My Year in Review 2009

I'm on my second year doing it. Go, me. Questions stolen fair and square from All & Sundry who does them every year:

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Left my kids for two whole weeks. Took the kids to Sesame Place. Watched my kid graduate from Kindergarten and start First Grade. Pretended to be the tooth fairy. Sheesh are these boring. I seriously need to try some new things. Can I count inventing Headband Night?

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Apparently one of my resolutions for this year needs to be to try some new things so I'll have a better answer for #1. I'm also planning to drop a few pounds. I know. Everyone says that. Whatever. And I didn't make any resolutions last year so there were no resolutions to keep.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
None. As always. My passport may very well expire without ever having been used.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A new house. A regular date night with a regular babysitter.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Kindergarten graduation. It was massive to me.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I've continued to do really well at work. I solidified my position as my boss' right hand. Except then she got moved. But even that led to something positive because my new boss was out of the office for over a month and I was the one picked to take his place the whole time. I liked being recognized as the obvious choice to fill his shoes but even more I just plain like being in charge. It was also good practice for the next two promotions I fully intend to get. It's just a matter of someone retiring or dying so they can get out of my way.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not walking more.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Lots of colds. Scratchy throat, laryngitis and then full blow colds. Repeatedly.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Blackout curtains for the bedroom rock fairly hard. The Roku digital player that I bought to go with our Netflix subscription was above average awesome. But the laptop is by far the best. So. Handy.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? That captain that landed in the Hudson River. Seriously. You go guy. The kids that gave up the baby for adoption on 16 & Pregnant really lingered with me, too. Impressive.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

The parents of the those same kids that gave up the baby for adoption on 16 & Pregnant. Like giving a baby up for adoption isn't hard enough already, why can't your parents just get with the program and support you? I started watching Teen Mom which is the show that follows up with a bunch of the kids later and their parents were still giving them a hard time about giving the baby up for adoption. But it's a done deal. They can't go back. So why the hell are you trying to make them feel guilty. Keep your mouth shut if you can't say anything nice.

14. Where did most of your money go?
The house and the kids school. Feeding and clothing our offspring was a pretty penny too.

15. What did you get really excited about?
I get pretty enthused about planning vacations, shopping for my kids for holidays and coming up with new ideas at work. I did all of those this year. But my daughter's Kindergarten graduation had me ridiculously excited.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009? I Know You Want Me by Pittpull. It's a good thing tracks on your iPod don't wear out from frequent play.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Happier or sadder: Sadder. Nothing specific about it. I just don't think it's real when people act like they get happier and happier every year. Eventually that's just not legit. I think last year I was a little happier. Maybe I'm wrong. Whatever.
Thinner or fatter: Fatter
Richer or poorer: Richer

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Taken the day off to goof off. Slept late more. Deposited my children at other people's homes and driven away until the next day.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Procrastinated getting things done. Waited around on my husband.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
At home with family surrounded by shredded wrapping paper with dogs wandering by and children climbing into my lap.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
No. Already there and happily stalking him around the house. This answer isn't very exciting if you're married.

22. What was your favorite TV program? Currently, it's The Office. But Modern Family is really growing on me. And this season of Survivor was particularly good even though Russell got robbed. New shows I discovered and have been sucked into this year (thanks to Netflix!) include Mad Men, Dexter, Weeds and Entourage.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No.

24. What was the best book you read?
I guess Middlesex. Really interesting. I also really liked The Middle Place, Love the One You're With, Dry and Swallow the Ocean.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
My taste in music is like a little slice of Wonder Bread if Wonder Bread was Top 40 radio. This shouldn't come as a surprise given that I only got an Ipod last year. Songs I bought on iTunes this year and played over and over and over and over again include the Pitbull song I mentioned above, Sober by Pink, Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You which I listened to approximately 379 times and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga which I've had trapped inside my head reverberating for the last 3 days and The Search is Over by Survivor which is in no way a musical discovery on my part but such a lovely song to listen to while aimlessly on the freeway.

26. What did you want and get?
A laptop.

27. What did you want and not get?
A new house.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It lingered with me for several days after I saw it. But The Hangover made me laugh out loud. Believe it or not my husband and I saw it in an actual movie theater and when we walked out into the afternoon sunlight it felt like it had changed our day from blah to yeah! I love when a movie does that.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
35. Took the day off. Spent the morning in my pajamas, visited my mom in the hospital for lunch, dinner out and cake with my husband and kids.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Selling our house.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
In order to describe my personal fashion concept I'd actually need a personal fashion concept. My life is one big personal fashion concept vaccuum. As an example, I currently spend 82% of my waking hours wearing some kind of black pants.

32. What kept you sane?
The lock on the bathroom door. And the little space heater I like to turn on so that people that like to have conversations through the door will go away. Speaking of which, that space heater broke last month and we got a new one that's practically silent. I'm sure that's a selling feature for 99% of the population but someone should tell the manufacturer that there should be a "drown out the racket your children produce" setting.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I'd say Brad Pitt except he currently has a shrub growing off his face which is sucking every last drop of desirability out of his body. I tend to have fleeting affections for celebrities based on having seen them in something recently therefore I currently like Daniel Craig (Just watched Casino Royale), Clive Owens (Just watched Duplicity) and Dane Cook (Just watched Isolated Incident and funny always ups the attractiveness ante).

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
The economy. I feel lucky to have a good job.

35. Who did you miss?
Friends mostly. And my husband everytime he left the house for more than 3 hours. My brother also did a lengthy stretch without a visit and we all missed him a lot. And I'm not just saying that because I know he cyberstalks me via my blog.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Um.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
Go on every field trip. Feed your kid on time. And as soon as things are clicking on all cylinders at work, the powers that be will feel the need to take one of the cylinders out and put it somewhere else. You won't realize how well your engine was operating until you get a new cylinder and it doesn't really fill the gap left by the other cylinder.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"I feel as empty as a drum
I don't know why I didn't come." Norah Jones