2007 Year End Meme!

Happy New Year, y'all. It's time for our Year in Review meme, courtesy of Linda, and this year i predict the answers will be less jovial than the ones from 2006. Just a hunch, but here we go.


1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?

Sincerely enjoy going to work. There are other people in my department that are sick of the company bullshit, but compared to my old department, i am in heaven.

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

My resolution is always the same. Lose weight. It's depressing, but it's always there. I did lose about 10 lbs these past few months, but that is not nearly as awesome as the amount i gained earlier this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

My great aunt passed away. Sadly, i hadn't seen her for close to 10 years before the funeral so it was sad in a somewhat distant way.

5. What countries did you visit?

Just a few areas of my own country... and by "a few" i mean Boston and Maine. I'm really getting wild in my old age.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

Will power, expendable income, patience, expendable income, a kitchen floor you could eat off of.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

January 5th. The day TheBoy quit his job and i was the breadwinner for 2 months or so. That was a scary day.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Getting transferred to my new job. Best move ever. Also getting contact lenses, though that would probably be less of an achievement for other people who do not have squeamish issues regarding eyeballs.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Clearing up any of my credit card debt. I'm drowning here.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

No, luckily. Unless you count my Christmas night experience. But probably not.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

This awesome t-shirt for the boy for xmas. He is, afterall, Master of the Panflute. "Sold more records than Elvis".

btw: I would like to point out how little there is on the innernets about Zamfir and his late-night record-whoring infomercials from the 80's. This saddens me. I wanted to find one on You-Tube and share with you since you, no doubt, have no idea why this is funny. You'll just have to trust me.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Mine? How bout mine. See question #7. I was a good partner in that mess and i'm not afraid to take some credit there.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

A friend of mine made some unarguably bad decisions all year long and no matter how much she asked for advice, she always did exactly what she wanted to anyway. I really hope she smartens up this year because i can't take the drama anymore. DRAMA. Woo.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Credit card bills, mortgage, food, and anything else you can spend money on and not have anything tangible to show for it. Isn't that frustrating?

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

Interviewing for my new job. It's really pretty annoying to read about, after the fact. Probably as annoying as it was at the time. Sorry, there.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?

The Regina Spektor song - Fidelity. Another album I was crazy over and listened to NON-STOP. I really know how to make myself sick of something.

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

Sadder, fatter, and poorer. How bleak is this post? Damn. I'm depressing myself.
Sadder is probably not the right word. Worried is probably more accurate. But i've definitely gained weight since last year and i am in so much debt right now i am screaming inside. I mean, it's a wonder i can sleep at night.

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

Exercise, save more money, get out of the house more and enjoy the outside world. But you know, without the money-spendingness. Oh, and also blogging. I suck at doing this on a regular basis. Suck.

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

Starting each post with an apology for not writing more. I mean, that's annoying and i wish i had noticed it sooner.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

We spent Christmas at mom’s with the family. The group was pretty small this year, but was mostly ok. Oh, then i spent the night hugging the toilet. Yay.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?

Um, no. With nothing new i can think of, at least. Though, i can tell you that i can no longer imagine a life without my beloved XMRadio since i killed my car CD player this summer. No, I have not repaired it and just got an iPod car-adapter thingy. I now can say that i will live without the CD player, which was not something i thought would be possible just a few months ago. I will survive.

22. How many one-night stands?

None, thank you.

23. What was your favorite TV program?

I love The Office. If i could live in The Office, i would. And i would be Pam and Jim would love ME.

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

I'm a little less dramatic than that. If i hate someone it's usually a bitter, resentful relationship forged over an extensive period of time. My hate takes a good long time to mature, like a fine wine.

25. What was the best book you read?

You know what? I'm not going to lie here and pretend that i actually read a prize-winning best-seller. I have been reading crap all year. I think the most enjoyment i got was out of a few Janet Evanovich novels in the Stephanie Plum series. They're quick-reads and they're fun. There. Oh, i also read a David Sedaris - Naked (that's the title, i was not reading it naked, at least not usually)- that I really liked.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Muse. I know they've been out there for years, but hey, they're pretty good and i live in my closet. Check out Hysteria. Catchy.

27. What did you want and get?

A new iPod Nano. The little one. My first iPod. Yay. Happy Birthday to me.

28. What did you want and not get?

A new car, new house, furniture, new carpeting / flooring, windows, appliances, etc…

29. What was your favorite film of this year?

*crickets*

I really have no recollection of seeing a single movie this year. I know it's not possible, but i can't think of any...

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

I turned 27 this year and on my birthday i went to a bar with a mess of my co-workers which was a lot of fun. I waited there for TheBoy to return home from a Boston business trip and we went home together. Was nice.

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

A little more cash flow in order to pay some of my increasing debt in credit card land. Please help me. Have i mentioned this? Does it make you want to send me money?

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?

I don't actually have a personal fashion concept. Is that rare? Am i alone here? Business casual, still. I wear nice pants and usually a turtleneck to work just about every day in the winter. Sometimes i'll change it up with a v-neck sweater. You know, for the sexy.

33. What kept you sane?

Child-free weekends. It may sound harsh, but it's true.

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

Jim? I heart you. Call me.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

Last year this was an easy question for me. The truth is i haven't really been paying much attention this year. Seeing his face on the teevee just tends to make me angry and i turn it off. This makes me very close-minded and uninformed. I'm curious to see where the primaries take us, but until then, i barely know enough about the candidates (or assumed candidates) to take an educated interest in one particular person. Will do better here.

36. Who did you miss?

Some of my friends who have been scattered around the country. They haven't been around for a bunch of years, but i've been missing a select few of them a lot lately.

37. Who was the best new person you met?

A co-worker friend. It looks like she's going to be moving soon, but she was a good lunch-buddy this year.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.

That it is possible to live on just my measly salary if it is necessary. And that maybe change is for the better if it means your partner is not slowly stressing himself into a premature and unnecessary heart attack.

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

I’m sorry, but no. I can’t.

Alright then. There you go. I apologize for not being able to fix the wonky formatting on this list - but i don't care enough to keep trying.

A LETTER FROM THE PAST! (oh god, i'm so embarrassed.)

A couple of weeks ago, i got the bug to go through some of the things i left behind at my mother's house. Most importantly, i was looking for my journals. Journals that had been crammed into every unsuspecting corner of my bedroom, hidden in such ways that i had to remember where they all were - and there are quite a few. I was good at keeping this stuff a secret by writing in old class notebooks; at the ends when there were always a couple of sections left empty if it was from a class that didn't require much note taking. So i would fill up the remainders of spiral notebooks and then put them right on my bookshelves in plain site. Very sneaky.

The trouble in finding them, is which notebook is really just Trigonometry and which has the details of that day in my junior year when i ditched school and walked to the stores around the corner instead of the bus stop to wait, crouched in the bushes by the deli so that my mother wouldn't see me when she drove past but keep an eye out for my friends who were going to pick me up and take me to the beach? Which notebook is that filed in? Hard to tell, is what i'm saying.

So i found a couple of them, some in spiral notebooks, others in yellow legal pads which were my note taking medium of choice when i started college (the first time). Probably because they were cheap and i had no money whatsoever.

This is so not the point.

The point is: I remember a lot of this stuff being kind of racy. And the idea of leaving my teenage thoughts lying around my bedroom unsupervised had kind of given me the heebie-jeebies for, oh i don't know, ever. This is stuff Mom should never, ever see. Ever. Even when i'm 50, mom should not accidentally come across my journals. You might think i'm being dramatic, but i just don't think she could ever look at me the same. It's not worth it.

The earliest one I unearthed is from 1998 and DAMN, THE DRAMA. I turned 18 that year, and I know that this is not the first one. I know this because it starts: "August 1, 1998: I guess i'll be starting in the old math notebook now..." and if you flip towards the front, you see... oh look at that. Trigonometry. Good guess, i had up there. I was just pulling something out of my ass...

ANYWAY.

I've found some really interesting things that i probably can't share here, unfortunately. See this post about telling people i know about having a blog. Sucks. There is possibly some incriminating dirt amongst the driveling, world-weary bullshit. It truly is amazing how difficult and heart-crushing it is to be 18.

After much persistence, i was able to find the one thing that i know i can share because i wrote it. On February 13, 1992. I was 11.

Inspired by Metalia in this post, i wanted to find some kind of notes from the way back to show what was going on in my head. And then i thought of this letter that my 6th grade English teacher had us write - to ourselves. A LETTER TO THE FUTURE!

We wrote a bunch of crap that was going on in our 11 year old lives, sealed and addressed them to ourselves. They were dropped into Ms. D's file cabinet and were scheduled to be mailed out 10 years later when we least expected it. According to the postmark, i received this in June of 2000 so i'm not sure what happened there, but i have a feeling Ms. D retired and decided that she wasn't going to be responsible for dealing with this shit after she was done and just sent them all out to the world. Not important.

Ready for this? Oh god, here we go:
My comments will be italicized. Because i cannot just post this and not beat the shit out of myself. I mean, come on.

2/13/1992

Dear Claire,

Hi! How am I? {That's a little LETTER FROM THE PAST humor}.
I'm in 6th grade at [name of jr high school].

This past year, the U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) {yeah, I really spelled it out. And underlined it. Just in case} just broke up and became their own countries. That took place January 1, 1992. There was a war in the middle east last year. The Berlin Wall came down last year. {i have a strange feeling that our teacher wanted us to say all of this - i don't remember being that up on my current events at 11. not like we could miss any of this stuff, i just don't buy that this was my idea.}

Enough about news, lets talk about styles. {oh yes, lets} One of the great styles this year are overalls with one or both straps down {gah, hello, 1992. I don't even know why i would mention this since i DIDN'T ACTUALLY OWN OVERALLS. I was SO not cool.} Another are button-down shirts that have sheer sleeves {also did not have any of these} Last year and this year Z.Caverrichi's [sic] are in style. {I certainly didn't have a pair of these. WAY too expensive and mom did not understand my need to be trendy. so i wasn't. I wore jeans - Levi's, most likely - that were tight rolled at the ankle and lots of socks. Also, leggings (so flattering) and giant ugly sweatshirts to cover my ass. I believe Keds were involved.}
Music that everyone likes {everyone? really?} is really a lot of rap. {i was so misguided in the 6th grade. and a sheep. baahh.} Like Boyz-2-Men, Club Cheatin' {who? i don't think i knew who this was back then, either}, Naughty by Nature (O.P.P) {Yeah, you know me}, Marky Mark {and his Funky Bunch?}, Iced Tea [sic], Ice Cube. {This is all so contrived i can't stand it. I was actually trying to fake being cool in a letter to myself. Hello, low self-esteem!} I like Boyz-2-Men, Good Vibrations (Marky Mark), O.P.P, Deee-Light[cough, sic] and B-52's. Vanilla Ice is totally out. {Like, ohmygod, TOTALLY OUT. He was like, so LAST YEAR.}

My best friend is Laura. She is here right now helping me write this letter. {oh. that's where the music inspiration came from. Laura had older sisters. We would pretend we were homeboys. Oh yes we did. Wrapping our arms across our chests with our hands on our shoulders and lean back just a little? You know. Word to your mom. I think she has pictures} Pretty cool huh? {It certainly is.}

My two very, very good friends are Angela and Kim. {Sadly, after i wrote this letter to myself, a huge fight erupted in which i lost these two "very, very good friends". They stopped speaking to me aaannndd prevented the rest of the class from speaking to me as well. The second half of 6th grade sucked ass.}

This year the 1992 Winter Olympics are goin' on {i'm hip} in Albertville, France. {yes, they certainly were. i looked it up, just to make sure.} We have about 11 medals. (Cool, huh?) {so cool.}

Well, I better go! {I must have had a lot of absolutely nothing to go get started on. Maybe perfect my Dance Party USA moves; listen to some BelBivDeVoe}

Bye! Talk to ya later!
Claire [full name - including middle name]

And then there are some doodles at the bottom, including a BEST FRIENDS 4 EVER thing that is in Laura's handwriting, also a "Right now I like Philip [full name, including middle initial]" with his name encased in a heart. Phil sat in front of me in all of my classes. Alphabetical order was good to me that year. And lastly, this gem written by Laura: "Oh Yo! Wonder if were still best friends? I really hope so!"

To which i say, "then you shouldn't have fucked me over at Friendly's after we went to see "Fried Green Tomatoes" with Kim and Angela, eh? EH? Perhaps we would still be best friends if you didn't start telling people not to speak to me. That could have been helpful. Is all i'm saying." Meh, doesn't matter. We made up that summer. Kids.


And now this is on the innernets for all the world to see. I am so, so proud.

Superbowl and meatballs.

Nothing has changed at home and I'm still plodding along trying to stretch every dollar still in the bank account. It really sucks when you figure out that you weren't doing too badly all along, as far as income goes, and realize that you wasted a lot of money on absolutely nothing at all while the money was coming in regularly. I have nothing to show for all of the money that we threw away. That is so disappointing.

One way i'm trying to save money is by cooking a lot more often.. like every night. Which was never something I've been really inclined to do. It's not that i don't like to cook, I do. It just stresses me out a little. Planning a meal and then making sure i have all the ingredients and realizing that i don't and going food shopping almost every single night before i go home to cook is really annoying and always makes me wonder if i'm saving any money at all. I guess in the long run I am because i'm collecting ingredients but It's just so hard to tell.

And then getting home around 7:00 and making sure the meat is defrosted and trying to cook so that everything times out right and is done around the same time and I get myself stressed out over nothing, hoping above all hope that the chicken is GOOD. But TheBoy doesn't care. He very rarely tells me that something i've made is disgusting, when i know damn well that it is. I just want to be SUCH A GOOD COOK! I come from a long line of really good cooks and i need to inherit the trait from all of the Italian grandmothers in my family because I'M ITALIAN! Italians need to be good cooks or else they've failed their culture and their family.
Or so it feels.

Hey, do you guys have any easy, weeknight recipes you'd be willing to share? I'm finding that my chicken-cutlet, hamburger, meatloaf, chicken-cutlet repertoire is getting a little monotonous. I don't want to have to spend more than an hour on anything that I'm making after work and would like not to have to buy a whole basket-full of ingredients every time i cook something. Do you have anything simple? I would love to hear from you! My sanity will thank you.

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In other news, TheBoy and I have this weekend to ourselves which is always such a blessing. We normally have his kids 3 out of 4 weekends per month. This kind of arrangement, while great for the kids' parents, (their mom gets to have her weekends to herself and her fiance' and go out on Saturday nights while dad gets to see his kids as often as possible) is absolute torture on me for painfully obvious reasons. 3 out of 4 weekends a month.

But this weekend is just us! We can go out Saturday night! We can walk around the house in our underwear! Naked, even! Such luxuries! Such simple, cost-effective pleasures...

Ugh.. who am i kidding? We'll just stay home all weekend and i'll watch all of season 6 of the Gilmore Girls in my pajamas. Cause i love them and have no life.