2006, Year-End Meme
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pisica's amalgam of year-end memes, with the irritating questions expunged. I've made some adjustments to her version and added numbers.
[ 2003 | 2004 | 2005 ]
1. Where did you ring in 2006?
At home withniallm. As I recall, we were both so completely wiped out by the end of 2005 that the prospect of arranging babysitting was far beyond us.
2. What did you do in 2006 that you thought you would never do?
I never thought I'd be a "full-time", "stay-at-home", unpaid parent. The experience has changed my life in so many ways that I'll be processing it for a long time.
3. What else did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?
Attendant upon the previous answer, exchanged phone numbers with a perfect stranger in a park with a view to meeting up. (For the benefit of our kids. Obviously.) Visited Aran and Edinburgh. Built bookshelves. Gave up on NaNoWriMo half way through.
4. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Well, let's see. From last year:
Goals for 2006 include (you guessed it) decluttering, finishing one novel, making a concerted attempt to find a literary agent, slaying a selection of my more biddable demons, making new curtains for the living-room, getting into the habit of mending things, and being better prepared for the winter festivities than I was this year.
We did in fact declutter an enormous quantity of stuff this year - most notably one giant roll-on skipfull in September. And a few of my demons are definitely flagging, I think. On both of these fronts, however, there is much more to do. Other than that, hmmm, not so good. Didn't finish a novel (although I started a fresh one and I'm almost two-thirds of the way through the second draft of my Stunning Debut, the first draft of which I didn't in fact finish). Made no attempt whatsoever to find an agent, since the thought of doing so without having finished a novel first gives me the screaming heebie jeebies. The living room curtains are in progress, and will look AMAZING when they're finished. I am slightly more in the habit of mending things than I used to be. The winter festivities, once again, crept treacherously up on me, but I think it was marginally less knife-edge than 2005. Indeed, given that we had massive redecorations going on throughout October and November, and house guests in December, I think I didn't do too badly at all.
Goals for 2007 include decluttering, finishing the Stunning Debut, making a concerted attempt to find a literary agent, reading more than I have in the past few years, finding a sustainable work/life balance, putting order on our books, feeding my knitting and sewing selves, insulating the house, NOT embarking on any home improvements after August (you listening,niallm?), and learning to go to bed in time.
5. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
Oh, a finished novel. Please. I really thought this would be the year.
For the past couple of years I've answered "Enough sex. Enough sleep." to this question. That still stands - although I wish to say that improvements under both headings have been dramatic :-)
6. How did you earn your keep?
See, here's the thing: by the standard definition of the phrase, I didn't. I worked harder than I've ever worked before, doing work that I found infinitely more rewarding than any work I've ever done, for not only no money but a dizzying fall in social status, and I loved it. And that's so mind-boggling that I'm still not sure I fully get it. This year has been entirely revelatory.
7. Where did you go on holiday?
Lots of places in the first six months of the year. Plus Edinburgh in October.
8. Did anybody close to you have a baby?
hfnuala, ailbhe, and Mrs Prettyblood, the wife of an old school friend of Niall's.
9. Did anybody close to you get married?
londonn7 on 29 December, and two of Niall's college friends (to each other) in April.
10. Did anybody close to you die?
Thankfully, no. But the wife of my father's oldest friend died in June.
11. How did you spend your birthday, and what age were you?
Rather like last year, in fact: I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in the afternoon (the means to attend it ALONE being part of my present from Niall). In the evening my sister babysat, and Niall and I went to the cinema, where we saw The Devil Wears Prada. I was 32.
12. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Bookshelves! I designed and built a wallfull of shelves, in pineboard with ply facings, featuring a breakfront and curvy bits and such solidity that I was able to stand on the lower shelves while affixing the upper ones to their battens. They're not perfect, but they're great! And now they even have books on them, which makes them even better.
13. What was your biggest failure?
Time management with regard to the two paid projects I took on.
14. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Barely at all! Compared to 2005, I was disgustingly fit and healthy. My back's a wreck, I pulled a few muscles hefting the Oyster, and I got comprehensively scratched and grazed and splintered and so on when we were doing the DIY stuff, but I've emerged from 2006 essentially unscathed. Which was nice.
15. What were the best things you bought?
The materials to make the bookshelves. A new buggy.
16. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Niall's, Oisín's, and Niall's mother's.
17. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
That of the people who arranged and carried out the execution of Saddam.
18. Where did most of your money go?
As always, mortgage. And that's only going to get truer, with the ECB interest rate increases.
19. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Being an unpaid parent. Making the bookshelves.
20. What song will always remind you of 2006?
Possibly Billy Bragg's version of the Internationale: Oisín absolutely loves it and requests it several times most days at the moment.
21. Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder?
HAPPIER. Oh, yes. Immeasurably happier.
ii. thinner or fatter?
About the same, I think. Possibly a little fatter, since I have had neither a walking commute nor wasting stress and sadness to keep the pounds off.
iii. richer or poorer?
Impossibly, unbelievably richer in every way that I find important. But much poorer in terms of money - we took a 40% cut in household income when I went on my career break.
22. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Sleeping. Reading books.
23. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastinating about the living room and study walls. We spent ages in October and November trying to find someone to hang lining paper for us, before heaving a series of deep sighs and laying into it ourselves. If we'd skipped the dithering, we'd have saved ourselves several weeks of chaos and hell.
24. What did you want and get?
Happiness! Many, many decent nights' sleep.
25. What did you want and not get?
That elusive finished novel.
26. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
16-17 July.
27. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I fervently hope that this is the last time I answer this question thus: FINISHING MY FIRST NOVEL.
28. How did you spend Christmas?
Attending a series of events set in stone, as they have been for the past number of years: Christmas Eve lunch in my parents' house with family friends; Christmas Eve dinner in my uncle's house; Christmas Day dinner in my parents' house. Niall's mother came over on Christmas Day in the late morning to deliver a VAST MOUND of presents - mostly to Unny :-) On Stephen's Day we drove up to Belfast, as noted. Niall and I talked a bit about how nice it would be to host Christmas some time - and agreed that it's contingent on (among other things) getting our kitchen redone. Scheduled for this spring. We'll see.
29. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The Soviet Army Chorus and Band singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary".
30. What was your favorite TV programme?
Didn't really have one. I loved some episodes of Doctor Who and really, really hated others. We haven't had our TV connected since early October, when we moved everything out of the living room and study to get the floors done - not for any ideological reason, but simply because we haven't yet been able to find the time to sort out the cable spaghetti and get it all working again. I'm annoyed that we've been paying NTL all this time without availing of their service, but there's not much we can do about that.
31. What was the best book you read?
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - at last. Fabulous.
32. What was your favourite film of this year?
We watched very few, really. I thoroughly enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada (particularly the speech about the cerulean jumper): I thought it was far better than it had any right to be.
33. What political issue stirred you the most?
The marginalisation/ghettoisation of parenthood by the patriarchy; the widespread and wholesale sabotaging of breastfeeding, particularly by people who definitely should know better.
34. Whom did you miss?
londonn7, pleidhce, erisian, gibtsdochnicht, kulfuldi and all my other expat friends.
35. Who was the best new person you met?
A very new person:ailbhe's daughter Emer.
36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.
You are in a café. Near you is a large table full of parents with their small children. They are chatting, laughing, administering juice, wiping spills, herding strays back to the table, answering questions, saying rhymes, eating, drinking and so on. The lesson: these parents are WORKING. What they are doing is WORK. Not leisure, not having a break, not some easeful and faintly frivolous activity called "women's work", but genuine, important, productive, challenging WORK.
Sorry. I get ranty. It still shocks me that I never realised this until I did it for myself.
37. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
From Billy Bragg's "Internationale"
Let no-one build walls to divide us -
walls of hatred nor walls of stone.
Come, greet the dawn and stand beside us:
we'll live together or we'll die alone.
pisica's amalgam of year-end memes, with the irritating questions expunged. I've made some adjustments to her version and added numbers.[ 2003 | 2004 | 2005 ]
1. Where did you ring in 2006?
At home with
niallm. As I recall, we were both so completely wiped out by the end of 2005 that the prospect of arranging babysitting was far beyond us.2. What did you do in 2006 that you thought you would never do?
I never thought I'd be a "full-time", "stay-at-home", unpaid parent. The experience has changed my life in so many ways that I'll be processing it for a long time.
3. What else did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?
Attendant upon the previous answer, exchanged phone numbers with a perfect stranger in a park with a view to meeting up. (For the benefit of our kids. Obviously.) Visited Aran and Edinburgh. Built bookshelves. Gave up on NaNoWriMo half way through.
4. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Well, let's see. From last year:
Goals for 2006 include (you guessed it) decluttering, finishing one novel, making a concerted attempt to find a literary agent, slaying a selection of my more biddable demons, making new curtains for the living-room, getting into the habit of mending things, and being better prepared for the winter festivities than I was this year.
We did in fact declutter an enormous quantity of stuff this year - most notably one giant roll-on skipfull in September. And a few of my demons are definitely flagging, I think. On both of these fronts, however, there is much more to do. Other than that, hmmm, not so good. Didn't finish a novel (although I started a fresh one and I'm almost two-thirds of the way through the second draft of my Stunning Debut, the first draft of which I didn't in fact finish). Made no attempt whatsoever to find an agent, since the thought of doing so without having finished a novel first gives me the screaming heebie jeebies. The living room curtains are in progress, and will look AMAZING when they're finished. I am slightly more in the habit of mending things than I used to be. The winter festivities, once again, crept treacherously up on me, but I think it was marginally less knife-edge than 2005. Indeed, given that we had massive redecorations going on throughout October and November, and house guests in December, I think I didn't do too badly at all.
Goals for 2007 include decluttering, finishing the Stunning Debut, making a concerted attempt to find a literary agent, reading more than I have in the past few years, finding a sustainable work/life balance, putting order on our books, feeding my knitting and sewing selves, insulating the house, NOT embarking on any home improvements after August (you listening,
niallm?), and learning to go to bed in time.5. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
Oh, a finished novel. Please. I really thought this would be the year.
For the past couple of years I've answered "Enough sex. Enough sleep." to this question. That still stands - although I wish to say that improvements under both headings have been dramatic :-)
6. How did you earn your keep?
See, here's the thing: by the standard definition of the phrase, I didn't. I worked harder than I've ever worked before, doing work that I found infinitely more rewarding than any work I've ever done, for not only no money but a dizzying fall in social status, and I loved it. And that's so mind-boggling that I'm still not sure I fully get it. This year has been entirely revelatory.
7. Where did you go on holiday?
Lots of places in the first six months of the year. Plus Edinburgh in October.
8. Did anybody close to you have a baby?
hfnuala, ailbhe, and Mrs Prettyblood, the wife of an old school friend of Niall's.9. Did anybody close to you get married?
londonn7 on 29 December, and two of Niall's college friends (to each other) in April.10. Did anybody close to you die?
Thankfully, no. But the wife of my father's oldest friend died in June.
11. How did you spend your birthday, and what age were you?
Rather like last year, in fact: I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in the afternoon (the means to attend it ALONE being part of my present from Niall). In the evening my sister babysat, and Niall and I went to the cinema, where we saw The Devil Wears Prada. I was 32.
12. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Bookshelves! I designed and built a wallfull of shelves, in pineboard with ply facings, featuring a breakfront and curvy bits and such solidity that I was able to stand on the lower shelves while affixing the upper ones to their battens. They're not perfect, but they're great! And now they even have books on them, which makes them even better.
13. What was your biggest failure?
Time management with regard to the two paid projects I took on.
14. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Barely at all! Compared to 2005, I was disgustingly fit and healthy. My back's a wreck, I pulled a few muscles hefting the Oyster, and I got comprehensively scratched and grazed and splintered and so on when we were doing the DIY stuff, but I've emerged from 2006 essentially unscathed. Which was nice.
15. What were the best things you bought?
The materials to make the bookshelves. A new buggy.
16. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Niall's, Oisín's, and Niall's mother's.
17. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
That of the people who arranged and carried out the execution of Saddam.
18. Where did most of your money go?
As always, mortgage. And that's only going to get truer, with the ECB interest rate increases.
19. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Being an unpaid parent. Making the bookshelves.
20. What song will always remind you of 2006?
Possibly Billy Bragg's version of the Internationale: Oisín absolutely loves it and requests it several times most days at the moment.
21. Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder?
HAPPIER. Oh, yes. Immeasurably happier.
ii. thinner or fatter?
About the same, I think. Possibly a little fatter, since I have had neither a walking commute nor wasting stress and sadness to keep the pounds off.
iii. richer or poorer?
Impossibly, unbelievably richer in every way that I find important. But much poorer in terms of money - we took a 40% cut in household income when I went on my career break.
22. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Sleeping. Reading books.
23. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastinating about the living room and study walls. We spent ages in October and November trying to find someone to hang lining paper for us, before heaving a series of deep sighs and laying into it ourselves. If we'd skipped the dithering, we'd have saved ourselves several weeks of chaos and hell.
24. What did you want and get?
Happiness! Many, many decent nights' sleep.
25. What did you want and not get?
That elusive finished novel.
26. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
16-17 July.
27. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I fervently hope that this is the last time I answer this question thus: FINISHING MY FIRST NOVEL.
28. How did you spend Christmas?
Attending a series of events set in stone, as they have been for the past number of years: Christmas Eve lunch in my parents' house with family friends; Christmas Eve dinner in my uncle's house; Christmas Day dinner in my parents' house. Niall's mother came over on Christmas Day in the late morning to deliver a VAST MOUND of presents - mostly to Unny :-) On Stephen's Day we drove up to Belfast, as noted. Niall and I talked a bit about how nice it would be to host Christmas some time - and agreed that it's contingent on (among other things) getting our kitchen redone. Scheduled for this spring. We'll see.
29. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The Soviet Army Chorus and Band singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary".
30. What was your favorite TV programme?
Didn't really have one. I loved some episodes of Doctor Who and really, really hated others. We haven't had our TV connected since early October, when we moved everything out of the living room and study to get the floors done - not for any ideological reason, but simply because we haven't yet been able to find the time to sort out the cable spaghetti and get it all working again. I'm annoyed that we've been paying NTL all this time without availing of their service, but there's not much we can do about that.
31. What was the best book you read?
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - at last. Fabulous.
32. What was your favourite film of this year?
We watched very few, really. I thoroughly enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada (particularly the speech about the cerulean jumper): I thought it was far better than it had any right to be.
33. What political issue stirred you the most?
The marginalisation/ghettoisation of parenthood by the patriarchy; the widespread and wholesale sabotaging of breastfeeding, particularly by people who definitely should know better.
34. Whom did you miss?
londonn7, pleidhce, erisian, gibtsdochnicht, kulfuldi and all my other expat friends.35. Who was the best new person you met?
A very new person:
ailbhe's daughter Emer.36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.
You are in a café. Near you is a large table full of parents with their small children. They are chatting, laughing, administering juice, wiping spills, herding strays back to the table, answering questions, saying rhymes, eating, drinking and so on. The lesson: these parents are WORKING. What they are doing is WORK. Not leisure, not having a break, not some easeful and faintly frivolous activity called "women's work", but genuine, important, productive, challenging WORK.
Sorry. I get ranty. It still shocks me that I never realised this until I did it for myself.
37. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
From Billy Bragg's "Internationale"
Let no-one build walls to divide us -
walls of hatred nor walls of stone.
Come, greet the dawn and stand beside us:
we'll live together or we'll die alone.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-02 01:40 pm (UTC)It is so shocking to me how much of a revelation it is to each and every one of us. Standard feminism of the sort I espoused at 18 has it that no woman would stay at home if they weren't brain washed into it. When friends of mine chose it anyway, I thought it was because society is so stacked against mother of young children working outside the home that they had no choice and if they did, they wouldn't make that one. Now I realise that's not true either and don't know where to start rebuilding my axioms.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-02 03:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-04 01:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-02 05:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-02 06:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-05 10:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-08 10:33 am (UTC)It was lovely to see you, if all too brief. Do please come for dinner or similar in March. I hope your 2007 will be at least as good as my 2006.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-06 02:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-06 10:20 pm (UTC)(I enjoyed your welding mightily, too. Can't wait to hear all your adventures from the night!)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-06 11:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-08 10:38 am (UTC)Your welding was STUNNINGLY good! Best bit was how delighted you both looked throughout (yes, even when you were crying...). Hope marriage is treating youse well :-)