Swampwater Debutante

I got this from Sundry. I still plan to edit together a year end video, but for now, this sums things up.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?

I began hoopdancing. I signed up for an adult ballet class (dropped due to injury but…well, I did it, and I intend to go back). I learned to make my own yogurt. I put up curtains. I went to Las Vegas by myself. I knit a shawl – a little one, but I did it. I had an MRI.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year???

I didn’t really make any, that I remember. I suppose if I had it would have been this – to make this year better than the one before it. And it was, mostly. I didn’t really push myself to do anything extremely new and life changing, but some things like that happened anyway. I grew more comfortable in my skin, and comfortable with the idea of changing that skin.

I could have done with, you know, maybe having sex once, but you can’t win ‘em all (but if it doesn’t happen in 2010 I will implode the world with the force of my rage and frustration).

My resolutions for 2010:

I think I’d like to get more serious about my fitness. Not to lose weight, but because I’ve come to enjoy working out. And I would like to continue to enjoy it, so I am going to work hard at just letting whatever happens with it happen.

I want to go out on a date. That’d be nice.

I want to get better about cleaning my house and keeping it clean. Maybe organize it.

I want to knit a proper sweater. A nice big Aran. I have designs in mind.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth???

My best friend Kate had her baby girl Anwyn, and she is the adorablest wee chunk of baby. Well. Not so very wee.

4. Did anyone close to you die???

No. Not to my knowledge.

5. What countries did you visit???

I didn’t, this year. I am leaning towards making it an event that happens every other year. In 2010, I’m going to spend a week in Cardiff, Wales, on the ultimate fangirl pilgrimage: I’m gonna hoop on Torchwood’s Invisible Lift at the Millenium Centre.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

SEX. THIS HAS GOT TO HAPPEN.

Also…no. That’s pretty much the all-encompassing thing.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

??Mmm. I can’t think of specific dates, but occasions: looking down across Las Vegas – a city I’ve come unaccountably to love after only being there twice – and marveling at the lights. The day my first big hoop video was posted on Hooping.org and got such a massive response. Thanksgiving, for spurring my ambition to never work holidays again and maybe to even be able to quit my job in 2010. The day I got my iPhone. The day we figured out what might have gone wrong with my leg and started rehabbing it. The day that fucking asshole flashed me in the coffeeshop. The first day I picked up a hoop. Yesterday, when Sanford brought me a fucking TARDIS for Christmas (it’s a USB hub. Also, AWESOME).

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year???

I took all the disparate bits of the novel I’ve been writing for two years and finally strung it together. I have seven chapters now. I just have to work out what’s next and finish it.

9. What was your biggest failure?

??Not finishing my novel. I feel compelled to do it, like I MUST do it. But I haven’t.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Some anemia in the beginning of 2009 scared the hell out of me, left me so tired and draggy and made me cry all the time. And a nagging leg ache from last year got so bad I actually bothered to have it looked at and it turns out I am prone to shin splints. Which if you ignore them become really, really serious injuries that you have to spend months rehabbing and you can’t dance or use an elliptical anymore and it pisses you off.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My iPhone and my eeePC. They are so awesome. I love gadgets.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

??Can’t think of anyone.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed???

Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and any other cowardly, fear-mongering right wing pundit blowhard out there. They disgust me.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Apart from bills? Hoopdance equipment, yarn and movies.

15. What did you get really excited about?

??Hooping! I love it. And running. Which is weird, but yeah. LOVE.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?

??The Halo/Walking on Sunshine mashup from Glee. Such pure, frenetic joy. Anything from Glee, really.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:?

– happier or sadder? Happier, mostly.
– thinner or fatter? Thinner, by about twenty pounds. Fitter.
– richer or poorer? My tax return says I made a little more this year.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of???

Cleaning house. It’s sad I am so bad at it.

And hooping. I always wish I could hoop more.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of???

Bitching about my asshole ex, only because he’s such a poor imitation of a human being that he’s really not worth my loathing.

20. How did you spend Christmas???

Went and visited the family in Louisiana.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?

??With hoopdancing, yes. Nothing else. Ooh, wait. Malabrigo Yarn. I fell in love with that a little.

22. What was your favorite TV program???

Glee and Dollhouse, hands down. And fuck Fox for canceling Dollhouse.

As ever, Doctor Who. Always Doctor Who…well, till Saturday night, anyway. Then we’ll see what happens when Matt Smith comes aboard as the new Doctor.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year???

Russell T Davies for the travesty he wrought on my beloved Torchwood, which HAD been my favorite TV show.

Well, I don’t HATE him but I certainly have some strongly negative feelings toward him.

24. What was the best book you read?

??Candy Girl, by Diablo Cody. I’m very late to the game, but it was so good. I also enjoyed Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death by Laurie Notaro so much that I have vowed to give a copy to all my girlfriends.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery??

I’ve always loved Big Country, but I had never heard them live till I bought “Come Up Screaming,” which was their one and only concert album. It is a work of genius. Stuart Adamson is missed greatly.

26. What did you want and get?

??An iPhone. I am not a complicated girl.

27. What did you want and not get?

I wanted to finish my novel. I wanted to go out on dates. I wanted to have SEX my GOD I wanted that.

But no. No sex for me. One year!

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

Apparently it was Boondock Saints II, for reasons I haven’t entirely figured out. I fucking loved that movie, damn it. It was sexy and violent and testosteroney and just fucking awesome.

I also really, really loved Bandslam, and not just because a friend of mine wrote it, thank you. It really was touching and funny and wonderful and I think it totally got the shaft from those Twilight sparkletaint-lickers at Summit Entertainment.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

??I worked. I think I went out to sushi on the weekend, and hung out with friends. I didn’t have a party, but I would like one next year. I turned 32.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

ONE ORGASM THAT I DIDN’T GIVE MYSELF.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?

Sensible yet flattering.

32. What kept you sane???

Knitting, hooping, running, and my excellent therapist.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I seem to have developed a startling and unexpected crush on Sean Patrick Flanery – GREAT ass – but I suspect my love and adoration for David Tennant will never die. And I do love my favorite gay, John Barrowman. Oooh! And Gareth David-Lloyd, rrrrrrrawr that Welsh accent.

34. What political issue stirred you the most???

Healthcare. Always healthcare. It baffles me how the half of this country that’s supposed to espouse Christian principles of charity and kindness to their fellow man completely wishes their fellow man would rot and die.

And gay marriage. I’m for it. Frankly, the biggest threat to straight marriage is the 50% divorce rate, so who cares what the gays do?

35. Who did you miss???

My friend Angie from high school. She was my best friend then, and every time I go home to Lake Charles/Westlake I see her face on a local business sign and think I need to go in and talk to her, and I never do. But I should. I do miss her.

36. Who was the best new person you met???

All of the hoopers I’ve met since I began dancing in April. You’re all wonderful, marvelous people.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.??

You can’t ever be unhappy in a hula hoop, so you should have one with you as often as you can manage it.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.??

How about my life? My favorite lyric is by my favorite band, and it stays with me all the time.

Pull up your head off the floor, come up screaming. – Big Country, “In A Big Country.”

I really ought to have that tattooed onto me somewhere. I may lose the thread of things sometimes, but somewhere in me the sentiment of that lyric is always present, keeping me going. Don’t lay down and give up, and don’t just drag yourself up and trudge through existing, either. If you’re beaten down, get the fuck back up and scream defiantly in the face of opposition.

Do not, under any circumstances, be a fucking pussy.

Unless there’s clowns. Then feel free.

Happy new year, popkins, I am very late for getting ready for a party. See you tomorrow. Ish. Well. Sometime next year.