1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Chased a tornado, put my mental health first, drove 1,500 miles, got sued, went bankrupt, helped someone take their first steps, and heard someone call me Mama.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? If I made resolutions last year, I don’t remember them. Things were kind of ugly then.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? The mouse that lived under our bathtub gave birth, and I think she was about six inches away from my ass when it happened. That’s pretty close.

4. Did anyone close to you die? No

5. What countries did you visit? Even though Oklahoma and Arkansas felt like different planets, I don’t think they count.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? Pride in my work, appropriate medication.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? 3/27/09: the day I walked away from the career I’d spent 10 years building, 4/13/09: The day I got out of the car back in Florida and was able to call it home again, 4/14/09: The day my son turned one year old.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Recognizing an unfixable situation and having the guts to get myself out of it, in spite of the high cost.

9. What was your biggest failure? Allowing people into a position where they knew I was weak.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Just bugs, colds, and the flu. Oh, and some light mental illness thrown in to spice things up.

11. What was the best thing you bought? After hunting high and low, I stumbled on a great deal on a totally decadent stroller.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My husband was my hero. He gave up so much to get me into a situation that was better for my mental health. He’s never once made me feel guilty for putting him in that position.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? If I’d had the luxury of living outside my own head this year, I’d be really grossed out by Sarah Palin with her death panel nonsense and Glen Beck and the ridiculous birther crap. In my world, I was appalled and depressed by the behavior of my old boss who is clearly a good man and dedicated father who has somehow become desperate enough to be successful that he’s willing to ruin lives to do it.



14. Where did most of your money go? Our biggest single expense was for the Bankruptcy attorney, but if we’re talking about repetitive bills we paid out a lot for cars and houses that we don’t even have anymore.

15. What did you get really excited about? Moving home and starting a new job.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009? The song that other people will know about is Boom Boom Pow by BEP. However, the one that hits home with me the most is the “Celebrate You” song that Disney World plays at the end of the, “Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it!” parade. My contacts act up every time I hear it.

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

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I wish I’d been better at keeping in touch with friends.
Cleaned house. Taken care of myself physically.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? I wish I hadn’t second guessed myself and beaten myself up about the decision to leave my old job.

20. How did you spend Christmas? At Sea World, after all of our family flaked out on us. We had a blast together.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009? I fell in love with my son every single day.

22. What was your favorite TV program? If I had to narrow it down to one show, it would be Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel for pure cheese. The truth is that I’m a huge TV junkie. My other favorites are American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Glee, Bones, and Fringe. So, why is it that I’ve watched more Mickey Mouse Clubhouse than anything else?

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Oh yeah. You’d better believe it. There’s someone I wish would die in a fire.

24. What was the best book you read? I read a lot of trash this year, including the whole Twilight series (I won’t say “saga”. You can’t make me.) I’d say the actual “best” thing I read was my annual re-read of Wicked.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Man, I just was not about the branching out musically this year. The best musical discovery I found was that if I sang the theme song to “My Friends Tigger and Pooh” really slowly I could get my son to fall asleep.

26. What did you want and get? I wanted to be in Florida for my son’s first birthday, and I was here. The circumstances were WAY different than I expected, though.

27. What did you want and not get? A favorable decision on my unemployment case.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? Oh, you guys, one of the only things that bums me out about parenthood is not being able to go to the movies. Everything I watched was out of date, so I can’t even really remember. Maybe the newest Harry Potter movie? Surely there was something better than that, but I don’t remember.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I do not have a single memory of my 34th birthday. Things were already kind of circling the drain for us in Oklahoma by that point.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If I’d had the good sense to say “No” when I was asked to move to Oklahoma.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? “Is this shirt long enough to cover my gut?”

32. What kept you sane? Yeah. Nothing. I see the psychiatrist in late January and I need to get some shit figured out.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Does this thing think I’m 17 and British?

34. What political issue stirred you the most? Gay Marriage. I’m so disgusted that we’re even voting on something that should be a civil right. Marriage is a civil contract and should be available to everyone. Churches can make their own rules about which unions they’ll give their blessings to, but that should have nothing to do with legal marriage.

35. Who did you miss? I missed my husband while he was working terrible hours at his awful new job that he only has because he loves me so much.

36. Who was the best new person you met? There’s a girl at my new job that I’m kinda thinking is going to end up being a kindred spirit. The jury is still out, but I may have actually made a friend.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. No amount of money is enough to make it worthwhile to be away from home and family.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. “Beats so big I’m stepping on Leprechauns.” This year was really about that absurd. Bring on 2010, maybe this year will make a little more sense.