The Land of Squee

Well hi.  I honestly have been reminding myself to do this questionnaire for a while but I kind of forgot it was meant for the "end of the year" rather than the beginning of a new year so, whoops.  Maybe I'll do the 2017 one right, ya know, if America still exists and the Russians haven't used their amazing lj intel to delete the internet or whatever people are whining about on tumblr.

My previous end of year quizzes are also hosted on Russian servers lj here: 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. Although frankly my lj is in such a state that I'm pretty sure the last few of those are like, the most recent posts on this journal.

1. What did you do in 2016 that you'd never done before?
I became an official member of the UU, I worked a part-time job while also having a full-time job (and in that vein, successfully waited tables!), lived a full adult year of my life in NC, purchased furniture and clothes exclusively at Goodwill, gave away my own pets, got a speeding ticket, hired a lawyer, went to the Renaissance Festival

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
last year I resolved to work more OT, get back on HabitRPG (now Habitica) and exercise, and I kept all of those resolutions (including an exercise routine 3 times a week) up until June, when I started the part-time job and everything in my non-work life (what little there was of it) went to shit. So for this year, I'm starting up exercise and Habitica again and, new resolution, never going more than nine miles over the speed limit EVER.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Actually yes! Stacyfacy had this really smushed baby a month ago and I'm happy she's happy but I just don't see the appeal?

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Was it this year that Immy died?  Yeah, my first ever gerbil, Imriel formerly known as Skeletail, poor baby.  He got a stomach tumor and started having seizures and it was one of the worst nights of my life.  It was late at night and only emergency vets were open and they were quoting over a hundred dollars to euthanize the poor baby, so I found a tutorial online how to use plastic bags and a tube (I used part of the handle of my swiffer) and vinegar and baking soda to create a carbon dioxide chamber and peacefully put your small pet to sleep?  Man it was awful, but he was at peace after that.  Oh, and also Democracy in my state AND my country, those are dead.  And lots of celebrities.

5. What countries did you visit?
Not only did I not leave the country, I barely left the STATE in 2016. I live on the SC border so I pop down there to get cheap gas whenever I'm tight on funds, and my family took a SC camping trip in June or July, but other than that I bounced between Charlotte and my hometown.  Wait no.... no, for my birthday week I did take a trip to NYC, so I left the area once.  I took a train up with my mom and it was really fun.

6. What would you like to have in 2017 that you lacked in 2016?
A HOUSE and to pay off my car

7. What dates from 2016 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Tuesday, November 8th and you know why.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Probably holding down the two jobs for so long.  It was a weird year, like I'm even having trouble remembering what happened this year and what was other years...

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not being able to get a house when my lease came up in November I guess, also the fuckin election results which I am taking very personally. I also couldn't afford to go back to NYC in October to see Hamilton even though Kelley (an angel) was offering me a free ticket so that freakin sucked. But I still had the week off so I went to the beach with my family instead and that was fun.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Ohhh yeah, so in 2015 I mentioned the pinched nerve?  Well that thing hit the fan in the first half of the year!  My whole right side was in screaming pain all the time, and just sitting in a car hurt so bad I would just be howling as I drove down the road.  God.  But my amazing chiropracter sorted me out after many, many $30 copays that eventually got me into credit card debt (along with the NYC trip in April) and forced me to take the Ruby Tuesday job

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Gotta be either my car (an adorable 2013 Yaris that I call the YARDIS) or this sectional couch I'm lying on right now that was only $120 at Goodwill and is the best couch ever.  The WORST thing I bought was a gerbil named Queequeg to replace Immy who turned out to be a DEMON so I took him back after 15 days and exchanged him for a while gerb named Pearl who is very nice but also won't be Ikki's friend, so now Ikki and Pearlie are in two different cages and I just shove toys at them all the time to try to make them forget that they might be lonely

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
my mom listened to a lot of complaining this year and by the end of the year I'm left feeling like she's my only close friend again, cause though I still love Kelley, she was lucky enough to find an amazing girlfriend and move on with her life, and my other two really close friends have been either busy or sorta nonresponsive lately.  Also, state senator Jeff Jackson and our new governor Roy Cooper.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
the voting public?  Putin?  Idk it's been a weird year

14. Where did most of your money go?
Other than paying off that credit card, I managed to buy a fancy desktop computer (my "new" laptop is literally falling to pieces, like I can't even close it anymore because a hinge popped out of joint or something), and I guess my biggest purchase was a plane ticket to Paris for this coming March.  The groupie in me isn't dead yet, and I figured I needed to see Paris again and also Flo just happens to be doing a concert that week so... ya.  But my savings are okay actually!  Not "ready to buy a house" okay but they are "my tax return might go entirely to my car payment" okay.  And I haven't touched the credit card since Ruby Tuesday

15. What were you really, really, really excited about?
Um. Well.  I was really excited about my job at the top of the year but that company broke my spirit halfway through the summer, so here at the end of the year I managed to transfer to the new company splitting out of MetLife, Brighthouse, and we'll see how that goes.  I start Tuesday.  I was really excited about the beach trip with the family and it was a lot of fun!  I was really excited to adopt guinea pigs but that didn't turn out well.  I was excited about my church friends but they ended up being flawed human beings so I became really internally critical of them.  I feel like everything I WAS excited about went to shit but that might just be residual election PTSD.

16. What song will always remind you of 2016?
the entire Moana soundtrack I guess?  That was my big revelation this year.

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

a) Happier or sadder? I hate to say I'm not happier, because I still have all the things I ever wanted, but I think a lot of stuff started to sour this year, like the job and my financial situation and whatnot.  It wasn't a particularly bad year on a personal level, but the politics really hurt me

b) Bigger or smaller? I don't think I gained that much weight throughout the course of 2016, but I still feel like I should be the weight I was in NYC (or worse, the weight I was in Paris), so I had a really bad year for body positivity

c) Richer or poorer? Richer apparently, my savings were up to $3K for a minute there before I bought that plane ticket, and I did manage to get a raise at MetLife in November (which came right about the time I quit RT) so I'm in a better place, I just wish I could get rid of at LEAST the car payment so I can focus in on my student loans.  But the one in my name finally dropped below $30K this year!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
I wish I'd gotten more involved in the community and more involved in the election.  I should have donated and knocked on doors and stuff.  I had no idea how bad it was, I just trusted

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
I mean, I wish I could have worked less and been to church more, but I needed the money and I guess I'm a little proud of how I was able to keep those two jobs for so long.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Got to spend the entire weekend with my family.  There's a new pastor at the old Lutheran church where we grew up and the Christmas Eve service was just wonderful!  Plus I caught my first Santa hat Pikachu there lol

21. How many one-night stands?
Zero one-night stands.  I did have sex one time but my body insecurity was so bad I had an upset stomach all day afterward so I insisted on sleeping on the couch after that until he left and then I just felt really guilty about it

22. Did you fall in love in 2016?
A huge crush I've had for years has been slowly dying throughout the course of this year and I wish it would hurry up and go because she is only stringing me along to make herself feel good

23. What was your favourite TV programme?
STAR TREK. This was the year I spent watching every Star Trek ever and it is my life now.  Bones is my father, Kira Nerys is my wife, Worf is my husband, Alexander and Trip Tucker are my sons shh just go with it

24. How will you see in the New Year?
I spent the New Year crocheting and watching Star Trek in a onesie and I LOVED IT

25. Do you hate / dislike anyone now that you didn't hate / dislike this time last year?
All the friends I referenced in my previous year-end post turned out to be kind of annoying

26. What was the best book you read?
Did I read a book this year?  Um, well, I got a book at a used bookstore near me called "You Don't Have to be Wrong for Me to be Right" and I'm a little ways into that.  I think le Rouge et le noir ruined reading for me again.  I'll try to get a library card this year.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
MOANA.  I really like what I've heard from the Rouge et le noir musical though and Flo's new album is really good! I'm proud of him.

28. What did you want and get?
a part-time job, a new full-time job, a raise/promotion, this couch

29. What did you want and not get?
a new mattress... my mattress is such a pos, it's so ruined.  I finally just put it under my bed and I have a plywood board and a few mattress toppers over my box spring right now.  A house or townhome.  Madame President.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
Moana again, easy one

31. What did you do on your birthday?
Went to NYC and saw Les Mis (with surprise JOJ! his Who am I was SO GOOD!?) and Fun Home and then Les Mis again, saw Rob Marnell at the Carole King musical (a dude whose acting I stalked when he was in college and I was in high school), saw all my work buddies at Springer, had lunch with Katie K at Bubba Gump... good times

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I think you may have guessed but... if the popular vote had actually swayed the outcome of the presidential election...?  If HB2 had been repealed?

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2016?
Insecurity chic: lots of big shapeless shirts with cute patterns over leggings.

34. What kept you sane?
my mom, the UU, Star Trek lol

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Honestly Michael Dorn?? I mean.  I don't know, I mind my own business.  I've been watching a lot of panel shows lately and Richard Ayoade still has my heart obviously but also Diane Dassigny is a classic

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
the fucking election stop asking me about it please it makes me sad

37. Who did you miss?
my youthful innocence and blind trust in the American people?  Vincent visited me in December which was a delight.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I don't know if I technically met them in 2016 but Felix started coming to church more often and the more I talk to them the more I enjoy them.  We've gained some awesome new moraholics this year too.  Oh and speaking of which I met Ella in person!  What a sweetheart.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2016.
change happens at the local level

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"Quand la peur s'immisce dans nos illusions, on abandonne, abandonne, le ciel pardonne" but also "l'avenir nous appartient"
And while we're talking French musical finales, this entire concept: C'est bientôt la fin Revolution Interpretation

41. What was your favourite moment of the year?
I had a really nice time stagedooring LM with Kelley in April and then seeing Daveed Diggs.  But also, there was an amazing post-election dance party at the UU and it was really really great.  The minster showed up and slow-danced with somebody's husband.  We also did a pirate-themed murder mystery dinner fundraiser at the church and I was the French pirate, so I wore the old stays and hoops and wig I made in like 2008 and spoke with a ridiculous French accent all night and was honestly a huge hit

42. What was your least favourite moment of the year?
watching those states turn red on that google map thing and that heavy, sinking feeling as I slowly started to realize what might happen.  Then crying uncontrollably for the rest of the week

43. Where were you when 2016 began?
Standing in a circle with the UU young adult group holding out our phones and counting down till our alarms all went off in unison

44. Who were you with?
I think it was ten people?  None of whom I see on a regular basis anymore and most of whom I now find annoying

45. Where will you be when 2016 ends?
yeah sorry I forgot to do this in advance of NYE but my plan was ON THE COUCH all along and I fulfilled that

46. Who will you be with when 2016 ends?
from 2014 and 2013: "the gerbs".

47. What was your favourite month of 2016?
April? I thought it would be a good thing to learn GVUL at MetLife and was excited about the opportunity, I wasn't worried about my credit card, most of my church friends were still rad, and I had a lovely time in NYC

48. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2016?
Not really, I probably took care of maybe ten bottles of wine all year, maybe less.

49. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2016?
I will be very surprised if the answer to this question is ever a "yes"

50. How many people did you sleep with in 2016?
so I did a sex at one point for what is apparently the first time since 2012 and it gave me anxiety, so yo ho yo ho the ace life for me

51. Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
probably plenty of small things.  I cried in front of my supervisor at one point in the summer because we were so poorly trained in GVUL and the calls were very difficult and we didnt know what the FUCK we were doing and it was peoples LIFE INSURANCE it wasnt a fuckin joke for gods sake

52. What was the worst lie someone told you in 2016?
"we'll get your class a trainer who is really familiar with the product"

53. Did you treat somebody badly in 2016?
I was probably a dick to all the people I've referred to as "annoying" throughout the course of this post

54. Did somebody treat you badly in 2016?
I mean not on a personal level really, there's the crush situation but that's been going on for years, she was just a lot more needy this year and really ate into my like... equilibrium. And when she got better, she quit talking to me. Because of course she did.

56. How much money did you spend in 2016?
I feel like I spent most of the RT money on fun things like fancy groceries and the computer and stuff, I mean obviously after I paid off the credit card.  I think the plane ticket was my biggest purchase of the year.

57. If you could go back in time to any moment of 2016 and change what?
Could I change the result of the election?

58. What are your plans for 2017?
house. It's the only thing I care about.  And for the trip to Paris in March to be really good.  Idk if I'll be lucky enough to pay off my car this year but that would be nice.  Oh, and a raise in April I hope.