblessness and addition of second car. Both worth it, though.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Playwriting, reading, realizing when I’m over-committed.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Wasting time trying to grow another damn garden in a yard that is apparently the neighborhood salad bar for all the local deer and rabbits. Worrying. Being afraid to speak up for myself.

20. How did you spend Christmas last year? With friends and family in West Virginia, followed up by a wonderful week off with Brad & Sadie. While I didn’t have enough vacation time banked at my new job to be able to take this whole week off, I was able to work from home, which was fucking aweeesooooome. 

21. Did you fall in love in 2012? Guys, if I felt any more feelings about Brad & Sadie, I’d lose my damn mind.

22. What was your favorite TV program? I don’t have any new favorites, but this year’s season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been fantastic. Dexter also had some pretty stellar moments this year (but some of it was total crap).

 

Why are the women in this show always so damn annoying OMG THEY ARE SO DAMN ANNOYING.

23. What did you do for your birthday in 2012?  Was treated to the best spicy chicken enchiladas & fresh margaritas in town, slept in the next morning, got some super sweet gifts, and baked cookies with the cutest pastry chef I know.

24. What was the best book you read? Nothing I read really made an impact on me. This is probably because 1) I only read a handful of books, and 2) I don’t seem to be very good at picking decent books. I mean, I only have the entire Internet at my disposal to tell me what to read, but I usually just show up at the library and HURR DURR at the new arrivals shelves until I end up picking something with a nice font on the cover (see also: how I choose wine).

25. What did you want and get? A new motherfucking job, AMEN. Some relief from family drama. An end to freaking out about turning 35. Another healthy, happy year with my family.

26. What did you want and not get? I don’t feel right filing any kind of complaints here except petty and superficial ones: a purse that I like and can afford, fresh donuts every morning, a way to re-create expensive cafe au laits in my own home that doesn’t require expensive ingredients and/or learning how to use our cheap old espresso machine.

 

I’m just going to go ahead and wish for this espresso machine, plus someone who can come to my kitchen each morning to operate it. While I’m at it, I’m going to wish that I’ll never hear another person call it “expresso.”

27. What was your favorite film of this year? Hi, I wept openly at Lincoln. Skyfall and Dark Knight Rises were also super fun.

28. Did you make some new friends this year? Yes! My new coworkers. For the first time ever, I am able to actually be myself around people at work (within reason, of course).

29.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? To have had some snappy comebacks prepared for when I was canned back in September. I am happy with the fact that I didn’t shed a single tear, but it would’ve been nice to have had some perfectly scathing comment in the chamber besides what I actually ended up saying. Which was mostly just bitchy. But not all that clever.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012? Same old same old until late November, when I actually started dressing up for work again. I’m actually going shopping tomorrow for some more dresses WHO AM I.

31. What kept you sane? Brad, Sadie, friends, family, writing, blogging, theatre-y stuff, the loving embrace of pasta.

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I see no way to improve upon how I replied last year:

YES PLZ.

DON’T MIND IF I DO.

33.What political issue stirred you the most? Well, THAT’S certainly a loaded question following an election year. I’m going to stray from the question a bit and tell you that the politically-adjacent issue that “stirred” me the most was when people insisted on remaining ignorant about facts surrounding the actual political issues. Or when I would read some comment on FB to the effect of “I don’t understand why everyone is saying Politician X is bad for Issue Z,” because HI, ASSHOLE, you’re already on the fucking Internet, so how’s about hopping off Facebook and browsing over to a reputable fucking website and LEARNING SOME SHIT.

Sorry. Touched a sore spot there.

34. Who did you miss? I miss my friends and family every day. I miss Sadie being small enough for me to rock to sleep or carry around for any extended period of time. I guess it’s obvious from that last comment that I didn’t miss a big ol’ glass of wine this evening. Good lord.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012. Perspective, perspective, perspective. I have to remind myself of it nearly every day, but it’s essential to remember whenever I’m tempted to get irritated at some small annoyance that means shit in the face of all I have in this life. Truth.

Well, that’s that: the 2012 list is complete. You gonna do it too? Link me up in the comments! It’ll also help me rebuild my bookmarks. HELP ME NOSE INTO YOUR LIVES ONCE AGAIN.