{"id":731,"date":"2004-12-29T20:15:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-29T20:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/2004\/12\/end-of-year-meme.html"},"modified":"2004-12-29T20:15:00","modified_gmt":"2004-12-29T20:15:00","slug":"end-of-year-meme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/2004\/12\/end-of-year-meme.html","title":{"rendered":"End-of-year Meme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t usually go for these things, but it seems like such a nice way to round up the year. I found this meme in <a href=\"http:\/\/betweenthelakes.blogspot.com\/\">Frog&#8217;s blog<\/a><\/p>\n<p>1. What did you do in 2004 that you&#8217;d never done before?<br \/>\n<br \/>Run a marathon. Raise a child.<\/p>\n<p>2. Did you keep your new year?s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?<br \/>\n<br \/>I actually did keep a couple of new year&#8217;s resolutions. And yet I didn&#8217;t keep even more. I will indeed make more this year. But I won&#8217;t share them. They&#8217;re just for me.<\/p>\n<p>3. Did anyone close to you give birth?<br \/>\n<br \/>So many people close to me gave birth! Lots of new babies everywhere! Rachel, J., Simon just to name a few (why are some people abbreviated and others spelled out? Those spelled out are those I&#8217;m pretty darn sure don&#8217;t mind being named in this blog. People with initials are the ones I&#8217;m not sure about and that I haven&#8217;t cleared name usage).<\/p>\n<p>4. Did anyone close to you die?<br \/>\n<br \/>Adam&#8217;s great uncle passed away.<\/p>\n<p>5. What countries did you visit?<br \/>\n<br \/>For the first year in probably a very, very long time, I didn&#8217;t make my way out of the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?<br \/>\n<br \/>Enough sleep. I would kill to wake up in the morning feeling refreshed.<\/p>\n<p>7. What dates from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?<br \/>\n<br \/>November 7: Marathon day!<\/p>\n<p>8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?<br \/>\n<br \/>Finishing the marathon (do you see a theme here).<\/p>\n<p>9. What was your biggest failure?<br \/>\n<br \/>Not getting as far as I wanted in my noveling.<\/p>\n<p>10. Did you suffer illness or injury?<br \/>\n<br \/>A groin pull from the marathon. A zillion colds.<\/p>\n<p>11. What was the best thing you bought?<br \/>\n<br \/>It wasn&#8217;t me; it was Adam. But since we have joint checking, by default I bought it too. Doodles wouldn&#8217;t let us talk on our cell phones without having a meltdown. He wanted our phones so badly. So Adam bought on e-bay, for about $10, <a href=\"http:\/\/search.ebay.com\/dummy-cell-phone\">a fake cell phone<\/a> that looks exactly like ours. It&#8217;s one of the ones that stores use to sell phones. It&#8217;s enabled us to use our phones again.<\/p>\n<p>12. Whose behavior merited celebration?<br \/>\n<br \/>Doodles and Adam. One for being a wonder to watch and the other for being a stellar father and husband. Every day and in every way. Well, almost every day.<\/p>\n<p>13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?<br \/>\n<br \/>I keep politics out of this blog. But the answer to this question would be politically fueled, so I&#8217;ll skip it.<\/p>\n<p>14. Where did most of your money go?<br \/>\n<br \/>Mortgage. Doodles&#8217;s college account. My large darjeeling tea habit at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.diesel-cafe.com\/\">Diesel Cafe<\/a>. Running gear.<\/p>\n<p>15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?<br \/>\n<br \/>The marathon. Big time. And finally getting my tushie in gear on my writing again.<\/p>\n<p>16. What song will always remind you of 2004?<br \/>\n<br \/>&#8220;Itsy-Bitsy Spider&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>17. Compared to this time last year, are you:<br \/>\n<br \/>a) happier or sadder? Happier (baby blues completely gone!)<br \/>\n<br \/>b) thinner or fatter? Thinner (still battling pregnancy weight, but not like I was a year ago)<br \/>\n<br \/>c) richer or poorer? Richer (Adam&#8217;s out of school and working again!)<\/p>\n<p>18. What do you wish you&#8217;d done more of?<br \/>\n<br \/>Writing. Too many days at the beginning of the year, I sat at the computer paralyzed and ended up cleaning the house. The writing didn&#8217;t kick in until the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>19. What do you wish you&#8217;d done less of?<br \/>\n<br \/>Wasting time. Watching reality TV. Which I guess is redundant.<\/p>\n<p>20. How will you be spending Christmas?<br \/>\n<br \/>Watching a rented movie and eating Chinese food, I suppose.<\/p>\n<p>21. Did you fall in love in 2004?<br \/>\n<br \/>I didn&#8217;t fall in love in 2004 but I did fall farther in love with Adam and Doodles. Does that count?<\/p>\n<p>22. How many one-night stands?<br \/>\n<br \/>Unless you&#8217;re talking about with a hot fudge sundae, I&#8217;d have to say none.<\/p>\n<p>23. What was your favorite TV program?<br \/>\n<br \/>Oh, so many guilty pleasures here! Probably <i>The O.C.<\/i> Maybe <i>Desperate Housewives<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn&#8217;t hate this time last year?<br \/>\n<br \/>I&#8217;m sure there are people I dislike, but I&#8217;m working on not hating. So let&#8217;s say, no.<\/p>\n<p>25. What was the best book you read?<br \/>\n<br \/>I liked so many books! I really enjoyed a recent one I read, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0316158771\/jennyspage-20\"><i>Devil in the Details<\/i><\/a>. However, I think my real favorite of the year was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0805241892\/jennyspage-20\"><i>The Rebbe&#8217;s Army<\/i><\/a>. I comment on both of them in <a href=\".\/bookblog2004.html\">my book\/movie blog<\/a>.  I need to say, though, that the book I&#8217;m currently reading, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1582433216\/jennyspage-20\"><i>A Complicated Kindness<\/i><\/a> by Miriam Toews, seems to have the potential of blowing the other two away. I&#8217;ll have to confirm, though, when I&#8217;ve finished it.<\/p>\n<p>26. What was your greatest musical discovery?<br \/>\n<br \/>Music? What&#8217;s that? All of my music these days is either jazz, which isn&#8217;t a new discovery, and kid&#8217;s music.<\/p>\n<p>27. What did you want and get?<br \/>\n<br \/>Time to write.<\/p>\n<p>28. What did you want and not get?<br \/>\n<br \/>Rocky Road candy. I ask for it every year around the holidays and I never get it.<\/p>\n<p>29. What was your favorite film of this year?<br \/>\n<br \/>Tough one. Was it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00005JMJ4\/jennyspage-20\"><i>Lost in Translation<\/i><\/a>? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B0000WN13Q\/jennyspage-20\"><i>Spellbound<\/i><\/a>?    <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00005JMJG\/jennyspage-20\"><i>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/i><\/a>? Tough call. But I think I&#8217;m going to have to go with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B0002OXRSG\/jennyspage-20\"><i>Saved!<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?<br \/>\n<br \/>I was 36 and I had scrumptious dinner with my hubby that included many yummy martinis at Chez Henri.<\/p>\n<p>31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?<br \/>\n<br \/>Winning the lottery. Having a live-in housekeeper. A personal chef. Seriously, this past year&#8211;without getting <i>too<\/i>&#8211;but I don&#8217;t think this past year could have been more satisfying. I feel like I&#8217;m really close to where I&#8217;ve always wanted to be. Surprisingly, I&#8217;ve never had as much time to write as I do now. On most days, I adore motherhood, and on the other days, well, it&#8217;s still better than anything else I could be doing; I&#8217;ve never liked working in an office nine to five. My relationship with my husband is happy and healthy. I get to succumb to all my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marthastewart.com\/\">Martha<\/a> fantasies and yet I feel like I <i>will<\/i> finish my novel. I&#8217;ve got balance. Granted, it hasn&#8217;t always been easy, and this past year has thrown many challenges my way, but over all, there&#8217;s nothing that could have significantly added to it.<\/p>\n<p>32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?<br \/>\n<br \/>Baggy jeans and Old Navy shirts.<\/p>\n<p>33. What kept you sane?<br \/>\n<br \/>My mom friends (especially G. and J.). Saturday mornings at Diesel. Doodles&#8217;s wonderful day care teachers. Netflix. Long naps (Doodles&#8217;s, not mine). Adam and Doodles time alone in the wee morning hours. Late night tea in cozy pjs. Long runs.<\/p>\n<p>34. Which celebrity\/public figure did you fancy the most?<br \/>\n<br \/>This answer hasn&#8217;t changed in nearly ten years: Jude Law.<\/p>\n<p>35. What political issue stirred you the most?<br \/>\n<br \/>Gay marriage. Absolutely. I really don&#8217;t get that this is an issue. I&#8217;m so pro gay marriage, and I can&#8217;t comprehend why anyone would be against it!<\/p>\n<p>36. Who did you miss?<br \/>\n<br \/>My friends in Seattle. I also missed my family more than in the past because I feel like they&#8217;re missing out on so much of Doodles&#8217;s life, and I wish they lived closer. Besides, I&#8217;d love the free babysitting.<\/p>\n<p>37. Who was the best new person you met?<br \/>\n<br \/>While I&#8217;ve met so many wonderful people this past year, hands down it has to be my friend J.L. (O&#8217;s mom) She has become an integral part of my life and she&#8217;s not just a mom friend, but a friend period.<\/p>\n<p>38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004<br \/>\n<br \/>The ability to ignore a stinky diaper is a highly underrated skill.<\/p>\n<p>39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year<br \/>\n<br \/>&#8220;Mommies are women, women with children<br \/>\n<br \/>Busy with children and things that they do<br \/>\n<br \/>There are a lot of things a lot of mommies can do&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t usually go for these things, but it seems like such a nice way to round up the year. I found this meme in Frog&#8217;s blog 1. What did you do in 2004 that you&#8217;d never done before? Run a marathon. Raise a child. 2. Did you keep your new year?s resolutions, and will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}