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New Year's Meme: Year 11

1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?
Sewed two costumes with my own hands. Rode the Riverview Carousel. Attended NC Makers Faire. Took a CC class. Crossed the GW Bridge to NY. Ate scallop chowder.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I found a job! For 2014... Clean up and organize?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Have a significant life event?
A&N welcomed another baby girl!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no.

5. What countries did you visit?
USA only.

5a. What states did you visit?
Florida, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia and Illinois. And I drove the length of New Jersey twice.

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
A reorganized, possibly redecorated room. And perhaps create some of my own designs for printing.

7. What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I started my new job on 1/28/13.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Starting to learn how to sew. Handmade cards. Managing to learn my job and get up at 6am.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I still haven't finished my Reading scrapbook!! And apparently I cannot grow broccoli. Twice.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Minor stuff.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Maybe my bike.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?


13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Politicians and close-minded, backwards laws. You're supposed to be the South's forward looking state North Carolina!

14. Where did most of your money go?
Strangely, it seems savings.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Seeing friends. Finding family photos from the 1920s.

16. What song will always remind you of 2013?
Wake Me Up (DW Ball), Thrift Store (for bursting out laughing driving home on a pitch black highway after working 2nd shift), Counting Stars (makes me want to dance)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier, definitely.
ii. thinner or fatter? Probably a draw.
iii. richer or poorer? Considering I was unemployed a year ago, richer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Craft things, although this year was definitely better for that.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Let time slip by. Swear at the sewing machine.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Home and at my sister's.

22. Did you fall in love in 2013?
No.

23. How many one-night stands? No. You'd think in 11 years I'd change this question. Stealing from seven now:
What is the best thing you created this year? My Luna moth Halloween costume worked out really well.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
I dunno. I watched a ton of PBS/UNC-TV EX this year, from The Desert Speaks to Roadtrip Nation. And it was hard to not know all the storylines from Downton Abbey even if I didn't see every episode.

Billy Connolly's Route 66 was really cool, I'd recommend that one.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No.

26. What was the best book you read?
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, even if it took me forever to finish it.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Newest would be Phillip Phillips, although I'm digging the new OneRepublic album.

28. What did you want and get?
Family stories. A good job. A bike.

29. What did you want and not get?
Less clutter.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Did I go to the movies at all? : /

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
My family treated me to a fabulous dinner at Lantern in Chapel Hill. I'd wanted to go for years and turning 30 became a good excuse to splurge a little.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
While at times it has been almost laughable, to quote Douglas Adams, "We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works."

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
T-shirts, shorts/pants and ink stained knees. And winter hats.

34. What kept you sane?
Having more consistent downtime. And bouncing around not knowing what hit me.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Not much of anyone really.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
There were a lot of irksome ones I don't feel like dragging up right now.

37. Who did you miss?
College friends.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
My previously long-lost 90 yr old 3rd cousin. And my nearly 80! quirky coworkers, including a supervisor who crocheted hats for us. : D

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:
Be persistent. Just make a decision and go with it. Oh, and Don't Panic!

40. Quote song lyrics that sum up the year:
"All this time I was finding myself and I, didn't know I was lost.
So wake me up...

I never know how inteviews go, though I am less nervous about them. Learning to talk, ask questions and go with the flow is one thing working retail forced me to practice and use. And I keep saying (hopefully not to my detriment) that I've just never been a sales person. It's not that I don't like people or customers or won't work hard at whatever 1000 little skills make up a job, I just always was at my worst when all the meetings and trainings were on "How to sell service plans/loyalty cards," "How to upsell," "Ask for the sale" etc. I never wanted to be accused of brand loyalty for sales incentives or being somehow perceived of as a "dishonest" salesperson, whether it was through my own actions or dumb luck.

And generally that never happened. If there were restrictions, we stated them. If there were problems we tried to fix them. And sometimes there just is no win and those are the crazy stories you trade among coworkers for years after the fact.

Anyway. My real point is that I don't like the term "sell yourself" with regards to job hunting, necessary or desired. There is an odd zen part of me that figures if things don't work out, it was not a good fit and not meant to be. The one interview I can think of that did not go well, I knew sitting there I wasn't going to get the position and that honestly I had been terrorified of facing the job. I saw by the questions being asked that I did not have the skills/experience nor the right character to adapt into it. I specifically remember coming down to lunch in college and finding myself beside someone else who knew they weren't getting a similar job, and we both cried a little and then laughed at ourselves and breathed a sign of relief.

In the same vein, if you toss me out for an extra comma in my resume or the fact that my related experience isn't the most recent, we're probably not going to work well together. Over the years I've come to realize that my life tends to succeed by the good faith chance. I'm not a genius and as a farily private person appear a little plain. But I enjoy learning new skills and don't mind having to work up from the bottom. I know sometimes I have to push myself to grow. I've found my limits and my values, my weaknesses and my joy.

So maybe the problem is that I'm too reserved to ask for a chance--because we always think about jobs and careers like immediate matches and not growing relationships. It is in my nature to be a builder and an artist, to create something out of just seeds. But even I forget that I need to plant ideas.

Happy New Year all~

So here we are, only 24 hours to Christmas and there's only one or two more things to do before greeting family and settling down for a brief winter's rest.

Of course there will still be cooking and meal times and driving between houses and minor family spats but there will be that stillness to the world. You're not supposed to be anywhere or buy anything. You have to figure out your day, just you, not the world.

It is like snowfall, hushed and slowing down the world for a moment, a day.

Working retail, that is how you know you have made it--the quiet. You may be utterly exhausted and a bit out of mind, but you hear that you can fall sleep, rest, eat, enjoy and play.

And it slightly baffles me that we seem to give everything to keep up the noise, the work, the running, the spending, the stress for near to year-round now and then we wonder why we hurt and ache and go crazy. We wonder where "values" went, or faith and love and imagination.

If we love the individual, we have to love the simple time to just be. The silence to hear that voice. The stillness to be filled by the self, without a social mask. That is real freedom. That is how we learn to know ourselves and how to live with one another.

We really do need days of Peace, offered to everyone together, to just breathe. I hope some time in the next 48 hours offers that to you all.

Merry Christmas everyone.

The answer to Life, the Universe and Everything and the rest of our numbers did not. But I got toothpaste and cough drops and a little adventure because as we were picking out numbers at the grocery store the power grid failed for that area. Don't know why. Full moon?

Not much else to type, just hanging in there.

1. My birthday is in a month. Eeep.

2. Work... is a can of worms.

3. So, where do I go from here?

4. Is this still Home?

5. Holy Feminism, Batman Batgirl!

6. Family.

7. A lack of words.

New Year's Meme: Year 9
Starting a little earlier this year, but still waaaay late hours.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Saw a UK play rebroadcast at a local theater. Planned the bulk of a vacation on my own. Attended local sushi and Who meet-ups. Went ghost crabbing. Played a Headless Monk. Poked a bit into genelology. Ate at Superdawg.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I accomplished one of the four archiving projects, but I honestly don't remember the full list. 2012 is: Find a new job.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Have a significant life event?
Not really. The biggest event was Reading Reunion.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thankfully.

5. What countries did you visit?
England & Wales.

5a. What states did you visit?
Illinois, South Carolina & Utah.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
A new direction.

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Most of them are the usual family dates, just with new memories. Hiking in Utah in the sun all day. Tending to family gravestones.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Photoshopping an entire book of collages highlighing 10 years of our travels.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Equal parts patience and motivation. And my garden, thanks to a rabbit.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
The sneezing, the itching, the usual. But I did NOT repeat altitude sickness/dehydration. *Yay!*

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A travel backpack I found for a whole £11 in Llanberis. The Fake-Lego Tardis set. My Doctor Hoo t-shirt.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Those who love me or at least work with me despite my sour moods.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Often the comment sections on everything from news stories to comic strips.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Travel.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Reading, Thai Corner, Much Ado About Nothing with Tennant and Tate, Arches National Park.

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Anything on One Republic's Waking Up, The Script's For the First Time (Man These Times are Hard), I Am the Doctor/Mad Man With a Box/et all. DW score.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Sadder.
ii. thinner or fatter? Same.
iii. richer or poorer? Probably a draw.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Write. Draw. Clean up my room.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stress & Pessimism.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Quiet at home in the morning. A bit more rambunctious at Lil Sis's in the evening, with a great dinner.

22. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Wanderlust.

23. How many one-night stands?
No.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
DW, with a good dose of Good Eats and Mysteries at the Museum at the end of the year.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I intenstly dislike some people at the moment, but with work that will probably fade.

26. What was the best book you read?
The Marvel graphic novelization of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I'm also finishing the Gideon/Time Travelers trilogy, so I can't quite vote on that yet.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
One Republic, though that started the end of last year.

28. What did you want and get?
Vacation time. DW stuff. Good travel shoes. Cool books.

29. What did you want and not get?
Equipment and software that works correctly at work. A world that values and supports people and their work and care, more than profit.

Otherwise, nothing too critical. I want to replace a few things but can't decide exactly what I want and so don't feel like spending money.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
I think I only saw HP7 pt II and Sherlock Holmes, which was quite a romp.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I really don't remember. It was #28.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not having my work life fall apart right before and into the Christmas season.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Work stuff. Geeky t-shirts.

34. What kept you sane?
Daydreaming. Puzzles.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Not sure. Though I heart Craig Ferguson's DW song and dance.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Man, what didn't happen this year? Earthquakes, tsuanmis, tornadoes, the Arab Spring, terrorism in odd places, economic woes, political parties stupidity...

37. Who did you miss?
Old family, friends, my big ball of sunshine coworker.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Cakewrecks Jen and John and her parents at D*C. And indirectly, The Ivys' grandchildren are adorable.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
The past is not lost but the future is dangerously close.

40. Quote song lyrics that sum up the year:

Oh, these times are hard
Yeah, they're making us crazy
Don't give up on me baby...

. . .

Don't really know how I got here
Got some pictures on my phone
New names and numbers I don't know
Address to places like Abbey Road
Day turns to night, night turns to whatever we want
We're young enough to say
Oh, this has gotta be the good life
This has gotta be the good life
This could really be a good life, a good, good life.

Travels:
In October Mom and I traveled to Utah where we saw and did a ridiculous amount in just a few days. It was quite a trip, full of beautiful, surprising, unexpected things.

Day one was flying into Salt Lake City and then driving 4+ hours though mountains and long stretches of lonely yellow-green desert with black hole cell service. (Though I have to say lower Arizona still feels the most desolate to my memory.) We arrived in Moab just before sunset, had a great dinner and then fell asleep early.

Day two we spent ALL DAY hiking in Arches with perfect weather. Aside from the parking congestion at trail heads, the park feels endless and yet jam-packed with amazing scenery. Everything is in hues of red and brown with deep blue sky to set it off while the sun changes both by the hour, sometimes even by the minute. And I learned my lesson from New Mexico--I hiked with water and bananas and took my vitamins before leaving home.

I sincerely hope to return there in my life. Plus Moab is a lovely anchor point for other parks and adventures in the area.

Day three questioned our sanity, as we drove back across the same desert towards Salt Lake City and stopped just before it to see the Timpanogos cave on its last day of the season. We knew there was a 1.5 mile hike to the cave but got the geography all wrong. It was a 1.5 mile hike UP to the cave, ascending 1,000+ feet on a steep paved but narrow switchback trail with rock fall warning sections. Yeah. It really does take a 45 minutes to over an hour to drag yourself up to the cave entrance. And then it is 50 degrees in the cave so you are wearing/carrying multiple layers of clothing. And we had spent all day hiking less than 24 hours before.

So it was an adventure. We saw strange and unique cave formations--from cave popcorn to cave bacon and spiraling coral-like fingers sprouting all over. And then had to hike all the way back down on our toes, but we made it to Salt Lake City and vowed to be boring tourists the next day.

Days Four and Five stayed around the city. Temple Square. The capitol building. The Salt Lake. Some shopping and sushi. On our last full day we took a quick jaunt to Park City, a cute mining turned ski town. We fell in love with Dolly's, a cat-friendly book shop accessed though a Rocky Mountain Chcolates shop. One of the furry residents decided to join the children's story time while Mr. Dolly attempted to squeeze himself into a display basket. The owner tutted before picking him up, saying "You haven't looked into a mirror in a while." Apparently he has also tried to steal doll sized beds in the toys section. Then after already walking out I spotted in the window a pink copy of War of the Worlds with Edward Gorey illustrations. So I turned right back around. I have really started a habit of buying books while on vacation in the last year and a half, and have a mind to now pencil in their origins.

Lastly we holed up at the Family History library back in SLC for the afternoon. We never even moved from the computer banks into the records sections but confirmed some stories and discovered some mysteries, which has now lit a bit of a geneology fire under me. Since coming home I've discovered a little more, as my local library system has access to some online and part of the LDS archives. I find census records equally challenging and fascinating to decipher. (BTW, the 1940 census goes public--and online--next April. : D

So that was Utah, our second pick location after the Northeast flooded but wow, first rate wanderings hard to be beat.

Horoscope:
November 13, 2011

A recent upheaval has caused a lot of disruption in your life -- you may feel as though you're inside a snow globe that has been given a good shake. Unfortunately, your current situation isn't that pretty. Keep in mind that things will eventually settle down again. Some things may end up in different places, but they will still be there. So don't worry that these changes are going to cause someone special to disappear from your life. That's simply not going to happen.

Make a wish.