40 Questions for 2011

I've always been a little slow on the uptake when it comes to being on time for things (in certain avenues of my life), so don't be surprised this list isn't showing up until now. I happened to read this list on my friend DJ's blog at http://martiandanceinvasion.blogspot.com, and thought it would be fun to re-count my last year - even though it's a little late.

  

01.  What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?

Fell utterly, completely, head over heels in love. 

Mike and I, at our crew Halloween party, where I dressed as Miss Argentina from Beetlejuice and he dressed as Mario.

02.  Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t typically have new years’ resolutions, so I can’t say I kept or didn’t keep any. This year, I’d just like to maintain the life I’ve been working so hard to build over the past few, and just stay happy. That’s all I’d really like.

03.  Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nope.

04.  Did anyone close to you die?

Nope.

05.  What countries did you visit?

None. The farthest I traveled for a trip was Green Bay, WI – my homeland, which is a drive of about two hours.

06.  What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

A bigger apartment! And as it turns out, I’m getting one on March 1.

07.  What date from 2011 will remain etched in your memory, and why?

There are a few, for sure. For one, the date of the surgery I had in October (10/17/11), and my anniversary date (10/15/11).

08.  What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Transferring out of a job I absolutely could not stand in order to start from scratch 100% in an area I knew nothing about, and being incredibly successful at it. I went from being a secretary to working in auto parts in a matter of months, and I’m having an absolute blast.

09.  What was your biggest failure?

I don’t believe in failures. I can’t think of one thing I didn’t try my best at all year – and sometimes things just don’t go as planned. But I certainly don’t feel like I ‘failed’ anywhere.

10.  Did you suffer illness or injury?

In October, I had surgery to remove a Stage 1 melanoma that I found inside of one of my tattoos. That was one of the scariest moments I’ve had in a long while, for sure.

11.  What was the best thing you bought?

I can’t really pinpoint anything specific that I bought for myself. Once and awhile, I like to take extra money and spend a little bit on myself here and there for some new clothes, makeup, or something like that. I also paid a lot of debt back this year, and my credit score is definitely better off for it.

12.  Whose behavior merited celebration?

The men and women responsible for the Alford plea that freed the West Memphis Three after nearly 20 years behind bars.

13.  Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Scott Walker. As a public employee, I’m living first hand with the changes he’s made, and let me tell you – it sucks.

14.  Where did most of your money go?

Bills and paying back old debt. It’s difficult to not have a lot of extra, but when I think about the fact that I’m improving my life, making up for old mistakes, and carving out a future for myself, not having extra money seems pretty alright.

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

My new work opportunity, my new relationship… all of the above. I’m finally becoming the person that I’ve always wanted to be, and it’s a wonderful feeling.

16.  What song will always remind you of 2011?

I hate questions like this, because I can never think of a single song that encompasses a whole year. This time, though, I can say that The Loved Ones’ “Distracted” got enough listens to merit reminding me of this year.

17.  Compared to this time last year, you are:

a.       Hotter or colder? Prettymuch the same.

b.      Fatter or thinner? See above.

c.       More active or lazier? See above.

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

Being active.

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

Toward the beginning of the year, drinking – once I curbed that and changed things for the better, I haven’t looked back.

20.  How will you be spending/did you spend Christmas?

Mike and I spent Christmas Eve in Green Bay with my family for dinner, and Christmas Day in the morning with my extended family and evening with his. It made for a very long day, but it was good to be able to make the time to see everyone.

21.  Did you fall in love in 2011?

That I did.

22.  How many one-night stands?

Zero.

23.  What was your favorite TV program?

Sons of Anarchy, bar none. I started watching it via renting season 1 from the library early in the year, got hooked, and wound up watching all three existing seasons before season 4 started this past year.

24.  Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Not that I can think of.

25.  What was the best book you read?

Currently reading “My Horizontal Life” by Chelsea Handler via Kindle.

26.  What was your greatest musical discovery?

In late summer/early fall I really re-discovered punk music, so I’d say that counts. I’ve been staying pretty close to the music I know lately, since new music (especially music on the radio) is absolutely awful. I’ve also taken to unabashedly falling back in love with ridiculous music from the 90’s.

27.  What did you want and get?

I’ve wanted a Nintendo Wii for years, but never had the extra money laying around to actually buy one. I told Mike this while we were shopping on Black Friday and opened one up for Christmas!

28.  What did you want and not get?

I try not to want for much.

29.  What was your favorite film of this year?

Pretty sure it doesn’t count, but The Other Guys was pretty great. I haven’t been to the movies in a long time.

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

Since my birthday was on a Saturday this year, I had a Friday night dinner and bowling with friends in Milwaukee, and spent Saturday night drinking my face off in Green Bay. I turned 26 – or rather it was my 5^th annual 21^st birthday.

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

Thinking about it, I’d say I had a pretty successful, satisfying year.

32.  How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

Jeans, t-shirts, shades of gray and black. I’d say that about covers it.

33.  What kept you sane?

Knitting, new friends, and new opportunities. Oh yeah, and my cats.

34.  Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I try not to get too wrapped up in the celebrity world.

35.  What was your favorite video game of the year?

It has been such a long time since I’ve played any new video games, I really couldn’t say – after I got my Wii, though, I started playing Cooking Mama again, which is pretty ridiculous in and of itself.

36.  Who has made the most cameos in your dreams this year?

To be honest, I don’t dream all that often, and none of them stick out.

37.  Who did you miss?

In quitting drinking for the most part, I’m not up in Green Bay as often as I once was, so I miss my friends there and my family, for sure.

38.  Who was the best new person you met?

My boyfriend, Mike. By a landslide.

39.  Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:

Drinking isn’t everything, and finding friends to rely on has helped me more than I can explain.

40.  Quote a song that sums up your year:

The Limousines’ “Get Sharp”.

Work and writing.

When I get off work, I want to run like hell some days. I feel like I spend eight hours a day like a square peg being shoved into a round hole. Most days, I have absolutely dick to do in the time between 8 AM and 4:45 PM - and it's not that there isn't work coming in, but when you type a hundred words a minute there probably isn't an office that can keep you elbow deep in work. At least I know mine can't. My fallback is data entry, and the one day I tried spending the entire eight hours doing it I found myself nearly passing out at my desk all afternoon. Real classy. "Hey, Liz, you got some drool on your chin, there.."

Not that I'm getting all 'Office Space' on the whole thing, but it's getting hard to take anything about this job seriously anymore. I don't make enough money to keep myself afloat, I don't have a real reason to care... I've been told from day one that I'm essentially disposable, so why work my ass off? Some days I just wake up with the best intentions, look over at a drawer of nice dress clothes versus a pair of jeans with studded belt and a sweater, say "fuck it", and wear jeans and tennis shoes on days that aren't Friday. We don't really have a dress code that anybody sticks to - this means you, 55 year old man who wears jeans and various Star Wars, Pink Floyd and Devo t-shirts all the time... hell, he came in in a Sulu yellow Star Trek uniform shirt once. Not even kidding. So the fact that the department's office assistant is a heavily tattooed bitch on wheels isn't a huge problem. Which, in a world where some heavily tattooed individuals take the 'high road' of filing for federal disability so they don't have to work... should feel like an accomplishment, right? Meh.

Definitely did not see myself rotting away in offices as I was growing up. I had fleeting thoughts of how awesome it would be to be a writer, a librarian, or, for chrissakes, a professional wrestler (we aren't all smart in third grade).... and you know what? I sat down at a computer in about fourth grade, got good at it, and now look at me. One of the faceless yes-men trudging into an office every day. Fuck. How did it happen? I did attempt college a few years back - for an Associate's degree in Funeral Service (I figured hell, I like animals more than I like people and I've helped put animals down so hanging with dead people can't be too bad...) until I couldn't pass the simplest damn biology class the school offered. That was the world telling me "Liz! Go back to being a writer, you idiot!" So I attempted 19 credits per semester while working 40 hour work weeks in order to obtain my Associate of Arts. Guess what happened with that? Yep. Burned out. Quit. And not just a little bit - in the 'oh my god, if I go to one more class, get sexually harassed by one more fucking biology teacher, if my boss won't get off my ass about my hours, when's the last time I slept?' gonna-blow-your-brains-out kind of quit. Total shutdown.

After that, I decided work was going to be it, for 'awhile'. I always told myself at about 19 that I would be self-reliant on writing by time I hit 25. Didn't seem too tall an order, things were looking up... yeah, until that whole burnout thing happened, leading to me moving back into my parents' basement and still clawing myself up five years later. No, I've never had a clear-cut idea of what I want. I've never been able to look at my life and say that, definitively, I needed to do anything but write. It's been the only constant. And guess what? I've been ignoring the itch for about two years or so as it stands right now.

Right now, the damn itch has turned into the plague, the 'Pox, whatever you want to call it, and instead of ignoring all the goofy ideas that float into my head every day, I'm opting to put them down, put them on a blog, and make a total jackass of myself for the world to see! Hey, at least it won't just be me feeling like a jackass in my head anymore... right? And maybe, just maybe, it'll get me one step closer to not rotting away in an office for the best years of my life. Summer's coming, after all.

What do you hate about what you do for money?