2017 Year in Review

I didn’t have high hopes for this year, but it actually turned out to be worse than I even anticipated. I did, however, address some serious underlying dysfunctions in my life. Basically, I think there’s only one way to go from here, and it’s up. I don’t even want to commemorate this year, but it’s tradition, so I am going to anyway. Seriously though, I am so DONE with this year.

1. What did you do in 2018 that you'd never done before?
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. In theory, anyway.

 2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My New Years resolution was “Create the life you want.” I did NOT even remotely approach doing this. Actually, components of my life that I very much wanted to keep went away. My word of the year was “Rooted,” and I did a much better job with that. I learned a lot about myself and my origins, although it was frequently a really difficult, painful process. My New Year’s resolution for 2018 is “Grow every day.”

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No. Sorry if I forgot about your baby, though.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Eliot's grandfather died.  Frey the cat also died, but we were not close at the time of death.

 5. Did anyone close to you get married?
I don’t think so. Next year.
EDIT:  Actually, Sarah got married but I forgot because it was an elopement, and also it is being celebrated next year.

6. What countries and/or states did you visit?
Florida, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont en route to Canada, New York, California, Nevada, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa

7. What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017?
Serenity and joy

8. What date from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 20, which was one of the worst days of my life, and the inauguration of the president was barely even the reason, although that certainly didn’t help.

9. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Presenting parts of my dissertation at ESS and ASA

10. What was your biggest failure?
I really wanted to make a zine, and I didn’t.

11. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I hurt my ankle badly enough that I had to have a walking cast for six weeks. This was one of the absolute most important learning experiences of my life.

12. What was the best thing you bought?
My celestite crystal

13. Whose behavior merited celebration?
The ACLU, and anyone who protested social injustice/the current administration

14. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The president and his administration. Every day. In baffling, shocking, and horrifying ways.

15. Where did most of your money go?
Paying off my student loans

16. What did you get really, really excited about?
I’m excited about next year. I am going to California, to SWEDEN, to approximately 300 weddings, and adult summer camp.

17. What song will always remind you of 2017?
Your Best American Girl by Mitski

18. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? At this exact moment, I would say “substantially sadder but more optimistic.” I spent most of the year in a pile of doom on the floor.

ii. thinner or fatter? I am, in terms of weight, slightly thinner, but achieving this was a MUCH bigger mental battle than I think anyone really knows.

 iii. richer or poorer? Richer

19. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Contributing to society

20. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Attempting to navigate my life with a puncture wound in my soul

21. How did you spend Christmas?
Church, brunch, presents, sending messages that did not meet my personal standards of excellence because I had limited access to the Internet/data connectivity.

22. What did you dress up as for Halloween?
I was a good witch AND a bad witch. Specifically, as a good witch, I was Galinda from Wicked because homegirl and I have a lot in common.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
The Handmaid’s Tale/Black Mirror/Bojack Horseman/Broad City

24. Who was the best person you met this year?
JJ

25. What was the best book you read?
Broken Open by Elizabeth Lesser, with an honorable mention for Pussy: A Reclamation by Regena Thomashauer

26. What were your greatest musical discoveries?
I just realized that I had very few musical discoveries. There were a lot of new albums by bands that I previously loved. Mitski, Diet Cig, Palehound, and Jen Cloher were all new this year, though. In February, I considered changing my Facebook relationship status to “In a Relationship with Mitski’s music”

27. What did you want and get?
I got to travel a lot.

28. What did you want and not get?
I wanted to see Courtney Barnett in concert. That’s my sugarcoated answer to this question.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Lady Bird and Cloud Atlas (even though it’s not from this year, it had an extremely defining impact on the year)

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I went to the beach, texted everyone I knew, cried, wrote some of the article I never finished (I really should finish it), went to Panera for lunch. I was 36.

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

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017?
Witchy and forever dark blue

33. What kept you sane?
Meditating, reading, lighting candles, performing rituals, my crystals, traveling, yoga and sun salutations, physical therapy, going to the gym. Also, major thanks to OOchie for listening to me rant, like, a lot.

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

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
All of them. Probably the Muslim ban though.

36. What bands did you see in concert this year?
Biffy Clyro (x3), Muse, The Dresden Dolls, Mitski, Save Ferris, Daddy Issues, Diet Cig, The Pretty Reckless, Palehound, Lucy Dacus, Deerhoof, Slyvan Esso, Migos, Sigur Ros, Mumford and Sons, Frightened Rabbit, Weezer, a very small amount of Tool, Alt-J, Garbage, Blondie, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Steve Aoki, St. Vincent, The Dead Deads, Seether. I did NOT see The Silversun Pickups. I also missed a Joy Formidable acoustic show because that was the day I hurt my ankle.

37. What was your favorite moment of the year?
I’m going to list a few because just, I need to. Watching the moon set over the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, visiting Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens when it was 75 degrees in February, getting in the pool for a synchronized swimming practice, visiting the sculpture garden in Washington DC, seeing the ballet Sleeping Beauty with my kids, the Summer of Love exhibit in Montreal, playing Therapy the board game with Eliot in New York, reading in Wendy’s very Californian back yard, eating a vegan dinner at an open air patio in Pasadena, drinking cava on a roof with a pool LA, walking on the boardwalk in Santa Monica (so, like, Wendy’s bridal shower), seeing O at the Bellagio, dancing in a pool in Las Vegas, randomly ending up at a Steve Aoki concert (so, like, Wendy’s bachelorette party), visiting the desert, the third Biffy Clyro show. Life brings me to good places, and I really need to remember that.

38. What was your least favorite moment of the year?
My least favorite moment of the year was the day of the inauguration. Runners up included the day I protested the Muslim ban, March 1 when I thought I broke my ankle but it was just a bad sprain, June 20-21 (the summer solstice), the day of Hurricane Maria, the morning of Thanksgiving.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017.
Self-care is more important than self-comfort.

40. Quote some song lyrics that sum up your year:
Quiero desnudarte a besos despacito
Firmo en las paredes de tu laberinto