:: a.whisper.in.water ::

:: Friday, December 26, 2003 ::

[ if all your friends answered some stupid survey... ]

Shamelessly stolen from Keith, as doubtless he expects ;). It’s a hard little questionnaire, really. Each one of these questions is honestly a mini-essay, if justice is to be done to them. Oh well. Let the reductive injustice begin:

1. What did you do in 2003 that you'd never done before?: Gosh, what a monumental question. Um…just writing stuff that pops to mind and omitting all the Love-life details you don’t get that were new: visit Keith in Santa Barbara, see the Grand Canyon, smoke up, GHB, work with (and destroy a largish number of) carbon nanotubes, read all the Harry Potter books, drive from Tallahassee to D.C., visit Nathan in Pittsburgh, see a shrink, participate in Room Draw, write an 11-page paper, smoke cigarettes/cloves, and just learn a bunch of new stuff.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?: Probably not. It’s sort of an exercise in futility for me to resolve to do anything for myself. I guess a meta-resolution would be to resolve to be able to (meaningfully) resolve things.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?: Yeah, actually. Mona gave birth to a feisty little girl named Jenna.

4. Did anyone close to you die?: If I can’t remember right away, the answer’s no, I guess…I don’t doubt that I put that sort of stuff out of my mind unintentionally, though.

5. What countries did you visit?: California is decidedly another country, if not some weird, amazing bizarro-otherworld. I usually tend to travel more than I did this year, but with the relative death of the family vacation went this tradition.

6. What would you like to have in 2004 that you lacked in 2003?: A stable, perfect relationship, the ability to work for myself, understanding parents, strong independent finances, and a ninja sword.

7. What date from 2003 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?: I have a pretty good memory, you understand. I’d say the Worst Weekends of My Life will stay there until something displaces it. Just as memorable, if not moreso, though, is spending time in Santa Barbara (I got in town on my birthday, which makes it pretty easy to remember.)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?: …and now you’ve got me feeling worthless. I guess cleaning up after myself: rebuilding my relationship and not failing out of school, for example.

9. What was your biggest failure?: Maintaining a stable relationship, though we’ll see how the grades turn out.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?: Yeah! I fell off of Leah’s bed towards the beginning of the school year and gashed my arm open! Wanna see the scar?

11. What was the best thing you bought?: A train ticket to Boston; if that doesn’t count, my new big pants.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?: Ignoring the token “Jenn and I at good patches,” Kathy’s warranted the most unambiguous celebration, I’d say.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?: Mine own, mostly. My parents, excluding us as our own toughest critic.

14. Where did most of your money go?: Trips to New York City and Boston, which is as it should be =).

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?: Trips to see Jenn, plans to go back to Santa Barbara, staying at Haverford over the summer.

16. What was the most amazing sight you saw this year?: Whoo...a hard call between the sky above the Grand Canyon, sunset at the pier in Santa Barbara (THE MOUNTAINS WERE FUCKING PURPLE.), and making Jenn so happy she cried for joy.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?: I’d say happier.
ii. thinner or fatter?: Slightly fatter around the middle, but slightly more muscled around the legs and chest.
iii. richer or poorer?: More or less the same, I’d imagine. Slightly richer from all money I saved from the nanotube job.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?: Schoolwork, and making something of myself.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?: Goofing off, fighting, and smoking.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?: Watching “Bad Santa” with my stoned brother and laughing desperately to justify the $7.25 I’m never going to see again, despite the distinct lack of a reason to.

21. What was the most embarrassing thing that happened to you in 2003?: Can’t think of anything. I don’t get embarrassed terribly easily. If I do something abjectly retarded in public, that, while slightly embarrassing, is far more hilarious.

22. Did you fall in love in 2003?: Never had to leave, really. In a removed sense, you could say I did.

23. How many one-night stands?: Three, I GUESS. Depends on what you call a one-night stand. At the very least one.

24. What was your favorite TV program?: The Family Guy by miles and miles.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?: Somewhat passively, yeah. Kevin, if I ever see you, I’m going to fucking thrash you. The thing is, I’m not active enough in my hatred to actually go out of my way to see you.

26. What was the best book you read?: The Satanic Verses.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?: Grandaddy, as far as bands go. Individual albums is a much harder choice to make. Perhaps Orbital II. (Beethoven’s Ninth doesn’t count, since I had “discovered” it last year.)

28. What did you want and get?: Any number of things. Another semester at school, lots of music, an again-amazing relationship, a really good room for second semester,

29. What did you want and not get?: Better grades, leaner, more disciplined,

30. What was your favorite film of this year?: Hmmm…can’t remember a lot of the movies I watched this year; I don’t care about movies all that much. I feel like there was some movie somewhere that I just found to be amazing, and I can’t remember the goddamn thing. The Mexican was circumstantially cute, though not intrinsically good. I guess The Two Towers.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?: I turned nineteen, and celebrated twice: once in Keith’s room with Anne and (their, not my) Jenny and The Hudsucker Proxy, and once with Jenn in NYC.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?: At this point, I’d be repeating myself. I already have, really.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2003?: Return to big pants, rocking the armband.

34. What kept you sane?: Music music music music.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?: Celebrity worship is pretty lame, but as long as I’m answering the question, that chick from Pirates of the Caribbean was way hot.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?: American foreign hegemony arrogance, in general. As manifest in particular incidents, the “war” on Iraq. To be fair, I DID read Fast Food Nation, too. That’s LIKE being activist, isn’t it?

37. Who did you miss?: Different people at different times, but (obviously) Jenn most uniformly. Keith and Maura while they were away, Anne during the summer, Ram for a lot of the end of year, Maddie for parts of the summer; I’m going to miss Allison when she goes to Paris…it’s impossible to have everyone you love all the time.

38. Who was the best new person you met?: Tie between Jamie (Sundquist) and Conor, though it’s hard to remember when I MET people. Just because you’re not on this list doesn’t really mean I didn’t meet you beforehand (e.g., Maura, or Tristan, or someone else I’m just being lazy about.)

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2003: To all of you out their in TV land: I learned how to deal with girls and Jenn simultaneously. ::"applause" light blinks::

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: aw, only one? Let’s see what I can do. The task is yours to identify the song and artist.

I stumbled out of bed
I got ready for the struggle
I smoked a cigarette
And I tightened up my gut
I said this can't be me
Must be my double

And I can't forget
And I can't forget
I can't forget but I don't remember what

I'm burning up the road
I'm heading down to Phoenix
I got this old address
Of someone that I knew
It was high and fine and free
Oh you should've seen us

And I can't forget
And I can't forget
I can't forget but I don't remember who

I'll be there today with a big bouquet of cactus
I've got this rig that runs, runs on memory
And I promise, cross my heart they'll never catch us
But if they do just tell 'em it was me
I've loved you all my life

And that's how I want to end it
The summer's almost gone
And winter's tuning up
The summer's gone but a lot goes on forever

And I can't forget
I can't forget
I can't forget, but I don't remember what

:: Aziz 4:59 AM [+] ::
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