2012: The Year From Here

Okay, so Mommy Wants Vodka does this end of year meme every year, and since I have posted virtually nothing this year and nothing says love like creating expectations that will never be met in your readers by posting something, here goes:

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?
Sang Fauré's Requiem.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Yes, and no. I did lose weight. But I gained it back and lost some again, so I guess I kept the resolution and then undid it and sort of kept it again. Yay, me?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
One of my cousins passed away this year. We hadn't been in touch much in recent years, but were close as children and it makes me very sad to think he's gone.

5. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
Will power, self discipline and killer abs.

6. What countries did you visit?
No international travel for me.

7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why:
June 10. The day my youngest moved to another province and I became sicker than I've ever been in my life. I don't think the two things are connected, but it was an even crappier time than usual to have both kids living thousands of kilometres away from me, when they should have been here mopping my fevered brow.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Nearly memorized all of Fauré's Requiem.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Let mistakes made by others totally throw me for a bit during the Amen of Handel's Messiah. I came in on the next entry, but really should have been able to carry on regardless.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I came down with pneumonitis on June 10, complicated by conjunctivitis about a week later. It is an illness I didn't know existed until then. I have never been so sick in my life and was an utterly useless blob of misery for two weeks, and then slowly re-entered the human race step by step over the next four weeks. Didn't really get my singing voice back until November, though. Also in November, I hopped off a bus, which previously (even on LA Law) would have been a non-event, but apparently I am sufficiently ancient that my right knee thought this an unforgiveable insult and began swelling and giving off alarming levels of heat two days later. Diagnosis: strained ligament. On December 23, I had a relapse of the mildest case of Shingles in medical history (a wee rash and mild fatigue). The fact that the longest paragraph is this meme details illness and injury firmly marks me as OLD.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
An iPad. Also the worst thing, as it is the most collossal time-waster in the world.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Both of my darling daughters who continue to impress me with their deft handling of the slings and arrows life throws at them. And for both graduating from their courses of study. Also, D1 got engaged. Woo hoo!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
No one locally. But the insistence of many of the people on this planet on treating women like less than animals continues to appall and depress me deeply. Are we the only species that treats half of itself like trash? I'm afraid we are. Top of the food chain, my eye.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Roof over head, food in tum.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
D2 managed to come home for a visit in October and again for Christmas. That was cool. Now to get D1 home for a visit again.

16. What song will always remind you of 2012?
This one. Please forgive me. And these ones. Excuse the ridiculous manga graphic. WTF?

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?  Hmmm... probably happier.

ii. thinner or fatter? Maybe 5 lbs thinner?

iii. richer or poorer? Oddly, poorer.

Okay, Meme, let me take a stab at that:
i) more or less like Justin Beaver –  Hmmm... let's see. We're both Canadian. We both like to sing. But people pay him to and would probably pay me to stop, so I think the resemblance ends there.

ii) more or less likely to decide inanimate objects looked like boobs The same. Which is to say, highly unlikely to think that, unless the object is extraordinarily boob-like.

iii) more or less likely to watch GleeThe same. I have never seen an episode and have no interest in doing so.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Going out and spending time with friends. I was a total hermit this year.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Random surfing of the Internet.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
As stated in #10 above, I had a relapse of the mildest case of Shingles in medical history. Which meant I spent Christmas morning with D2 but the rest of the day mostly alone, as I didn't want to endanger anyone whilst in the role of The Ghost of Viral Plague. I am fine with this. I long ago gave up the need to have my Christmas fit the stereotypical pattern in order to be able to enjoy it.

21. There was no #21. I don’t know why there was no 21.
Sweet! Freebie!

22. Did you fall in love in 2012?
Sadly, no.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Downton Abbey/Walking Dead On account of they're so similar.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Can’t say that I hate anyone. I am repulsed by the same people, however.

26. What was the best book you read?
I've been in a very uncharacteristic non-reading phase this year. I rather enjoyed Stephen King's The Stand, but really hate to list that kind book as the 'best.' I really have to start reading again. And documenting what I read.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Fauré's Requiem

28. What did you want and get?
An iPad.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Les Miserables. Although that other James Bond one was pretty cool. Not the one in the theatres now, the other one.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I went out to an lovely Indian restaurant with D2. And just never you mind. But it rhymes with nifty sticks.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Double-digit answer to #23.

I kid.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Whatever in my closet did not endanger, with popping buttons, passing pedestrians.

34. What kept you sane?
Sane? What is sane?

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I don't really fancy celebrities. David Tennent continues to be pretty. As does Colin Firth and Hugh Jackman. Pierce Brosnan would be visually tolerable.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The insane scientifically inaccurate propaganda regarding conception, rape, etc. during the American election. It just defied belief.

37. Who did you miss?
My daughters.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
The new people I met were all brief encounters. Got to know some newish people better and they're quite lovely.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012:
Don't hop off buses. You're too old.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
So no one told you life was going to be this way.
Your job's a joke, you're broke, you're love life's DOA.

(PS - My job is actually pretty decent, but the rest applies.)