December 31, 2010

step-ball-change and a pirouette

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
got my braces off, was unemployed for four months, applied and was accepted for a job with a major corporation, stopped going home for three to five day stretches, went to the Yukon for a day on a press junket, went to Edmonton for a weekend for work, got drunk with my counterparts at another university, went to/covered the Olympics, got a real press pass for the Paralympics, went on a five-day bender, made plans to leave this city, agreed to shoot multiple weddings, housesat, kissed someone I knew better than to kiss, made out with smokers (ew), made ice cream.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't know, I don't think I made any. This year, though, yes: get out of debt, reduce the amount of stuff I own, buy only clothing that could be worn in the last 60 years without comment.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no. Close to someone I am close to, though, yes, and that was tough.

5. What countries did you visit?
The US.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
better life balance, a partner, better financial literacy

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
New Year's and Al cuddling, the Olympics from opening to closing and all the events, parties, press conferences, and mf'ing junkets in between; the trip to Edmonton; calling Keegan to tell him he'd won a Johnny; birthday and birthday bender; the last night in Ubyssey Haus; #kmac; quiet times with Lougheed at Benny's; bears, beers, weed and rejected advances with Al, Marielle saying she had cancer, Marielle saying she beat cancer, perogy night, pride with Kristen, ice cream adventures with Kristen, seeing The National, Sufjan, Joanna Newsom

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I survived the Ubyssey, I got my braces off, and I make a damn fine ice cream.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I continue to be unable to motivate myself without a fuckton of caffeine, I lost marks to anxiety, I fucked up at the paper, I'm paying off a $7k visa bill.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Does it count as injury when you're recovering from surgery?

11. What was the best thing you bought?
the ice cream machine, but maybe boots.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
They know who they are.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
They know who they are, too.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Braces, mortgage, debt, camera gear, jaw surgery, plaid shirts.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Music, freedom from braces, working for Apple, getting closer to being totally out.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
The National, "Runaway."

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier.
b) thinner or fatter? fatter, which I'm working on.
c) richer or poorer? richer, because current job pays literally twice what the old one did (not hard, mind you.0

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Admitting, working.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Commute, settling.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
At home, getting ready for Boxing Day family gathering.

21. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Love no, like yes, crushes on dudes I work with a little.

22. How many one-night stands?
None.

23. What was your favourite TV program?
Community, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, a little Mad Men. TV's not something I consume a whole lot of anymore.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nobody new.

25. What was the best book you read?
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

honorable mentions: Zero History, Surface Matter, Excession, Momofuku, World Press Photo 2010, Oryx & Crake + The Year of the Flood.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The Wooden Sky, James Blake, and Janelle Monae.

27. What did you want and get?
A job, rid of braces, a little more normalcy.

28. What did you want and not get?
A little more freedom, knowledge that things will function at home in my absence.

29. What was your favourite film of this year?
Inception by default; I don't think I saw anything else.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
25; it was a production night, so I worked late, then drank and played chatroulette bingo, and then drank some more.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I need to go back to UBC so I can leave it.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Threadless shirts, cardigans, corduroys, plaid, and selvage denim.

33. What kept you sane?
I'm not really sure.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, mostly.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
A lot of the stuff surrounding the Olympics, homelessness as a whole, and mental/health stuff.

36. Who did you miss?
Most everyone from AUS/ACF. We seem to have grown up and apart.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
More Ubyssey kids: Arshy, Virginie, Micki and David.
A bunch of people from the Gateway, as it were, and even more from The Company.

I spent time getting to know some people a whole lot better; Kristen, Keegan, Kai, and Lucas are all people I appreciate vastly more than I did this time last year.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:
Save money. Even just a little. It'll come in handy.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Sorrow found me when I was young
Sorrow waited, sorrow won
Sorrow they put me on the pill
It's in my honey, it's in my milk

— The National, Sorrow

or

We see you trying to
Be something else that
You're not, we think you're nice

The circumstances
Of what I thought, I
Could see it now
I wouldn't be so
I wouldn't feel so

— Sufjan Stevens, The Age of Adz

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