Hubuduh What?

two to the thousand six
2007-01-02 : 4:46 pm

Guess what I did today? I BECAME FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE!!!

I did it all in one day, yessiree.

Okay maybe not, but I took some huge-ass steps forward in the financially responsible department. I feel like a grownup. Like maybe I should go have a dirty martini with onions in a fancy glass instead of a Bud Light in a red Solo cup. And yes, I am perfectly aware that I should have written this entry when I was twenty-two instead of now, when I'm twenty-four. OKAY TWENTY-SEVEN!

It's not that I don't completely ENJOY paying $500 in late fees on an initial Auld Navee credit card purchase of $113, or that I don't LOVE having people who do not know my language calling my mom because that is the last known number listed in my dust-covered file... it's just that someday I really do want to open a LYS (local yarn shop) and someday I really do want to feel like a grown up, and this boy that I'm in love with is so ridiculously ON TIME with his payments (he's even paid stuff OFF!) that he's making me want to be better at it, too.

And yes, if he said "Let's go jump off the Tobin Bridge" I just might do it. Except that I just found out this weekend that for the past 20 years (since I've heard of the Tobin Bridge) I've been completely wrong as to its location. I thought the Leonard P. Zaphod Beeblebrox Bridge was the Tobin. Boy, was I WRONG! Heh heh heh... Actually, I wouldn't jump off any bridge. Heights scare me.

Anyway, I realized today that after the receipt of my next paycheck I will have one of my student loans paid completely off. You can be damn sure a cake will be baked in my honor and many margaritas will be had when that happens.

Meanwhile, here is another Reflections On 2006 whatchamacallit (I'm still not entirely convinced that "meme" is the right word, though I see it more and more often) that I found on Claudia's blog.

And if you don't feel like reading my ramblings about the past year, please feel free to go here and laugh, with my compliments.

1. What did you do in 2006 that you?'d never done before? I shot a film. Two, in fact. I drank tequila in Mexico. I had outside sex.

2. Did you keep your new year?s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't make them, it feels to me that if I resolve to do something, and I call it a "New Year's Resolution," I'm simply setting myself up for failure, so I simply refuse to make them.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes, my best friend Daphne gave birth to her beautiful daughter, whose name I can't remember. Just kidding, it's Lea. :)

4. Did anyone close to you die? Ken's stepmom passed away in September. I only met her three times, but she was lovely and I'm still very sad for Ken's father and her wonderful family.

5. What countries did you visit? Mexico. Ay! Ay! A dios mio!

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006? A sense of purpose and direction. Plus a feeling of stability.

7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Whenever it was in April that I went to Los Angeles to visit my sister and my friend, John. That was an absolutely amazing trip; May 27, our first date (though the outing itself wasn't as memorable as our second) and June 11, our first kiss, which was quite memorable; July 15th, the day we shot the first film I made; August 11, the day my fool back went out and started me on this ridiculously expensive journey of rehabilitation. Thank you, Blue Shield/Blue Cross, for being so damn stingy in your chiropractic benefits; October 14th, the Notes reunion; October 24-29, Vegas (especially that moment where I saw Jenny Lewis!!!); December 20th, the Nutcracker.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? As dumb as it may sound to anyone else, and as horrible as the recording quality may be, honestly, to me the biggest achievement was Come Together.

9. What was your biggest failure? I hate my job, so I don't try as hard as I would if I cared. In some ways I really don't care, since I know it's temporary, but in other ways I do count that as a failure, and I do want to involve myself more.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Yes. The Great Lower Back Apocolypse of 2006.

11. What was the best thing you bought? I don't know... I didn't really buy anything big or exciting. Maybe a pair of red panties that have a cartoon of a hand in that rocker pinky/forefinger position that say "My pussy rocks!"

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? I'm not entirely sure how to answer this question. Probably not mine, definitely not my roomate's cat's.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Oh, good, there's a category for this. My roommate's cat's.

14. Where did most of your money go? Hookers and coke.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? The trip to LA. I was excited like Marcia Brady meeting Davy Jones.

16. What songs will always remind you of 2006? Dirty Water, The Standells: Crazy Bitch, BuckCherry; Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol; any song that I recorded in a lame attempt at post-collegiate a cappella; anything by Carla Bruni or Rilo Kiley.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? a) Much happier. I'm in a much better place now than I was then. I wasn't in a bad place, I just wasn't in the right place. b) Definitely a little fatter :) c) Richer. Which may not be the most appropriate word for it, since I'm po as fuck, but I'm still a hell of a lot better off now than I was then.

18. What do you wish you'?d done more of? Travelled, but that's a constant wish. Oh, and more roller coasters!

19. What do you wish you?d done less of? Right about now I'm wishing I'd eaten a LOT less ice cream, though I'm not about to stop that any time soon, either. :)

20. How did you spend Christmas? With my mom, quiet, under our beautiful and perfect Christmas tree. I love the way we do Christmas. It's wonderful and relaxing.

21. Did you fall in love in 2006? Oh yeah.

22. How many one-night stands? Too many to count, really. Oh wait, none.

23. What was your favorite TV program? Oh, I really got into television this year! It was GREAT! Okay, and I'm only counting shows that were on the air: Heroes, Studio 60, House, Nip/Tuck, The Office, American Idol, Weeds, Entourage and Dexter.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn'?t hate this time last year? I didn't quite despise my boss last year the way I do this year. He really is a special kind of lame.

25. What was the best book you read? I only started having time to read after classes were done in August, but loved everything I read by Jennifer Weiner, and I really liked A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, even if he is a big fako. I'm looking forward to being able to read a lot more this year than last.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? Oooh, Rilo Kiley and Carla Bruni, all thanks to my roommate, Valentina, who has wonderful taste in music. I've also recently discovered Andrew Bird, who I'm really liking, OH! And Chuck Prophet, thanks to the lovely and incomparable Violet.

27. What did you want and get? Ken :)

28. What did you want and not get? Nick Stahl :( I MEAN World peace, maaaan...

29. What was your favorite film of this year? Oh, crap, I have no idea.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 27. I spent a day in Boston with my mom. I've had a series of really crappy birthdays for the past several years and this was the first one in a while that didn't completely suck. We had a nice time.

31. What was one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? I don't know, my year was pretty damn satisfying. It was the best year I've had in a really, really long time. By far.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Pathetically lacking.

33. What kept you sane? I didn't feel particularly insane at any point this year. Oh, wait, no. In July/August, when I was working what amounted to two full time jobs, plus a full class load and the beginning of a new relationship with all of the summertime social obligations that all that entails, all at once. Probably the kisses I got from that tall guy over there.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? JYNXX!!!

35. What political issue stirred you the most? I am SO un-PC in that I really don't let any political issues "stir" me, however if I'm going to be "stirred" it's probably going to be about gay marriage. What a rape of human rights...

36. Who did you miss? Oh, my dear, lovely Daddy...

37. Who was the best new person you met? Oh, there are LOTS! Ken (obvi) and Violet and AthanandNatalie and Lea and all of Ken's friends...

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006. Shit, I KNOW I've learned some things... I just know it. OH! I KNOW! I KNOW! I realized this year how scared I was of letting go and getting hurt, but I let go anyway, and someone was actually there to catch my fall. Awww...

39. A few favorite moments. Seeing the SeaCastle; riding my bike up Santa Monica beach toward Venice, singing "COME AND KNOCK ON OUR DOOOOR," riding my bike BLISSFULLY DRUNK through an alley in Venice in the middle of the night while everyone else was sober enough to realize how dangerous it actually was. And then soberly realizing the next day that it really was only 7pm and everyone else knew it wasn't that dangerous; Stealing the Cheers mug; Fenway; seeing Boston approach on the horizon the night I moved in as I drove south on 93, knowing that finally, it was my new home; watching the fountains at the Bellagio; losing my glasses on Storrow Drive in the middle of the night because I was a drunk idiot; meeting VIOLET AND THE KEELHAULER LIVE AND IN PERSON!!! Oh you are SO JEALOUS!! I JUST KNOW IT!!! HAHA!!!

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. I don't speak French, like, at all, and I can't even really tell you what this means exactly, but I get the gist and this is it:

Quand tu es près de moi,
Cette chambre n'a plus de parois,
Mais des arbres oui, des arbres infinis,
Et quand tu es tellement près de moi,
C'est comme si ce plafond-là,
Il n'existait plus, je vois le ciel penché sur nous... qui restons ainsi,
Abandonnés tout comme si,
Il n'y avait plus rien, non plus rien d'autre au monde,
J'entends l'harmonica... mais on dirait un orgue,
Qui chante pour toi et pour moi,
Là-haut dans le ciel infini,
Et pour toi, et pour moi
-Carla Bruni

You know, not to be pretentious and obnoxious or anything.

Now I'm gonna walk myself down to Coolidge Corner and get me some kind of dinner type thing. Thanks to all of you who gave this year a whole other Dimension of Wonderful with your writings, feedback and fun little packages. Yay for another year and even more good times. Good times, man... good times...