A Year in Questions

Here's my 2009 summary in answers to a few questions. How was your year?

1. What did you do in 2009 that you had never done before?
Bought my first house, got married, saw a play on Broadway, attended a birth, among other things.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Yes, I completed all my reading challenges and wrote one letter a week to a friend, absolutely.

3. What countries did you visit?
Just the USA in 2009; in 2008 I fit in Hungary, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Slovenia. I needed a year off to save for the next big adventure: New Zealand in 2011!

4. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
Time to relax and read.

5. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Oct. 17, 2009, it's now my wedding anniversary.

6. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I managed to plan a wedding, read 136 books, hold down a full-time job, see 30 plays/musicals and find a house and buy it, somehow without losing my mind.

7. What was your biggest failure?
Letting other people's decisions and actions really get under my skin when there is nothing I can do about it.

8. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nope, other than a brief bout with the flu on St. Patrick's Day. I'm a lucky girl.

9. What was the best thing you bought?
I'm going to go with... a house.

10. Where did most of your money go?
Buying a house (and all the little projects that go with moving into a new home) and our wedding reception (it was a great party though, worth every penny!)

11. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Our wedding day and setting up my very first library in our new home.

12. What songs will always remind you of 2009?
"M79" by Vampire Weekend 


13. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Writing and travelling.

14. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Complaining about anything. It accomplishes nothing.

15. How did you be spend Christmas and New Years Eve?
I spent Christmas with my new husband and family and I spent New Year's Eve with my best friends.

16. What was your favorite TV program?
LOST, the Office, and a few old favorites. Better Off Ted is probably my favorite new show from '09.

17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No, dislike maybe, but not hate.

18. What was the best book you read?
Here are my favorites from the year...
The Brothers K, Catching Fire, Anna Karenina, Peace Like a River, Here is New York, The History of Love, Atlas Shrugged, The Portable Dorothy Parker, The Things They Carried and 84, Charing Cross Road

19. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I fell hard for Vampire Weekend, The Avett Brothers, Fleet Foxes, Neutral Milk Hotel, Florence and the Machine and Kings of Leon


20. What was your favorite film of this year?
I really loved Up and Away We Go. I also watched the Band of Brothers miniseries for the first time. It was amazing.

21. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I had a big dinner party with all of my closet friends and then went to New York City for the first time with 2 good friends that weekend; 25.

22. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Getting a raise.

23. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Jeans, t-shirts, comfy sweaters and sneakers. My "fashion concept" hasn't really changed much in the past decade.

24. What kept you sane?
My amazing friends and siblings.


25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
It's the people in your life that make it wonderful. Make sure they know how much you love and appreciate them.

Photo by moi.