New Year Post

I know I'm completely behind the times in filling out one of these surveys with it already being the 6th of January and all, but I could use the excuse for writing a post. Also, if the format looks familiar, thank TJ.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?

I moved into and out of my in-laws house. (don't take that the wrong way, my in-laws are great people)
I moved to Iowa.
I got a new drivers license from Iowa.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions and will you make more for next year?

I'm not really much of a resolution person...at least I don't remember any if I did make any. (actually went back and checked in case I mentioned anything on the blog at the beginning of 2010) Wow, have we been going on this blog for a year and a half now? Anyway, back to the topic, I guess this brings up a decent resolution. Nothing major, but one that I can probably achieve. I will make a solid effort to post more this year than I did last year. Ok, that's depressing. My grand total was 7 posts from last year...Yeah, let's see if we can increase that number.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

A high school friend of ours and his wife had a baby.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No.

5. What countries did you visit?

None. Though I did use my almost-10-year-old passport this year to get my Iowa drivers license. The lady at the DMV commented on how it was strange that it was basically a photo that was laminated to the passport. I guess they're printed directly on there now after 9/11 and all. My passport was from earlier that year.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?

A vacation. Charleen and I haven't gone on one since our honeymoon really and I think we're about due.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

May 24: I started my new Job.
September 19: Charleen and I moved into our new apt.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Finally landing an engineering job after being out of my field for a year and a half.

9. What was your biggest failure?

We'll go with only posting 7 times because I'm trying really hard not to consider all the job (or lack of job) stuff a failure.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I've been sick a couple of times, but nothing of note.
No injuries to report either. Very thankful for that one given the lack of insurance for a good portion of the year.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Bought a Wii this year and thanks to Netflix, it's been a fantastic investment. We don't have television, just internet and lots of DVDs to watch.

12. Where did most of your money go?

Bills mostly. Sadly a lot of it to credit card companies.

13. What did you get really excited about?

The Bears making it to the playoffs! Seriously, after last year's implosion, I thought it would be years before we had a good team again. This year they've looked very good. They're not at the point of being consistently good, but the potential is there and as long as the coaching staff keeps their head out of their rear ends, the players are fun to watch.

14. What song will always remind you of 2010?

I'd have to go with Katy Perry's "Hot n Cold". Not because of the song, which isn't bad, but because of the Sesame Street controversy over her video with Elmo having too much cleavage and the following SNL bit making fun of it. Personally I thought the video was cute and appropriate for little kids and the people at Sesame Street were making a big deal out of nothing. Regardless, I'll remember it.

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

– happier or sadder? Tough to say. I'm stressed in a different way than I was last year.
– thinner or fatter? Pretty much the same. Many people want to kill me for this, but I stay pretty much the same weight unless I have been working out for months, then I'll start to gain a little muscle weight.
– richer or poorer? Not so much richer as...not being as far in the hole. Things are definitely moving in the right direction though.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Worked out. Both endurance training and weight lifting. Charleen and I were using an old weight set of mine for several months in 2009, but I didn't do much of anything last year.

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

Driving. Back and forth about every other weekend from Dubuque to Chicago for the 3 months that Charleen and I were living in different places was taxing.

18. How did you spend Christmas?

The holidays were pretty hectic, but to keep it short: Christmas day we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house and spent a few hours there getting to see family from MN and KY that I hadn't seen in a while as well as getting to see a cousin that I haven't seen since my wedding.

The day after Christmas we had Christmas with Charleen's family at her Grandma's house. Lots of seeing family which was nice. That and the Bears beat the Jets. :)

19. What was your favorite TV program?

Well, for the first part of the year, I was catching up on NCIS and Char and I were watching Castle. Then we got Netflix and have been working our way through Stargate SG1.

Out of those 3, I'm going to have to go with Castle simply because it's hilarious and reminds me of Firefly. We're going to have to start watching that again.

20. What were your favorite books of the year?

As sad as this is since Charleen read about a bazillion books last year, I didn't read very many new ones. I remember reading "Heat Wave" the novel "written" by the main character from Castle, but that's about the only new book I read. I've been re-reading the Harry Potter and Eragon books. So we'll go with those as my favorites for the year.

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

Didn't really have any favorite music this year.

22. What were your favorite films of the year?

I'm going to go with Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Avatar. Dawn Treader is my favorite of the Narnia books, and I thought the director did a great job turning all the little broken up stories into one cohesive plot. Avatar was my first 3D movie. I didn't go see it the first time it was in theaters because I was expecting a "Dances with Wolves" remake and it was a great story all on its own.

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

I worked, drove from Dubuque to Chicago...and I think we watched Ice Age 3 and had dinner with my family. I turned 27.

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

Winning the lottery? It's a goofy answer, but it's an honest one. A lot of the issues that came up last year were due to money and winning the lottery would definitely have made those stresses go away.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

The same as it's been for about the last 15 years. Dressing nicer when I have to, but otherwise reverting to jeans and a t-shirt any other time.

26. What kept you sane?

Sane? That's being generous. But I'd have to say Slider's been a big help. I've found that as long as he's happy and relaxed, I can be. Especially over the holidays, it helped a lot that he warmed up to the in-laws' house so quickly and that I could go back to his room and pet him and relax a bit.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.

Living out of a motel may sound fun, but in reality it's pretty boring and you'll miss real food after about two days.