2023 annual questionnaire

1. What did you do in 2023 that you’d never done before? I traveled all the way across the world with no phone, internet, or map to track down my family in a small town in Scotland, like I was a time traveler from the 80s (which I sort of am, I just came the long way). Learned to speak Gaelic (as well as a kindergartner, anyway). Did a zoom interview about library stuff on a local cable tv show and didn't embarrass myself too much.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions? No, I did not get fit. But I'm not less fit. 

I'm NOT

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No babies, no kittens, no chicks. We're in for it next year.

4. Did anyone die? Mr. Pickle Chips, the stray cat who adopted us. And I saw someone hit by a car, who died a few days later. My grandfather did NOT die, which annoyed his nurses enough that they took him off of hospice again. He's playing guitar and feeling pretty good.

5. What places did you visit? We went to castles and museums and underground tunnels and pubs, but the best place was the bakery with hot sausage rolls and square donuts filled with big blocks of custard.

6. What would you like to have in 2024 that you lacked in 2023? I'd like to see snow again. It's been about... wow, 14 years.

7. What moments from 2023 will remain etched upon your memory? This year left so many impressions, my brain feels like it was put in a waffle maker. Top on my mind: holding Zenny's hand in a tattoo shop while she got her ears pierced, Leif clunking around in a suit of armor, and walking through the woods in Scotland in the evening under a sky full of swallows and bats.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? International travel, after 6 years trying to get a passport as a not-quite-American. Also got two book contracts.They don't come with much pay, but it's an achievement anyway.

9. What was your biggest failure? Losing a juried art show to a big square of ceramic chain mail. Also I did not finish painting the house - just the parts visible from the road.

 

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I got Covid TWICE. And shingles. And I burned a quarter-sized circle of skin off my hand. Still have all my original parts, though.

 
11. What was the best thing you bought? A pint of elderflower cider.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Zenny, for winning $15,000 for her school with her friend. And my mother, for taking her turn caring for her dad for 3 weeks and not getting into a fist fight with Drunk Wife.

 
13. Whose behavior made you appalled? Drunk Wife. She kept taking grandpa's walker because it made being drunk and zooming around the house easier (she's my mother's age, she's not elderly), and then she crashed it in the garden and broke her leg. She's refusing to wear the brace because she can heal herself with reiki by waving her magic hands over it.

 

Also all the library moms who complained about lgbtq children's books. Get a better hobby.

 

14. What did you get excited about? I had a good job interview and very nearly upended all our lives. Didn't work out, but it was close.

15. What song will always remind you of 2023?  The "new" Beatles song, Now and Then.

 

 

Paul McCartney had help from AI to finish it, but I'll allow it.

 

16. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? Happier, but less satisfied. I want big things to happen.
b) thinner or fatter?  Thinner, a bit. 
c) richer or poorer? I got a raise that didn't keep up with inflation or car repairs, so poorer.

17. What do you wish you’d done more of? Refusing to leave Scotland.  

18. What was your favorite TV program? Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Safe to watch with your kids, sticks to a lot of the original plot lines and running jokes. Also it has this scene:

 

 

Zenny loved it, so I showed her the original Star Trek series, and now she's hooked. We watch it in the evenings together.

And because I quit Twitter, I only just now figured out that there is a new season of Our Flag Means Death, so add that to my favorites, too. Even if they did kill off Guz Khan. At least it freed him up to make a new season of Man Like Mobeen.

19. What was the best book you read? Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley, and The Quarry Girls, by Jess Lourey. Also The Skull, by Jon Klassen, which is a really good kid's book. I read Project Hail Mary with Zenny at bedtime, and she liked it so much she took it away and finished it in one sitting. I read the new Stephen King book with my name on it, and the new Cormoran Strike book, and they were okay, but not top of the list.

 

20. What did you want and get? A family trip without anyone ending up in a hospital.
 

21. What did you want and NOT get? A library job in St. Andrews.

22. "So! How's your love life?"

23. What was your favorite film of this year? ...Barbie? It was fine - good enough that I finally forgive Ryan Gosling for being cast in the Project Hail Mary movie adaptation. 

 

 

Dr Grace on his way to the airlock to make best friends with a giant singing space spider

 

Other than that, the only movies we watched were the old Star Trek movies. We are more of a tv series kind of family.

 
24. Did you make some new friends this year? My new friend from last year moved away, so I’m back to where I started. I have been friendly with a stray cat behind the library, but it's kind of a one-sided relationship.

25. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Last year I wanted to punch someone in the face. This year I would have liked to push her mother off the Edinburgh castle.

26. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2023? "Jedi Librarian". I bought a bunch of wrap-around shirts with thick belts and baggy sleeves.

 
27. What kept you sane? I called the fire brigade on a seagull, come on. But my therapist did cure my PTSD with EMDR, and she said I'm "surprisingly well adjusted", so I feel like I deserve an award certificate. I've been jogging around the neighborhood at night again, too. Got weird about painting horses for a bit, that was nice.

28. Which celebrity/public figure were you into? I was into whatever main character was on whatever show I was watching, and immediately forgot them afterwards. 

 

29. What political/news issue stirred you the most?  Lahaina burned down and over a hundred people were killed. It's an ongoing environmental, economic, and housing disaster for the island.

 

Meanwhile, throughout the year I kept a list of headlines that somehow made it to the front page of national news. Here are just a few, I'll add the rest if I find my flash drive:

KHBS/KHOG: Hundreds of dead fish found dead

WJAR: Sisters bring their chicken ‘Brownie’ to bus stop each morning

WFSB: Bear heads right to the freezer of a Barkhamsted home, steals lasagna

KHOU: Trick-or-treater replenishes empty candy bowl

KCCI: Squirrel steals American flag from yard

 

30. Who did you miss?

31. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2023. Seeing the way my grandfather has gone from wasting away and about to drop dead to thriving and playing guitar again with good food, bathing/dressing assistance, and companionship has shown exactly how important caring for our aging loved ones is. Also I learned that “old person smell” is caused by 2-nonenal - a chemical change in your skin - and there are special soaps for that. 

Also learned that after decades of eating grapefruits you can suddenly become allergic to citrus peels and have your mouth swell up and itchy spots break out all over your body. GREAT.