End of Year Survey

1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before?
Got my own apartment. Paid my own bills. Ooh, and got my own Christmas tree. It's real too, although it looks somewhat like Charlie Brown's pathetic Christmas tree.

2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I wanted to lose weight and be nicer. I'm pretty much the same weight and I honestly don't think I did anything mean.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My great grandma. She was 95.

5. What countries did you visit?
Hmm, not even Canada!

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
A job! I need to get one for next fall. I would also like a man. ;)

7. What date from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
The day I found out that my great-grandma died. I hadn't been told that she was sick and that made me act pretty irrationally, but I'm glad that I got to go to her funeral. It's kind of strange, but I thought that graduation was pretty anticlimactic. And way too hot.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I got into graduate school at the University of Minnesota.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Well, some people could look at this as a failure: I realized that it's better for me to stay away from people who express negative perspectives on life and/or are generally pessimistic because it rubs off on me to a greater extent. So I failed in being friends with people like that, but by avoiding them made myself much happier.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No injuries, besides multiple bruises caused by constant kneeling in kindergarten. I had a super-bad cold twice; once in the summer and once this fall. It starts with sinus pain, becomes a runny nose, progresses through multiple sounds of cough, then ends in a combination of the above.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I really like my Old Navy pants. And I got a semi-sphere chair at Urban Outfitters that I love love love.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My cooperating teacher at my student teaching placement has been really nice and so helpful in my learning. I was lot luckier than most of my friends, who's teachers were psycho control-freaks who worked their fingers to the bone. Also, I celebrated on the inside when Johnny, a boy in my class who has developmental delays, wrote his name for the first time! He's been through so much (refugee camp in Thailand, death of brother, not speaking), but he's always so sweet.

My new friends in the Twin Cities are so much fun. Jenny, Jake, Erin, Julie- we need to hit the Independent! Button-down shirts are much needed. Also, my friends in St. Louis were amazingly supportive. I've never met a nicer bunch than the ECMers and I probably never will.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Well, I didn't get along with a roommate (see above about pessimism). My family has a history of depression, so that's something I just can't tolerate.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Did I ever have money? I have a bad habit of buying dvds with my student loan money, but otherwise, it almost all goes to rent. My apartment is much nicer than I deserve (or can clean).

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Teaching kindergarten. I love it so much! I'm excited to go to school every morning because it's the most fulfilling thing -for me- in the whole world. I pretty darn excited for Christmas too.
16. What song will always remind you of 2004?
The entire Keane cd, Hopes and Fears. No one has heard of them, I know, but they're big in England. I just love the song "Somewhere only we know" because it reminds me of my jaunt (can I pull that word off?) through the deer park in Magdalen college at Oxford...I actually walked across a river on a fallen tree.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier
ii. thinner or fatter? the same
iii. richer or poorer? Well, that depends. My parents are no longer giving me any money, but they never would have given me as much as I have from my loan. On the other hand, they won't be asking me to pay them back (+interest), so I'll say I'm poorer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Spending time with my cousins. Enjoying college life. Relaxing after graduation (tomorrow I start my first vacation since Spring Break)! Running.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
I wish I had spent less time feeling insecure at college based on what some people told me that others were saying about me (which was unfounded, as it turns out).

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
My parents and my brother are staying with me (oh, how much fun will that be? ;>) But we're spending Christmas day at my Aunt and Uncle's house.

22. Did you fall in love in 2004?
No.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
The O.C. Oh my gosh, it's so good. Also, the Apprentice, even though the Donald has been so wrong many times this season. And finally, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, because it always makes me cry.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I don't really hate anyone...but there are some people I distance myself from.

26. What was the best book you read?
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. It's so moving and fun to read- I recommend it to everyone.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Keane. And Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah.

28. What did you want and get?
I got into graduate school, I got a beautiful apartment, and I got a pretty fish.

29. What did you want and not get?
I wanted to get a Cairn terrier, but I'm so glad I didn't. I mean, if I can't find time to do laundry for a month, a poor little dog wouldn't stand a chance.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
I really can't remember. I'm looking forward to The Phantom of the Opera.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I can't remember what I did. Is that bad? I'm so old that I'm losing my memory.

32.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I'm pretty happy.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
Well, I was typical college student until October, when Kindergarten teacher fashion began. Though, I have been able to avoid the gaudy holiday buttons and tapered-leg pants look.

34. What kept you sane?
Friends, family, music.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Clive Owen. I think he should have been cast in the Da Vince Code (instead of Tom Hanks). Oh, and did anyone see Closer? Huge hands ;>

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The election stirred up so much. I angry about Iraq, especially, and the rift in social beliefs in our country.

37. Who did you miss?
ECM, my parents.

38. Who was the best new person you met?  Jenny

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004.
Love what you do and you will be good at it.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Oh simple thing, where have you gone? I'm getting old and I need something to rely on. So tell when, you're going to let me in. I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin. (That doesn't really make any sense, but I like the song ;>)