2010

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?

I bought a house! With my own money and everything! When the property tax bill comes? MY NAME IS ALSO ON IT.  Kind of a big deal: picking out and owning a house and paying for it with your own money. It's like I'm a real grown up.

(Chris bought our prior house several years before I even knew him. So, this is the first house that I got to pick out and pay for.)

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

I didn't make any formal resolutions for 2010 but I knew that I wanted to sell my house fast (we kind of did) and then after the moving crazy wore off I wanted more time for myself and I think I did fairly okay at that. Sometimes I had to really force myself to spend time doing things that only I wanted to do, but I'm glad I did.

I haven't thought about what I want to do in 2011 yet, unlike SOME ambitious people.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes! So many babies were born this year.

My friend Lorraine had a baby boy named William, Julie had a little Addison, Elizabeth had a Katherine, Kim had a Henry, Whitney had a Roman and Manda had an Elijah. Katie had Emma, Shelby had Juliet, Meghan had Amelia, Mindy had Parker, Holly had Clara, Vanessa had Darby and Sarah had twins named Alex and Jacob.

PHEW. Even though that's a lot of babies (and I'm sure I forgot a few), I bet 2011 is an even bigger list.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Thankfully, no.

5. What countries did you visit?

None. Am boring, elitist American. Stayed in-country and spent my money here. I cannot be bothered to cross the border and kerfuffle with exchanging dollars for local currency.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you didn't have in 2010?

A well-decorated home. Smaller pants. Better menu-planning skills. Fewer toys scattered about the house.

7. What dates from 2010 will be etched upon your memory, and why?

The day we found out that we're going to have another baby and that it's a girl. Those were pretty big days.

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year?

I would say that getting pregnant and creating the awesome miracle of LIFE, but that makes me sound hoity-toity so I'll say it was the day we finally decided what colors to paint the walls. BIG DEAL, that one was.

About 6 months later I'm still really pleased with our choices, which is nothing short of miraculous.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I keep coming back to this question and feeling blank, so maybe I didn't have a giant failure this year? I'm sure that's not true though.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I burned the inside of my arm with a hot cookie sheet. I had strep.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

This house. A loveseat to match our sofa. Boots. A giant tub of Cetaphil moisturizer (that sucker is going to last me forever). Fabric for my living room windows so I could make curtains and trash the ugly blinds.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

I secretly love it when Rick Perry makes the rounds on cable and starts talking about secession, even though he's kind of a weirdo with over-coiffed hair.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Any one of the hundreds of people that leave their infants and toddlers strapped in hot cars or in garages every year. I honestly can't bear to read or even hear a whisper of those stories because they make me so furious and upset.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Taxes, of course.

Isn't that where most of EVERYONE'S money goes? (Except for the people who don't pay them, which I think is wrong. Every person should be a taxpayer no matter their income level.)

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

Our trip to Maui last October.

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?

I am not a music-y person in the sense that I seek out new artists or albums. I tend to listen to the same thing over and over again which results in nothing actually standing out for 2010. 

I also listen to a lot of talk radio.  Because, you know, I am old.

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

Happier: It's trite, but with kids in your life things just seem to get better all the time.

Fatter: Hallo, I am with child.

Richer: Without getting too much into the particulars, we're having a great year.  The market not sucking has also been helpful lately.

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

I wish I'd seen some of my friends more but it's hard for me to feel TOO bad about that since it's a two way street and I seem to be the only one driving on it most of the time. I guess I've seen the people that wanted to see me and I made an effort to see the ones that I wanted to see.

Growing older and apart, outgrowing friendships, blah blah blah...I have a totally different group of friends than I did ten years ago and I think it's time for me to move on and drop it like everyone else seems to have already done.

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

Washing clothes and then letting them sit in the laundry basket or in a heap on the floor for three weeks.

Opening a yogurt at someone's specific request, only to see her refuse to take a single bite.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

At home and totally stressed out and exhausted from being a control freak because there were people in my house trying to help me cook and clean (GASP! CAN YOU IMAGINE?) and I was like STOP HELPING ME ALREADY because if there's one thing a control freak can't handle it's someone else doing things for her that are out of her immediate control and supervision.

Do they make pills for control freaks?  No, seriously, do they?  Pills that solve the controlling tendencies but don't make you high and spacey?  I would like to NOT be the kind of person who has a very nice husband and brother that volunteer to clean up a shattered pyrex that was in a million shards and slivers on Christmas Day and all I could think was,

"I bet they didn't get all the glass, I should get my 5-months-pregnant self on my hands and knees and inspect the floor, and maybe mop, before I continue with any dinner preparations and really I should never have let them clean it up in the first place because I can't supervise the cleaning if I don't do it myself."

GAHHHHH. (They got all the glass. I did not get on my hands and knees. I thanked them.)

21. Did you fall in love in 2010?

If a person can fall in love with Mint Milano cookies, then yes.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

This is SO NERDY but my favorite show that I tape every day is NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

What? Brian Williams is one good-looking guy. He is particularly handsome in HD. It's not unusual for this to be the only half hour of television I watch in any given day.

(When he is on TV Claire will sometimes say, "Look Mommy! Bwyan on teevee!" What can I say? He's a fixture in our lives.)

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

I'll tell you who I don't like very much: the neighbor kid who plays basketball in his driveway at 10pm. THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP

24. What was the best book you read?

This list is just getting more and more mortifying, but I read all of the Sookie Stackhouse books and they were totally awesome.  I even considered adding the boxed set to my Christmas list so I could have them to read over and over again because one round of trashy vampire lit isn't enough for me.

Attention New York Times! Hire me to write the book review column! I am attracted only to highbrow literature!

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Does anything Elmo sings count?

26. What did you want and get?

A new house. An iPhone 4 (which, MEH). A new fridge and dishwasher. A toaster oven. A coffee pot. A new TV for the upstairs.

I'm a domestic dork, aren't I?

27. What did you want and not get?

A good haircut.  Seriously, I had all that lovely long hair and I tried to get it cut into something cute and it was a complete disaster. Haven't been to get my hair cut since then and only recently have my bangs grown out to an acceptable length.

A new washer and dryer.

28. What was your favorite film of 2010?

I really did like Inception.  It was mind-twisty enough for me to be entertained and not at all scary. (I haaaate scary movies.)

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

I turned 31 in 2010 and I spent my birthday flying home from a ski trip in Breckenridge.

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

A giant pile of tax-free cash. Isn't that everyone's answer to this question? I know money doesn't buy happiness but dude, it sure does fix a lot of immediate problems.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2009?

"Does this fit? Does it not ever need to be ironed? Does it make me look halfway decent? Can I wear it to work AND on the weekends? Is it comfortable like pajamas? Is it on sale?  Hmmm, okay, I'll buy it."

32. What kept you sane?

The internet. You. I don't know how people parented before the internet. Really, I have no idea.

33. What political issue stirred you the most?

To be very honest I tried to keep my head out of this kind of thing in 2010. After the election in 2008 and then the ensuing Congressional Crapfest in 2009 I was getting so wrapped up in every little thing they did wrong (which was a LOT of things) and it was making me SO ANGRY. 

I follow my Congressman on Twitter and I get his emails and I want to go to a town hall meeting this year that he hosts. I keep up with my Senators, but truthfully my Congressman kicks way bigger ass than they do. I make sure I know what things will impact me but I try not to get too involved in the rest of it because it seriously just elevates my blood pressure and yes I know that we all get a vote and a voice and you can make a difference but right now, for me, the trade in stress isn't worth the ding of "difference" I might make.

I have been choosing to spend more time on People.com and busy myself with what Sandra Bullock is up to rather than Nancy Pelosi.

34. Who did you miss?

I still miss Tim Russert. Sunday mornings just aren't the same.

35. Who was the best new person you met?

My midwife.

36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.

It's a lesson that I seem to keep attempting to learn, but I should stop sweating the small stuff. (In other words, stop being a control freak.) Claire will not be little forever, this might be the last time that I'm pregnant, I only get one chance at this moment and fretting about my Worry Of The Day is stupid. STUPID.

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

The road goes on forever and the party never ends.

Comments

[HereWeGoAJen]

Okay, so I've found another one of US on the internet and we agreed yesterday that we would take turns going to each other's house and keeping all the people out of the kitchen. I'll add you to our club. I do not like help in the kitchen. People GET IN MY WAY. Because seriously, when I cleaned up the kitchen, it took me twenty minutes. And when I cleaned up the kitchen the next day after my mother-in-law "cleaned" up the kitchen, it took me forty-five minutes. Just get out of my way people and stop saying "Jen, what can I do to help?"

[Holly]

Wait a bit on that new washer and dryer if you go with the cloth diapering of new baby. I've read the ancient ones work much better. Water saving? Psh. Maybe when I'm only washing giant teenager pants and such.

[Jennie]

Good lyric choice :)

[Raven]

Still liking paint colors is a major deal!

[meghan]

I love this, can I steal it?

[craftyashley]

"I know money doesn't buy happiness but dude, it sure does fix a lot of immediate problems."

- best sentence ever. HA!

[Dr. Maureen]

A'Dell, if I didn't already like you I'd say you won me over with the talk radio confession. Because it's all I listen to ever. Did you ever hear Brian Williams on NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me? See if you can find it online.

[Katie]

AW, A'Dell. I am probably waaaaay more pleased than I should be that I made your list of "people close to you that had babies." Seriously, the way that made my day might be considered pathetic by someone who doesn't know how much our internet friends come to mean to us.

#18 really resonated with me, because I have been battling a bit of this for the past few weeks. I have been trying too hard to hold on to friendships that are SO clearly over. There was no drama, just life moving everyone along, and I have a hard time letting go. But trying to force something to work that isn't meant to be is just frustrating and ruins the good memories of the friendship when it WAS good. I wish us both luck moving forward in 2011.

All in all, my friend, it's been a kick @ss year. I look forward to this next year being even more amazing.

[jonniker]

Dude. Brian Williams is my celebrity boyfriend and the ONLY news I will watch. And TIM RUSSERT. You know, I hate that all this political brouhaha happened after he died. I hate that he missed this. I hate that he's missing the Tea Party and Obama and all the lunatics, and I just get sad sometimes, because he would have loved this, and he, of all people, would have gotten to the truth.

[Mel]

Sounds like a pretty marvelous year to me! I am so glad it was so awesome for you. The house and paint this IS PRETTY freaking phenomenal. Moving alone is enough of an accomplishment for the entire year.

I hate people in my kitchen. I cannot stand attempting to trust anyone to cook or clean in there so I don't. We also had a bit of an accident shattered a massive glass vase on to the FRIEZE CARPET in the family room (said vase hit the side of the fireplace, but said shatter managed to spray the entire floor area of the carpeted room). I am still having nightmares about L finding the glass with her feet in that thick carpet. I trusted J to clean it up because he didn't want me to cut myself but I am having nightmares about it at night STILL.

2011? NEW BABIES! Yay!