1. What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before?
Ran a half marathon. I would have never in a million years thought I could run anything remotely like that.
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| Finished in 2:25. Laziest female to ever run a half marathon. I'm still amazed I didn't fall out. |
My resolutions last year were to keep on keepin’ on with my health kick and try to enjoy right where I am in my life without trying to think too far ahead or wish I was at some other point in my life. I wasn’t perfect at either one. I have good days and bad days. That’s life. I just do what I can. And I had more good days than bad so I’ll take it.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, nope.
5. What countries did you visit?
Sigh. No. I go a whole lot of nowhere.
6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
Upper arm strength. A smaller and dare I hope flatter Jelly Belly. A regular date night. More sleep. I like to think 2013 was my year of mileage. I ran a lot and I ran further than I ever thought I could. I like to think 2014 will be my year of muscle. As in building some. My Italian Stallion husband does Crossfit and swears by it. I've been thinking of trying it once I finish Marathon training. Yikes. Super intimidating. Must mean I need to try it.
7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
The Italian Stallion texted me in mid April to tell me his nomadic long term traveling for work was finally going to come to an end. I was in a bathroom stall at work and cried like a total loser. It wasn’t even the happiness that made me cry. It was the relief. Like I’d been holding my breath waiting for it for 7 months. I hadn’t realized I’d been doing that. The relief was overwhelming like the tide coming in and sweeping my feet out from under me. I’ll never forget it.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Holding the fort down while my husband was a nomadic long term traveler. There were days I thought I would lose my mind. I hated the feeling of us settling into being a threesome instead of a foursome. But we were. Every time it would pop into my head, I’d take a deep breath and try to put it out of my mind to think about some other time. After dropping the kids off at school in the morning I’d also mentally remind myself that the Whataburger drive thru may be comforting on difficult days but that I have to comfort myself instead. Really hard.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I’m sure I could have held the fort down better. There were difficult days where I was a shrieky, weepy mess ready for bedtime by 6pm. There were days where I was a shrieky, weepy mess torturing the Italian Stallion’s soul on the phone from a thousand miles away. I did the best I could. But I know there were days when my best just wasn’t good enough. That bums me out even though I know my best was all I could do.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I’ve had roughly 74 colds this year and several urinary tract infections. I thought being on a health kick would mean being sick less. I thought I’d repel cooties and leap tall buildings in a single bound. Even my husband has commented that I've been sick a lot recently. Out of frustration, I started taking a bazillion vitamins last month in the hopes of improving that. We’ll see.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Size 6 jeans. Such a fun moment when they zipped right up. And it never gets old when I have on a baggy pair of jeans that I can slip on and off without unbuttoning. I look at the tag sure every time it must be a size 10 and every time they’re my 8s and every time it makes me smile and feel proud of myself.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Eh. I like to think everyone had a good year because I'm naturally glass half full. But I thought my husband held up really well under hands down the most stressful year of his career. I’d have been in the fetal position and heavily medicated if it had been me. Not gonna pretend he didn’t have grumpy days. Not gonna pretend it never got to him. But I deeply admire his ability to man up on the most difficult of days and I found it inspiring to do the same and keep on trucking.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I’m pretty hard on myself so probably me. But reading the news gives me plenty to be appalled and depressed about, too.
14. Where did most of your money go?
The usual. House. Food. Clothes. Crap we don’t need.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My husband coming home. Other work related stress for my husband finally wrapping up. Our ten year wedding anniversary. And thinking about 2014 and making it a return to normal for our household.
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| These two crazy kids have been married 10 years. Go figure. |
Ho Hey by the Lumineers. We listened to the song a lot in the car. Once driving in snow while visiting the traveling Italian Stallion on the road. Once on the way to the airport while leaving him to head home again after visiting. And a million times in the car just the kids and I quietly driving through the darkness trying to keep the boat afloat without him. The Italian Stallion belonged with us. My sweetheart. And every time I heard it I would think of him. Still do.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
Happier. Definitely thinner. And about the same.
Sit ups. Muffin top in the house. And taken a vacation. A day off here and there doesn’t count. Neither does a week off at home goofing off with the kids. Fun but not the same.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Stress about stupid stuff. I rarely if ever worry about the big scheme of things because it’s just too big and huge but I’ll be darned if I don’t lose sleep trying to remind myself not to forget to pack a sack lunch for my son for his field trip to the courthouse. I’ve also worried about whether or not I have enough safety pins, buying my son pants that fit and cell phone chargers. I could go on forever. Beyond stupid.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
At home goofing off in our pjs. There was shredded wrapping paper everywhere, dogs wandering through, some bickering, some laughing and too much sugary crap. That’s our life.
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| Christmas Eve. And, yes, I do in fact look ridic. |
Really? How often can a person fall in love? How many things can a person be in love with? Not a fan of this question. But I will say my favorite thing I fell in like with this year was stepping outside my comfort zone to try new things and see where they take me. So many people focus on making big huge changes in their life. I’m not that girl. I’ve found what works for me is taking things one step at a time. One tiny change at a time. And not freaking myself out looking too far ahead. I’m easily intimidated. For example, if I started Couch to 5K thinking I was training for a marathon, I wouldn’t even have made it to the 5K finish line. One day at a time. Keep pushing.
22. What was your favorite TV program?
Breaking Bad. I’m not in danger. I am the danger. Yo.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I’m always amazed people have the time and energy to hate people. Do they not have any reality television they want to flush their time down the toilet watching? Is there not a good book waiting on their night stand? I can’t be bothered.
24. What was the best book you read?
I technically think Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
was the best overall. But the one I was really bummed to have end was the the 2nd Mara Dyer book. 
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
This implies that I discover music and I don’t. I’m perpetually 3 years behind the curve and not on the cutting edge of anything. Having said that, I’ve discovered I like a lot of Kesha and Nicki Minaj songs. I’ve discovered that I really, really like listening to This Girl is On Fire when I run. I like to think she's on a parade float following behind me while singing the song about me. I have to resist the urge to throw my hands in the air. I've also discovered that Iggy Azalea has some seriously filthy language but I like her song Work because I’m “Working on my S*#*” too.
26. What did you want and get?
My husband’s nomadic ways to finally end. I also got to the finish line at not one but 2 half marathons.
27. What did you want and not get?
A family vacation. I’m in favor of taking an entire week off once a year and going somewhere new and fun. It’s like an adventure for all of us and I think it restores our souls and bonds us as a family. Holy cow, that’s loser-ville sappy but it’s really what I think. Time away from distractions spent focused on each other is important.
28. What was your favorite film of this year?
I am officially a loser with no life. The only movie that came to mind was Frozen. Wait! I totally saw Argo, too! And it was good! So there!
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 39. It was a Tuesday. And I don’t really remember it much. I was the recipient of flowers and cards from my Italian Stallion sweetie and our two chitlins. And I probably picked where we ate dinner that night. I usually take the day off work to at least goof off and this year I didn’t even do that. I sat at my desk and in meetings and yammered about work stuff.
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| I'm going to make my children handy craft a card for me until the day I die. There is seriously nothing better they could do for me. Never fails to warm my cold black heart. |
A vacation.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
This implies I have one which I don’t. And it wasn’t until August or September that I really started buying myself new clothes that fit the smaller version of myself. I’d bought pants and jeans because you can only get away with tightening a belt so much. But I’d put off tops. It’s interesting discovering what fits me now and trying things on to figure out what I like. I’ve also started taking fashion advice from my 10 year old. The ladies at work are in favor of this and regularly compliment her choices.
32. What kept you sane?
A hot bath and a locked bathroom door. My bathtub currently has an issue and is out of commission. Sometimes I start to get mental wishing it was working and have to talk myself down from the ledge.
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Nobody. I liked Jennifer Lawrence’s Oscar acceptance speech when she fell walking up the steps. I think that was this year? Maybe. Eh. But overall I find them all very annoying. I’m especially sick of the Kardashians and more specifically all the people that are confused and annoyed that they are famous but are the same people watching their show. If you want them to go away, you need to stop watching their show.
34. What political issue stirred you the most?
The government shutdown. It was ridiculous. For many reasons. But mostly because it ultimately wasted money and that kills me. If you are going to shut the government down, you’d like to at least think it saved some taxpayer money. Except everyone that stayed home ended up getting paid. Except they got paid to stay home. If we’re going to pay them, they should work. If they’re not going to work, we shouldn’t pay them. So if you’re going to end up paying them anyway, you are idiots to not have them go ahead and work. On top of that, now the work they weren’t doing still needs to get done and it’s probably backlogged and in many cases will require paying people overtime to do what they would normally have accomplished on regular time. What the hell, people. What the hell.
35. Who did you miss?
Really? Am I supposed to have an answer for this every year? I missed my younger self with free time, no responsibilities and someone to do my laundry for me. So basically, I miss being 7.
36. Who was the best new person you met?
I met a new girl at work. I thought she was the human equivalent of a pit bull but it turned out I liked her. Just goes to show. Don’t judge a book by the one meeting where you and the book disagreed about something.
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.
Take it one day at a time. Stitch it on a pillow and then live it.
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Timber by Pitbull and Kesha. It’s more than lyrics to me. It’s become a mantra.
"It’s going down.
I’m yelling timber.
You better move.
You better dance."
1 comment:
Sounds like a pretty great year indeed. Here's to 2014!
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