Questions, Questions

Sun., January 2, 10:40 PM

I’m hearing a lot of New Year’s questions, and you know I can’t stand hearing a question without wanting to contribute my two cents’ worth. Actually, I’ve already dealt with some of these. In case you want to know more, you can follow the links.

A lot of people – not to mention the newspaper – asked “How did you spend New Year’s Eve?”
I spent this New Year’s Eve with the same man as the previous thirty-six. Since we neither went out nor had guests, I just made food he liked. Baked beans with little franks. Meatballs in dipping sauce. Macaroni salad. Mini apple pies.

I napped around ten. When I got up, he had gone to bed, but the TV was still on. I stayed up till midnight and went to bed myself, and then I heard him get up and watch the “Twilight Zone” marathon. It was okay – all of it.

This questionnaire has been making the rounds of Diaryland. It brings up some interesting points.

  1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before?
    Six months of chemotherapy and seven weeks of daily radiation. I’m fine, but I hope I never have to do it again.
  2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
    No, and no. I answered this one just a couple of days ago .
  3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
    Not as far as I know. There’s always a possibility that one of my cousins – to whom I was close years ago – did so, but I haven’t heard of anyone.
  4. Did anyone close to you die?
    No one since the end of 2003.
  5. What countries did you visit?
    I haven’t even been out of Connecticut!
  6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
    If you mean something physical, probably nothing as much as space. I would like to have my energy level back. I would like to be able to use my eyes without getting caught up in the glasses/no glasses/glasses-plus-magnifier routine.
  7. What date from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
    August 22 is the date that Husband went into the hospital. I remember that as well as the date of my surgery and the date of my last chemo treatment. I hope to forget them.
  8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
    Sorry to sound corny: survival.
  9. What was your biggest failure?
    I can’t say there was one. There were things I hoped would happen that didn’t, but none of them were anything that I could have changed.
  10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
    Go read Question 1. Otherwise, I’m in pretty good shape for the shape I’m in.
  11. What was the best thing you bought?
    Did I buy anything out of the ordinary? I don’t think so. But my kids got me an automatic garage door opener.
  12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
    All of my kids, in one way or another. I have to stop bragging about them.
  13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
    People who think their beliefs are so perfect that they have to inflict them on others. People who have to put others down in order to make themselves feel tall. I’m thinking they are two sides of the same coin.
  14. Where did most of your money go?
    Medical expenses. And trying to recoup money I lent to someone who didn’t pay it back.
  15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
    March Madness – specifically University of Connecticut basketball.
  16. What song will always remind you of 2004?
    No one song. The trend I’m enjoying is hearing so many young artists going back to the standards that I love.
  17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    1. Happier or sadder?
      Can’t say that I’m either one.
    2. thinner or fatter?
      I have been almost the exact same weight for the past almost seven years. However, I do think the cargo has shifted.
    3. richer or poorer?
      The numbers seem to be going down. I’ll add something to my last economics comment. My expensive health insurance plan made a change that reduced my monthly payment by $4. It increased my prescription co-pay by $20. do you think I’ll ever come out ahead?
  18. What do you wish you'd done more?
    I would like to have read more. Mostly I’ve been reading short things and dippin’ books, the kind that won’t tire me out before I lose the thread.
  19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
    Watching television. It’s what I do when I can’t read.
  20. How will you be spending Christmas?
    I don’t really celebrate it, y’know. But I spent some pleasant time with people who do.
  21. Did you fall in love in 2004?
    Not me. You must have been talking to some other girl.
  22. How many one-night stands?
    Never in a million years.
  23. What was your favorite TV program?
    CSI. Um, New Detectives. And both Cold Case and Cold Case Files – one fictional, one documentary.
  24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
    When you hate people, you lose more than they do. I don’t waste my time on that. Hatred is for stupidity and greed, conditions that deserve my consideration.
  25. What was the best book you read?
    I started the new Anne Perry series set in World War I: No Graves As Yet.
  26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
    There isn’t much new that I care for, not this year.
  27. What did you want and get?
    Well.
  28. What was your favorite film of this year?
    I did not set foot in a theater this year – doctor’s orders. On DVD, “Shrek II” was pretty good.
  29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
    I turned 64. I couldn’t go out to a restaurant, but U.D. offered to get me something from my favorite, Royal Palace. When she walked in, they immediately said, “It’s your mother’s birthday.”
  30. What's one thing that would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
    I could say a different outcome to the presidential election, but the actual change would have been too slow to be truly satisfying. The change in mindset is yet to come.
  31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2003?
    Fashion concept? Stay warm. Keep covered. Vanity is my survival trait, but it was harder without hair.
  32. What kept you sane?
    Writing helped. On the other hand, there are times when I’m sure I’m not sane.
  33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
    I still keep Leonard Nimoy and Sandy Koufax on the back burner, but William Petersen is nice.
  34. What political issue stirred you the most?
    My feeling that everything is driven more by greed than by concern for the people. Everybody’s got an agenda.
  35. Whom did you miss?
    Almost everyone I’ve ever lost, at one time or another. I do have a hard time letting go. I also missed a great job that I lost about fifteen years ago.
  36. Who was the best new person you met?
    Between the job where I seldom, if ever, meet anyone and the necessity of avoiding crowds, I met hardly anyone new. Ms. P, my son’s ladyfriend, is a lovely person.
  37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004:
    Sometimes it’s okay to ask for help.
  38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
    I, the collector of lyrics, can’t think of a thing. “…How can you lose what you’ve never owned?...”

That was a long exercise.



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