Survey thing

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?

Flew a plane! This is the biggest thing that has ever happened to me. It has changed my entire perspective on life and after I was done with the lesson I sat in my car and cried because I was so, so happy. I have always struggled with the idea of trying to find a direction in life where a career was concerned. I have tried to make myself fall in love with many possible career paths, but I never could throw myself into them and I never started from the very beginning KNOWING it was something that I could do for the rest of my life. Flying is something else entirely. I KNOW it’s what I NEED to do, and it’s such a good feeling

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Hah, no. I only had one, which was to stop drinking soda because it was an awful, awful habit and most likely responsible for the weight I gained in 2011. I was good for about three months, but just stopped caring after that. Or… well I wouldn’t say I stopped caring, because I lost all that weight again by eating better and exercising, and I don’t drink it like I’m addicted to it any more, but I drink more than I should.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes! My sister had her third baby this year, Braxton. He smiles a lot, but he lives in Northern California and I haven’t got to see him since his birth celebration in February. It’s very sad. I need to take time off next year to go north.

I also have an online friend who had a baby recently and I am so, so happy for her!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No, not this year, thankfully.

5. What countries did you visit?

*pout* None. I won’t be traveling for a long while because I’ve decided to devote as much of my excess funds as possible to flight training. It’s disappointing on one side, but I know it’s going to be a good decision in the long run.

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?

I’d like to have my independence back. I moved back in with family this year to afford flight school, but I hate the way it makes me feel. I want to have my own apartment, or at least be back in a situation where I am supporting myself 100%. I don’t like living with family, but it’s necessary if I’m going to get a pilot’s license.

7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Unfortunately I don’t remember the exact date, but it was definitely the day I took my first flight lesson. It was such a wonderful day and it altered my perception about my life permanently.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Aside from the flight lesson, I paid my car off this year and started finally rebuilding my credit after the mess Scott made of it. That felt really good.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I can’t think of any real failures. 2012 has been a really, really awesome year.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nothing too major. I just got over the flu and there was a point sometime in the summer where I was walking around with a huge black bruise the size of a baseball on my thigh.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

I started playing Magic: The Gathering this year and have, during the last five months, amassed something like twenty five hundred to three thousand cards. I also bought a really nice, huge, sketchbook that has the perfect size paper for drawing maps.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My cousin, Tanner. He and his girlfriend broke up this year because she’s the most terrible, evil, rude, unpleasant thing on the face of the planet. She cheated on him and within two months of their officially breaking up, had relations with two other people as well. Unfortunately they are talking again and she had the nerve to ask to come over for Thanksgiving. He told her ‘hell no’ and we all congratulated him.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Gabby’s. She’s Tanner’s ex-girlfriend. She is just a horrible person. She’s condescending and she treated my aunt horribly. She was very self centered and opinionated and liked to argue with people about everything. She treated everyone around her like they were less valuable than herself. More than once my uncle got into a fight with her because of how she treats others. More than once I wanted to just haul off and punch her in the mouth. She was overly emotional and self centered and treated Tanner like he was more a servant than her boyfriend. I have never disliked anyone so much in my life, which is sad, because normally I find it very hard to find real fault with people. One of the worst things someone can do, in my opinion, is treat other people like they are worthless. She did that all the time.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Bills. That’s a given. Otherwise, I’ve been trying to save money for flight school and I also spent a lot or money on food and things for parties at my friends’ house. There was also a bit where I was still paying rent.

15.What made you really really really excited?

Again, aside from my flight lesson, I got to see some of my favorite authors at Comic Con. That was amazing. Comic Con on a whole was amazing. I went to so many awesome panels about writing and one about Disney’s Tron cartoon (Elijah Wood was there as well as many other famous people). I just had so, so much fun and I got a lot of insight from successful authors (Brandon Sanderson did a panel. For those who don’t know he took over the Wheel of Time series when Robert Jordan died). I loved it so much. There was just so much of my favorite kind of creativity happening that I was pretty much in a state of euphoria for all four days of Comic Con. I will be dressing up as Hope Summers next year and being a general bad ass that people will hopefully want to take fangirl and fanboy pictures of.

Also, I attended my first ever flight show on the Miramar military base. It was one of those things that I took tons of pictures and videos of but never posted. I need to. I need to just do a general photo dump here sometime soon. Oh god it was so amazing. The Blue Angels did their routines, which are better routines than anything else ever on the face of the planet ever because their skill is just so epically amazing and their formations are perfect. They’re like the Rockettes of the sky. Perfect unison. I stood around in the belly of a bomber and got to see a bi-plane do amazingly cool stunts in the air and took tons of pictures of planes and helicopters and just died of happiness the whole time.

16.What song will forever remind you of 2012?

This is a hard one. I don’t usually associate songs with anything. I’m a much more visual person and a connect memories with things that I see andhow those things make me feel. I don’t have a defining 2012 song. Sorry.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?  Definitely happier
b) thinner or fatter?     Thinner. I lost about 15 pounds and am now at my ideal weight again.
c) richer or poorer?   I have a higher income, but I spend more.
 
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Driving around and getting to know the city. Since spending more time with Andy I feel like I don’t know San Diego nearly as well as I should. I need directions to nearly everywhere I go. Andy, all he needs is a cross street and he’s there and he knows a thousand different ways to get places no matter where we go.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Sleeping. I waste my weekends sleeping in way too late. I could be doing thing productive and I don’t.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

With my family here in San Diego. My mom and youngest sister said they are coming this year though! That will be nice to see them after so long. My friends have a Christmas Eve Eve Party that’s a White Elephant gift exchange too, which is always fun.

21. How will you be spending New Year’s?

Most likely and Liz’s house. She has an epic New Year’s party every year out at her fabulous house in Rancho Bernardo. It always turns into a mess though so that’s going to be interesting. There were people shagging in the bathroom last year and being regularly walked in on because they didn’t bother to lock the door. It will be better this year though I think, mostly because Steven isn’t in the midst of a divorce and will no longer be depressed hopefully.

22. Did you fall in love in 2012?

I don’t know. Maybe? We’ll see!

23. How many one-night stands?

I don’t do that shit. The idea of one-night-stands just makes me cringe. I will not debase myself in that manner.

24. What were your favorite TV programs?

DOCTOR WHO! I discovered Doctor Who this year! Actually I just discovered the epicness of British television in general this year, but Doctor Who was by far the best of them. I also love Being Human, Sherlock, Jekyll, and Top Gear.

I love Doctor Who so much though. It’s my Star Wars of TV series.

Battlestar Galactica was really good too, but very sad.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I don’t hate people. I can severely dislike people because they damage my calm, but I don’t hate anyone. Right now, Gabby is the only person who’s damaged my calm this year. Everyone else has been lovely.

26. What was the best book you read?

O.O I wasn’t anticipating this question. Shite. Let me consult GoodReads.com to see what I’ve read this year. Give me a moment…

Okay. This is going to be an extensive answer because I read so many good books and I’m not the type of person who can choose just one. I pick books more because I KNOW I will like them and not because I want to discuss them with anyone else. I would never do very well in a book club I think.

So.

Back in January I read a feel good book about a cat who was born blind. It was called Homer’s Odyssey. Not a great literary work, but a very feel good book that made me really want a cat with a disability.

In February through March I read through two volumes of the John Carter of Mars series. I loved it because it was that sort of old school science fiction that still clung to the very classic ideals of men and women while still portraying a futuristic and otherworldly scenario. It was written starting in 1913 and I really, really enjoyed it.

In April I read Deathless, which is a twist on an old Russian folktale about Koschei the Deathless. It was a very grim and sort of strange world, but I found myself really loving the writer’s style.

May and June were taken up by most of the Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes, which were brilliant and I love them immensely.

Also in June I read the first book in the Hunger Games series, which was interesting, but not one of my favorites. I haven’t read the other books yet.

AND in June the last book of the Inheritance Cycle (Ergaon) came out. I cried my eyes out at the end. I was so sad and so happy that it was over. I feel like it had a perfect ending. Bittersweet, but needing to happen the way it did.

In August I read Magician: Apprentice and part of Magician: Master. I loved these books. I need to finish the series.

In September I read Bitter Seeds and The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis, which is an alternate reality set about World War II and the Cold war that involves warlocks and superhumans. I ended up really liking these books, but they are very depressing. It’s one of those series where everything goes to shit and you hate the world for it, but you can’t stop reading because you want everything to be better. ONLY IT ISN’T AND NOW I NEED TO WAIT A YEAR BEFORE THE NEXT BOOK COMES OUT! I HATE MY LIFE SO MUCH RIGHT NOW!

Lastly, I read the Hobbit, because of the movie that came out this year, and am currently reading the Lord of the Rings again. These are some of my most favorite books ever and I will be re-reading them off and on for the rest of my life.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Again, music doesn’t really occupy that big a space in my life. It’s weird I guess, but I really only use music to help me come up with writing scenarios. I don’t like any one artist, and most of what I listen to is picked specifically to adhere to how I want a particular scene to feel when I’m writing.

I could mention my cousin’s endeavor Iamdustinblackwell and my friends’ new band Buddy Banter. I really like their music and you can look them up at http://www.shoeboxcollective.com (that’s the new label that my cousin just started up). I support both these musical endeavors wholeheartedly.

28. What did you want and get?

Andy. It took long enough, didn’t it?

29. What did you want and not get?

Hmm. So far the only thing I can think of that fits this category is a new car. I’m still looking.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?

Uh… I haven’t seen a lot of the movies I wanted to see this year. Skyfall was really good. I also really liked Prometheus and the Amazing Spiderman. And Brave was really cute. It made me cry.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I didn’t do anything for my birthday this year. Just never got around to it. I turned 27.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Having enough money to both live on my own AND take flight lessons.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?

I don’t have a fashion concept other than jeans and a t-shirt and the occasional little black dress for special occasions. High fashion and keeping up with trends isn’t really my thing.

34. What kept you sane?

Isolation, as it is with every introvert. Those moments in my life where I can just separate myself from the world and do something that I can do on my own. Reading, writing, drawing, playing a video game, going for a drive, a hike, or doing a bit of shopping, or watching a movie that I love. I do this a lot when I get burnt out of overwhelmed with the world.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I don’t tend toward celebrity crushes, but I suppose Joseph Gordon-Levitt was up there for a while. Ryan Reynolds is always nice to look at. And Benedict Cumberbatch is a sexy, sexy man.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

Well we had the presidential election this year. So…. that was a thing. I hate politics. Sorry.

37. Who did you miss?

I am guilty to say, no one really. I’d like to go up and visit my family one of these days, but I don’t terribly miss them. Is that a bad thing?

38. Who was the best new person(s) you met?

Her name is Cheyenne. She’s one of Lisa and Dustin’s old acquaintances from high school. My friend Wayne and I went to lunch with her randomly one day because she came with our other friend and she was just a very animated and well rounded person who had a lot of interesting things to talk about. I wish I had the opportunity to spend more time around her and get more comfortable with her presence.

38. Side question…who would I like to get to know better?

See the previous answer. Also, Rachel, who I’ve known for a while but don’t have a real familiarity with. She’d been a long time friend of the friends.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012:

Bad things feel like they are going to last forever, but they don’t. And, do things that you love to do and don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks about them. Do as many things that you love as you can because that is how you learn to love yourself.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year (any song from any year).

No. I’ll just give you a proverb instead

"Any landing you can walk away from is a good one."