End-of-year meme

[cosmolinguist]

[1.] What did you do in 2012 that you have never done before?
Worked locks and bridges! Went to a comic convention. Went to a costume ball -- dressed as a jellyfish.

[2.] Did you keep all of last years resolutions?
I don't do new year's resolutions because I know I'd be hopeless at keeping them.

[3.] Have you any resolutions for next year?
I don't do new year's resolutions because I know I'd be hopeless at keeping them.

[4.] What countries did you visit?
France and the Netherlands, thankfully briefly. So far. Fingers crossed for similar uneventfulness on Wednesday. I never feel like I'm visiting the U.S. so much as snapping back here as inevitably as a stretched rubber band will snap back eventually -- or just snap -- but, linguistic pedantry aside, I'm there now.

[5.] What would you like to have in 2013 that you didn't have in 2012?
The ability to see friends in farflung places that I keep swearing I'll visit, and who have been very patient with me as things continue to get in the way -- this year it was my grandpa dying.

[6.] What date in 2012 will remain etched in your memory?
I am not good at dates. Nothing stands out. I am kind of measuring time Before Job and After Job, and I started work at the beginning of September.

[7.] What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting a job.

[8.] What was your biggest failure?
Not getting the DWP to acknowledge that I am a person with any mental or physical disability.

[9.] Did you suffer any illness or injury?
Some monstrous sinus infections, and fucking up my knee on holiday (greyeyedeve was kind about lending me her walking stick...and some codeine).

[10.] What was the best thing you bought?
Plane tickets to come back for my grandpa's funeral. It sucked, but it'd have suckedf more to miss it. Plus it gave me a chance to see a baseball game at Target Field.

[11.] Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Ian Duncan Smith. Rupert Murdoch. All the Republicans and all the Labour people who complain at everything their respective governments do, criticize without having any alternative plans of their own, and block anything that might make people's lives better.

[12.] Where did most of your money go?
Rent, food, bills and plane tickets.

[13.] What did you get really really really excited about?
Andrew says I got really excited about the Sea Life Centre. And no wonder because I had a whole year to look forward to going! When we were in Birmingham for Lib Dem Conference in 2011, diffrentcolours told me how great its Sea Life Centre is and also that there's a really nice place to get ice cream. Conference was so busy for us that we didn't get a chance to visit either, so he promised he'd take me later. Just after Conference this autumn, he made good on his promise, and it was a lovely day with lovely people. And I got the best present ever, which is a giant cuddly shark (who's called Mark), the best bedtime buddy except for Andrew.

[14.] What songs will always remind you of 2012?
Probably the Monkees songs Andrew's been playing to the point that it's painful for me to listen to some of them, and the songs he likes from the Beach Boys' new album.

[15.] Compared to this time last year are you :
[A] Fatter or thinner?
I'm fatter than I think I've ever been.

[B] Happier or sadder?
Happier. Was just pondering this this morning, when writing an e-mail to my friend about how much happier I'll be to turn 31 than I was 30.

[C] Richer or poorer?
Ricker. Andrew and I are in the best-paid jobs we've ever had, and this is the first year we've been (except for still paying off our plane tickets) debt-free. He wants to change that all by buying a house as soon as possible.

[16.] What do you wish you'd done more of?
Taking care of myself.

[17.] What do you wish you'd done less of?
Staying in the house.

[18.] How will you be spending Christmas?
We're having Christmas with my dad's family on Sunday; usually it's on the day itself. So this year on Christmas Day itself I'll be bored to tears and not looking forward to flying the next day. Mom's happy we'll be "just the four of us, relaxing" but I know I'll have to play board games ill-suited to my eyesight rather than taking a nap or something.

[19.] Which LJ users did you meet for the first time?
menthe-reglisse, purplerabbits and maybe some others at BiCon, jojomojo at the most awesome beer festival ever...probably indigopirate (was that this year?)

[20.] Did you fall in love in 2012?
No.

[21.] How many one night stands?
None.

[22] What was your favourite TV show?
The Thick of It.

[23.] Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I am having increasingly strong negative feelings towards a couple of people.

[24.] What was/were the best books you read?
Andrew reading me P.G. Wodehouse at bedtime. He does great voices for Jeeves and Wooster.

[25.] What was your greatest musical discovery?
Akira the Don.

[26.] What did you want and get?
To watch a pathetic concession speech from Mitt Romney.

[27.] What did you want and not get?
Less stress for Andrew. Still working on that one though!

[28.] What was your favourite film this year?
IRON SKY.

[29.] What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
I'll be 31 tomorrow. My mom just baked me a cake. It smells really good. We'll go out to eat with my grandma and my aunt, at the same restaurant we always did because it was the only place my cranky grandpa could be lured out to eat.

[30.] What one thing would have made your year more satisfying?
A treatment for my depression that actually works.

[31.] How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Increasingly ill-fitting.

[32.] What kept you sane?
Andrew and other lovely people, plus audiobooks, Radios 4 and 6, naps and sunshine.

[33.] Which celebrity did you fancy the most?
I don't really fancy celebrities.

[34.] Which political issue stirred you the most?
The misrepresentation of the Lib Dems in the media and twitter. Far from perfect, but not the ineffectual monsters we're always made out to be.

[35.] Who did you miss?
trinker

[36.] Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned this year?
If you like the taste of pipe smoke but your eyes are overly sensitive to all smoke, a good compromise is to snog someone who's just been smoking a pipe.

Comments

[sfred]

I've drafted my one of these but daren't post it in case something important happens before 31st!

Hurray for happier.

[impoetry.livejournal.com]

OMG I loved Iron Sky. Loved the idea, how it all came about, and the execution. Good times all around.

[cosmolinguist]

I first watched it the night I found out my grandpa died so I was getting really drunk. And the friend I was with didn't know that I can't read subtitles from the distance at which a normal person can and I didn't tell him; I figured I'd get by on the tiny amount of German I know. I couldn't follow everything, but when I watched the movie again sober, I realized I'd managed to catch all the main points and understood everything -- something I often fail to do even with movies in English! I wanted to feel smug about my German comprehension but I know it's really just a sign of how well the movie was made.

[impoetry.livejournal.com]

(Sorry about your Grandpa)

Good job! Watching off the wall movies like Iron Sky, drunk, is lots of fun anyway. :)

[jojomojo.livejournal.com]

You met me ;p

[cosmolinguist]

Gah! I knew I'd be forgetting people. I was telling Andrew that the focus of this question has shifted since 2008 or whenever I first answered something like this lot of questions: now it's about who I met that I later learned had an LJ, whereas it used to be very obvious and exciting to meet LJ friends.

[indigopirate.livejournal.com]

Yes you met me this year, I first came to Biphoria in Spring although it feels so much like home it seems I've known everyone for years already :-) x

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah I thought it couldn't have been that long, but it does seem like I've known you much longer :) x