The End of the Year Meme

I found this amazing meme on Bleeding Espresso's blog where I always expect to find amazing things. Love the Vettriano there! I tag anyone who reads this. It's good to be retrospective. This is sort of my pre morning pages--I stopped doing The Artist's Way after week two, but kept doing the morning pages. And honestly, sometimes the morning pages are not in the morning...

...but I digress--the meme as follows:

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before? Spend even a day without my mother, kundalini, anusara and vinyasa yoga, wear a garter belt and stockings and a myriad of things I am sure are COMPLETELY escaping me now.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Don't make them. My life is a new resolution every day...

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

4. Did anyone close to you die? My mother, thus why I spent a day without her in question one of the meme.

5. What countries did you visit? None. Hoping for France next year, and once I get to Europe I am going to play leap frog to other countries!

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? Less procrastination and more writing on the blog and on my fiction.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? The day my mother died--self explanatory.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Becoming my own mother. I thought when my mother died I would not be able to function. I was wrong.

9. What was your biggest failure? To write more!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Does lovesickness count?

11. What was the best thing you bought? My beautiful MacBook, on which this meme is being completed!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My own and my MacBook's.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? A handful of non bloggers.

14. Where did most of your money go? On death and taxes.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Did I mention my MacBook?! And also the novel idea I plan to explore on it.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007? Nothing really, but I listened to a lot of Charlotte Martin this year. A lot.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer? I'm sad about my mother, but a lot happier than I expected to be. I'm thinner and I am ALWAYS rich mentally!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Yoga and fiction writing--which I did not even have to write over when I copied the meme!

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Not writing.

20. How did you spend Christmas? With my family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007? Maybe...

22. What was your favorite TV program? Did not have one, but watched Top Model until almost the end...

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don't hate anyone, it is not worth the energy.

24. What was the best book you read? Two novels by Kristina Lloyd.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Charlotte Martin.

26. What did you want and get? My MacBook!!!

27. What did you want and not get? Personal on one count...and let's just say I have not seen my mother anywhere on the other.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? Been watching a lot of foreign language romances on my MacBook, and just saw Juno yesterday, it was lovely.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 33, was with my mom. she watched me blow out my candles...

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If my mother had not died.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? Black for mourning, which ironically makes me party ready and gets lots of compliments!

32. What kept you sane? My writing and my friends--bloggers and not. And the fact I was afraid if I did not behave my mom would come back to reprimand me!

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? None--everyone was someone I knew.

34. What political issue stirred you the most? The assassination of Bhutto.

35. Who did you miss? My mother.

36. Who was the best new person you met? A good friend I met through my volunteer work.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007. You survive until you die.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. "All our days are numbered/Round and round we go," from "Cardboard Ladders" and "In all the black/In all the grief/Through all the pain/And unbelief/These are the words/That they all scream/I am redeemed" from "Redeemed" by Charlotte Martin.

Ironically though, my songs of the day which are part of my internal soundtrack, "Karma" and "Diary" by Alicia Keys.

I am thankful for another year as a blogger...


Exploding cork courtesy of Getty Images.