In Excelsis Deo

It's December 28, and there are three days left in 2008. The kittens are eating delicious kitten food, my tummy is full of barbecue Fritos and clementines, I've finally caught up on the current season of CSI (thanks to Netflix on demand), and so it is time for the year-end wrap up!!

Year: 2008

Age: 20

Idol: Tina Fey. and Martin Sheen.

Favorite Song: Of the entire year, that would probably be "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," originally by Bobby D, but I enjoy the Peter Paul & Mary version, or Joan Baez with the Indigo Girls. Presently, "Live Your Life" by T.I. and Rihanna.

Prized Possession: my kittens. but if we're talking material goods, it is not a close second- my silk organza cocktail dress from BCBG. also, kittens.

Best Shoes: Oh frick, all of them. I got a pair of BCBGs that I really love but they don't fit because I haven't doctored them yet. I have a lot of shoes and I love them all. I have a new pair that I enjoy highly.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
-Got kittens!
-took a break from school
-lived in my own apartment, for which I paid my own rent
-got to choose a roommate instead of having one assigned to me
-quit my job
-volunteered for a political purpose
-VOTED FOR PRESIDENT
-seen a counselor I liked on a regular basis
-played golf
-helped organize a charity golf tournament

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I am pretty sure that my resolutions in 2008 were to "be a college student" and "get grades." so... I was halfway good on each of those.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes, well, in the family. there is Baby Cleo, and also Baby Beloved. Also, the mother of my kittens. Ok that doesn't count.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Stella :(

5. What countries did you visit?
um. USofA.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
more energy, more focus (on small and big levels), and more organizational skill

7. What date(s) from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
May 2
August 1
October 3
November 4


8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Living on my own and not going crazy! being independent in like a million ways.

9. What was your biggest failure?
the Russian Revolution.

10. Did you suffer any illness or injury?
Yeah I had freaking Disease Of The Century that kept me in bed for a week and a half.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Ok... obviously my kittens. $80, two for the price of one! other than that, hard to say. Love my Ikea furniture, and all the clothes I got, and all the music I bought, and the movies, and the shoes.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Gaby Fox. Tina Fey.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Jorja Fox. Sarah Palin.

14. Where did most of your money go?
rent, furniture, kittens, clothes, shoes. probably in that order.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the West Wing, weekends, Obama rally at AU, Election Day. Not in that order.

16. What song(s!) will always remind you of 2008?
We Looked Like Giants - Death Cab for Cutie
Run - Snow Patrol
When You Were Young - The Killers
Sahra - Khaled
Don't Stop Believin' - Journey
All These Things That I've Done - The Killers
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) - Beyonce
Piece of Me - Britney Spears
Umbrella - Rihanna
Push Up On Me - Rihanna
Live Your Life - T.I. and Rihanna
Yes We Can - Wil.I.Am

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? hm. likely happier.
ii. thinner or fatter? probably about the same
iii. richer or poorer? richer?
iv. younger or older? I am exactly one year older.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
going out into DC.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
sucking at life.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Well, I went to midnight mass (or as close to it, as Dean Lloyd said) at the National Cathedral, and sat across the aisle from Joe "Toolbag" Scarborough and his exceedingly attractive family. Then on Christmas day I slept pretty much all day, and cleaned my apartment.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
NO Thank God

23. How many one-night stands?
what?

24. What was your favorite TV program?
-30 Rock
-The West Wing
-Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
-Sports Night
-Scrubs
-The L Word
-CSI

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Ugh. Yes.

26. What was the best book you read?
Um I didn't read that much, unfortunately. One Day of Life by Manlio Argueta was pretty powerful. that's all I can remember.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Rihanna. Yeah, that's right. also, hip-hop/rap, and dancehall, and electronica. Vienna Teng, though with her I have more discovering to do. Scissor Sisters.

28. What did you want and get?
kittens. a job. a temporary boy toy.

29. What did you want and not get?
the ability to concentrate.

29.5. What did you get and not want?
well, the freaking virus I had. and cat barf on my bed.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
I don't know that I have one favorite. Here's a short list.
-Monsoon Wedding
-Outsourced
-In America
-The Mission
-Bull Durham
-WallE

31. What did you do on your birthday?
Ate cake, went to a baseball game. But really my birthday was 3 weeks long, and in that time I did a lot of shopping for me.

32. What surprised you most this year?
that Americans are smarter than I thought.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
numerous.

34. What kept you sane?
My friendssssss, my kittens, sleep, my friends, Deanna, ballet, choir, my friends, Eileen freaking Findlay, Amanda, Oregon, the zoo, my friends, Dar Williams, my sister.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Tina Fey. I... FANCY YOU. Martin Sheen. Bradley Whitford.

36. What political issue/news story stirred you the most?
oh maybe this little thing called the new President-Elect. fired up and ready to go!
also... Prop 8.

37. Who did you miss?
Gaby, Emily, Dinisha, Maddy, Lindsey, Paige, Natalie, Deanna, my sister and my mommy, Stella, more Stella, and more Stella

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Maeg and Niki. also, Zoe and Rhett. and Tara. and Robyn, and Martin, and Fed, and Nan and Jake, and I guess Bob is pretty cool. some of those were technically 2007.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
It is perfectly acceptable to spend a year spoiling yourself (also known as putting yourself first for once).

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
I cried my tears
for three good years
you can't be mad at me

also

just live your life

but mostly

in the unlikely story that is America
there has never been anything false
about hope

Transition

Bad days suck.

Terrible days suck really badly.

Days where you start off with a splitting headache and come to work 2 hours late, get chastised not once or twice but three times for the fact that it's ridiculously hard and sometimes nearly impossible for you to do your job to your bosses' standards, and then you walk home at 8pm in the sheets of ice cold rain with no rain boots but just satin ballet flats from Old Navy and tears streaming down your face along with the rain and you get splashed by the cars zooming down the Rockville Pike which only makes you cry harder... those days suck really really badly.


On the other hand, those days make some little things seem really amazing.

Like when you get to the Rockville Metro station, you see that the up escalator is broken, but the Metro fixer dudes remembered to switch the down escalator to go up so you don't have to walk up all the stairs at normal speed.

Like when you press the elevator button in the Tenleytown Metro, you don't have to wait because the elevator is waiting there just behind the doors, ready to chime and open just for you.

Like when you get home and your kittens are warm and cuddly and very cute and so hungry and so happy to see you. purr meow chirp meow meow purrrrrrr

Like when you go over to your friends' apartment to see if they are up for hanging out and destressing, they are all sitting on the couch in your very own standard sitting position under a big blanket and watching the series finale of one of your very favorite TV shows. And then those friends help you start looking for a new job!!!

Also, like this.

Happiness: November 30

THING THIRTY:

Ok, today is the last day of Month of Happiness. Rough, right? so here we have a good one.

Stomping in puddles!!! wearing rain boots!!!

I was on my way to work today, and it was raining, and I was cranky a little bit mostly because I was going to work on the weekend. I stomped along the bridge over the Pike, which is the safer way for me to go to work albeit a little longer, because it doesn't involve me crossing 11 lanes of Death Traffic, but only 4 lanes of Death Traffic. there are big wide steps at the end of the bridge that lead down to the Rockville Town Centre (it's -re instead of -er, because the Rockvillains Rockvillians out there in 'burbtown are verrrry sophistique), which has a delicious California Tortilla, and also a movie theater, and some other stuff.

On the 7th step down, I could see that there was a puddle! and so I figured that it would be the perfect time to jump off the 6th onto the 7th. So I jumped with both feet/polka dotted boots.

Turns out the 7th Step Puddle was much deeper than I expected! Suddenly I was soaked up to my knees, and down inside my boots, and simultanously I remembered that I had experienced 7th Step Puddle previously, with a similar result... only at that time, I was in my Danskos and didn't splash, but did end up briefly standing in 2 inches of water.

I was dismayed for about 4 seconds, until I realized: I had just splashed in a big puddle! AWESOME.

Then I stomped in three or four more puddles on the way. None quite as deep, but still satisfactorily splashy.

I am incrimentally realizing how much I love it when it rains. It makes me cranky for a little while, until I realize how infrequently it does rain here. and really, that is what makes me cranky.

Washington DC, I command you to be more like Oregon!!!

Egg Nog Frappucino and Snowman Gingerbread Cookie (Day 29)

I offered to trade with my sister, who is doing NaPhoPoMo on her blog, so that she could post a happy thing today and I could post a photo, so here I have a photo for today that I took!

Ok this is a little bit more consumerist than I would like, but this is what made me happy today:

it is out of focus because it is my cell phone camera, and these things happen.

An egg nog frappucino and a gingerbread snowman cookie from Starbucks!! The key here is the egg nog and the gingerbread cookie, not the "frappucino" or "snowman" or "Starbucks." Actually the snowman bit was pretty cool, and I had a really hard time eating his face; he was just so happy!!

There was Christmas music playing, which was okay, even though it's only 2 days after Thanksgiving, because it was all pretty good. In fact, the second song that I heard after I arrived was by Alison Krauss, and Alison never ever gets old.

Anyone in DC want to go ice skating right now? The rink in the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art opened 2 weeks ago and I haven't been yet...

Happiness: November 26, 27, 28

Okay I have been lazy... or busy and sleeping and eating. So here are some happy things!!!

THING TWENTY-SIX: good dance music! This includes Single Ladies, and Piece of Me (I know, months later and I'm still obsessed with the song), as well as the MJ classic Beat It, and above all, any pajduska, or cocek. (you really just have to watch that video, of the weird Serbian dude...)

THING TWENTY-SEVEN: Stuffing. I just really love stuffing. with or without pinenuts. I hate celery in almost all forms, unless it's in stuffing. Apricots in my stuffing, great. Gravy on or off, great. freaking. love. stuffing. also, most of the rest of Thanksgiving food, but especially stuffing.

THING TWENTY-EIGHT: Etsy.com. Seriously! so great! you can find soooo much cool stuff (for example), and usually at pretty reasonable prices with super awesomely cheap shipping! I really want this, with the year 1859, but I could probably find similar/better for cheaper, so I am waiting.

Happiness: November 25

THING TWENTY-FIVE: Baloney Cat. You might find this lame, but the following picture, without fail, always makes me happy.

(from icanhascheezburger.com)

This cat sings the baloney song to me in a Cookie Monster voice. man it just looooves its lunchmeat.

and really, who doesn't?

So whenever I am feeling crappy, or someone else is feeling crappy, I open up this picture and then dance around my apartment singing Baloney Cat's baloney song. I mean, literally, 4 minutes ago, I was crying because I read a sad obituary, and then I thought "well there's nothing I can do about it, so I'm going to look at Baloney Cat" so I did, and now I feel much better. and my throat hurts a little from doing Baloney Cat/Cookie Monster's voice. so worth it.

Happiness: November 24

THING TWENTY-FOUR: what makes me happy today is combining multiple Happy Things!

Currently, I am working on Thing 18, Thing 22, and Thing 23, with a modified Thing 3 (I am reading ExpressNightOut, which is the online version of Thing 3's job, and it is this which is causing Thing 18).

I feel a little like an Oregon hippy transplanted to DC... oh wait!

Happiness: November 23

THING TWENTY-THREE: Well, today seems to be the right day for me to profess my love of salad.

salad salad salad.

A couple weeks ago, we were trying to decide what we were going to have for lunch (a life-or-death dilemma every.single.day), and all of a sudden one of my bosses goes "GIANT! SALAD! SALAD!??? GIANT!! SALAD!!!!" and I stared at him for about three seconds and broke out laughing. Then he looked at me as if I didn't know what he was talking about, which I obviously didn't. Apparently Giant Food has a crazytastic salad bar, a la Whole Foods, but cheaper? by about $1/lb. but still, that adds up when you get 4 pounds of salad.

That salad was mighty delicious. Especially since Giant Salad Boss bought! that is always nice.

I had another salad today! this time it was a post-mock trial breakdown from Whole Foods. 2 pounds of lettuce, beets, garbanzo beans, carrots, corn, peas, a chunk of char, some maple sweet potatoes, three whole wheat dumplings, some shrimps, grilled mango, and some dressing that was mislabeled as balsamic vinaigrette but tasted more sesame-ish, a shot of curry pumpkin soup, and then also some of my friend Lauren's rice and curry chicken. I especially love salad when it has 3 million random things included with it!

Happiness: November 22

THING TWENTY-TWO: I FREAKING LOVE NPR.

NATIONAL. PUBLIC. RADIO. I LOVE YOU.

Last night in the cab home from formal, I realized the radio was tuned to WAMU, and suddenly started professing my undying love for NPR. The cab driver giggled at me, and then I continued to explain all the programs I listen to... It was really dorky but you know what? I don't care. because NPR and me, we're like this:

Happiness: November 21

THING TWENTY-ONE: Ice cream sammiches!! I have had two in the past two days! it's 32 degrees out and has been snowing on and off, so I figure now is as good a time as any to have ice cream sammiches.

mmm, high fructose corn syrup.

Also another thing that makes me happy, the word sammich.

Happiness: November 20

THING TWENTY: Yes, I'm posting late and post-dating back to the 20th. But it's for a good reason. Because Thing That Makes Me Happy #20 is a clean apartment! and clean sheets! and a clean litterbox! and clean laundry (put away!!!)!

Clean fridge and clean dishes are coming up next.

also, I clean the litterbox every day, but I really just wanted to add something more to the clean theme. and it makes the kittens happy.

Happiness: November 19

THING NINETEEN: going to bed early!!

going to bed early with kittens!

Slow News Day

Except it's not really slow! the media just wants us to THINK it's slow because there's nothing outrageous that Amy Winehouse has done in the past 24 hours,

Three news stories which should be a huge deal for everyone, but you probably don't know much about. Here, I have done the first step in your research:

1. Somali Pirates! This shit is CRAZY. these pirates (far more Johnny Depp than Napster) have been taking over ships and holding them ransom. And then India blew up one of the pirate ships! It's very exciting and dramatic, but I'm also kind of worried that the Somali Pirates will take over the world. This is the Next Big Thing.
   
2. Cyber bullying is really shitty. This adult woman pretended to be a 16 year old boy online, and deceived a 13 (THIRTEEN!!) year old girl, ended up telling the girl that no one would ever want her and that she'd be better off dead. The girl hanged herself. Not ok, folks, not ok. Also, this is a huge deal because it's going to revolutionize Internet law, of which there is relatively little currently.
   
3. VP Cheney and former AG Gonzales were indicted yesterday in South Texas. I don't understand it other than that it involves federal prisons. We'll see more on this in the future, likely. Here is another article about the same story, but with a really funny picture.
   

I fully expect you to take this and run with it. Do research! Google News is your friend! Learn about what is happening! It's worth putting off your homework for. The world is more important than stats problems.

Also it was 20 degrees outside when I left for work today. augh!

Happiness: November 18

THING EIGHTEEN: Laughing. Ok, that's cliche. but it's more specific than that!

My enjoyment of laughter causes me to appreciate other things! Things such as:

• Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me! I know my momma says it's bad for me, but I like to listen to the podcast of Wait Wait before I go to sleep at night. She says it will give me weird dreams, but it doesn't seem to. I just really love laughing as I fall asleep. Nothing during the day can bother me, and stuff can't hang over my head, because I'm laughing at something Paula Poundstone said to Tom Brokaw. I like that. The side effect of this, of course, is that I repeat episodes because there is only one a week, and I have to fall asleep 7 days in every week. I think I am probably their most avid listener. I listen nearly every single day!
  

• 30 Rock Yay for Netflix! I have the 3rd disc of Season 1 right now. and I'm being surprisingly good about not watching it all at once!

• Tina Fey, in general

• funny things that my kittens do, such as beg me for piggyback rides, and knock things over and then look at me like "You can't do anything to me, because (a) you love me and (b) I'm really cute!" This is the kind of situation in which I look sternly at kitten on top of bookshelf, with glass on carpet (unbroken, thankfully) and 50 bottlecaps all over everywhere, and then I turn around and giggle, so he can't see me.
  

• RUBY JUNE!!!!!!!

Happiness: November 17

THING SEVENTEEN: The voicemail from my sister that I got on Saturday night! My phone died, and I just checked my messages today because I'm lame at checking voicemail.

"[robot woman voice] Next message, received Saturday November 15th at 5:17pm [end robot woman voice, begin sister woman voice] I put Ruby in my sweatshirt, and it's really funny. Your phone went dead; I hope that you're not being mugged. Ruby's wearing my sweatshirt. Okbye!"

For anyone who is not familiar, this is Ruby:

(She's the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House)

Yes. She is very silly. This is why she makes me happy! Both Ruby, and my sister!!

Happiness: November 16

THING SIXTEEN: Soup. Soup makes me really happy.

TOO BAD I DON'T HAVE ANY.

Happiness: November 15

THING FIFTEEN: Protests!!!!

Today a friend from high school, who is in DC, and I had lunch on Capitol Hill, and then headed over towards the Capitol reflecting pool to find the protest against California Proposition 8. or perhaps, the rally in support of overturning Prop 8, or maybe just the rally in support of gay rights. In any case, we were like 2 hours late, so by the time we got to the reflecting pool, after walking through five minutes of torrential downpour, the march was already at the Washington Monument.

We didn't know it was quite that far ahead of us, so we ended up getting sidetracked in a bunch of people with Tibetan flags, which I finally realized was the protest against China at the G20 summit today, here in Washington. The Chinese guys were across the street, with Chinese and American flags. Go Tibet!!




Further down, past the Monument, we finally caught up with the couple thousand people marching. we were going towards the White House when suddenly Marine One flew over and landed on the South Lawn! so that was pretty cool. Then we ended up in Lafayette Park, which is where we were on Election Night, only there were far less people, but the same general spirit of excitement that comes when you have a large group of people together excited about doing things.


And so that was the first two protests, and then of course there is the protest against nuclear warfare that has been in front of the White House since the late 1980s, I believe. So those were my three protests today!!

(I edited the colors and stuff on this so you could read the sign a little better--it just looked like "Marriage Bigotry," which is not the point at all)

Then I protested going to choir by accidentally sleeping until 5 minutes after call time, so I showed up 35 minutes late. However, this turned out to be fortuitous, because first! I was walking up Massachusetts Avenue and saw two flying squirrels on a tree! and then there were loud sirens, which is not out of the ordinary, but it was for the South Korean Presidential Motorcade! So I saw some flying squirrels and the South Korean President('s limo and other cars)!!!

kitten is protesting the flash on my camera.

this is what happens when you wear your most favorite cushy comfy socks in your Danskos in the torrential rain. They're so soaking you can see my toes through them, and these are thick socks. You're lucky I didnt take a picture of the bottom... it's pretty gross.

Also, because I have been slacking on on-time posting lately, here is a bonus happy thing:



it starts a little lame but it gets really good, so just wait for it.

Happiness: November 14

THING FOURTEEN: This is an abstract thing, but hopefully it makes sense. The thing that makes me happy today is things that are familiar.

For example, I was in the elevator coming up from the Metro yesterday and saw a dude with an old Nokia candy bar phone, which just happened to be very similar to my mom's first (or maybe second) cell phone. Something about his phone was very comforting. Like a blast from the past. Simpler times, when phones didn't take pictures or video or have the internet. Not that I don't love those things, because I do.

And then tonight I had a meeting with a professor that I had in Freshman year. We weren't meeting on anything in particular, we planned just to have s soda or whatever, and chat about the election. We didn't talk much about the election, but instead mostly about me, which made me uncomfortable a little bit. In any case, she's one of my favorite professors ever, and she reminds me that good, intelligent people always exist somewhere.

Happiness: November 13

THING THIRTEEN: Ethiopian food! I'm craving it. no time this weekend, unfortunately. :( also, expensive, and far. but it will make me sooo happy when I get it!!

Happiness: November 12

THING TWELVE: THIS makes me so. freaking. happy.

Woo Oregon!