{"id":274,"date":"2006-12-28T14:38:20","date_gmt":"2006-12-28T20:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/2006\/12\/28\/by-all-memes-necessary\/"},"modified":"2006-12-28T16:57:07","modified_gmt":"2006-12-28T22:57:07","slug":"by-all-memes-necessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=274","title":{"rendered":"By All Memes Necessary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/archives\/007402.html\">meme<\/a> via Red.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Was 2006 a good year for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It had its tough spots &#8211; a planned job change followed by an unplanned one, some other stuff, runarounds with schools that are fodder for many posts to come, and the unending comedy of my personal life &#8211; but all in all, it was good.  Kids are in better school situations, I&#8217;m in an awesome job &#8211; I&#8217;m pretty happy, all in all.<br \/>\n<strong>2. What was your favorite moment(s) of the year?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sitting in the press booth at the State GOP convention, interviewing one notable after another, seeing candidates lined up out the door waiting to talk with us.<\/li>\n<li>Honestly?  Driving around with my kids Christmas evening.<\/li>\n<li>Climbing over the rail, walking down to the field at old Taylor Stadium, and scattering part of my grandfather&#8217;s ashes under the goalposts.  More below.<\/li>\n<li>Sitting at the top of the Navy Pier ferris wheel in Chicago at about 10 at night, looking over Lake Michigan.<\/li>\n<li>That&#8217;s all I can tell you about&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>3. What was your least favorite moment(s) of the year?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s not go into that.<br \/>\n<strong>4. What did you do in 2006 that you&#8217;d never done before?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Drove a minivan.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Did you keep your new years&#8217; resolutions, and will you make more for next year? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t do them &#8211; but I have goals for the year.  None of them really panned out, but &#8217;07&#8217;s another year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6. Where were you when 2006 began?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At a friend&#8217;s house.<\/p>\n<p><strong>7. Who were you with?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My girlfriend at the time, our various kids, and her family.<\/p>\n<p><strong>8. Where will you be when 2006 ends?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At an undisclosed location.<\/p>\n<p><strong>9. Who will you be with when 2006 ends?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not who I&#8217;d like to be.  And yet there&#8217;s noplace I&#8217;d rather be.<\/p>\n<p><strong>10. Did anyone close to you give birth?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No, but my sister &#8211; who turned 40 this year (and still looks all of 28, the little brat) found out she&#8217;s expecting; the baby is due one of these next few months, and will join her 16, 14 and 12 year olds.<\/p>\n<p><strong>11. Did you lose anybody close to you in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No, but we sorta closed the book on my grandparents.  I never got around to writing much about it; I went to North Dakota in August to scatter their ashes around the college where they met (and where I graduated).  It was fun &#8211; I saw my aunts and uncles, including my mom&#8217;s brother, whom I&#8217;d not seen in almost thirty years &#8211; and sad as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>12. Who did you miss?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>See above.<\/p>\n<p><strong>13. Who was the best new person you met in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s not go into that, either.<br \/>\n<strong>14. What was your favorite month of 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>July.  I got to go back to my 25th reunion.  I had a wonderful time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>15. Did you travel outside of the US in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No.<\/p>\n<p><strong>16. How many different states did you travel to in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NoDak, Wisconsin and Illinois.  That was it!<\/p>\n<p><strong>17. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Senses of peace, accomplishment, and that my kids have finally, officially turned the corner.<\/p>\n<p>That, and some sort of national syndication deal for the NARN.  (A guy can &#8211; no, indeed, <em>must <\/em>dream).<\/p>\n<p><strong>18. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not sure any date is &#8220;etched&#8221;; some of the usual important days, I&#8217;ll remember.<\/p>\n<p><strong>19. What was your biggest achievement of the year?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tie:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Current job<\/li>\n<li>Getting my daughter into a <em>much <\/em>better school situation. The change makes &#8220;night and day&#8221; look trite.  It&#8217;s the change I&#8217;ve been praying for for years.  Hopefully this year my son will follow suit.  He is, actually &#8211; with Bun, it&#8217;s been a dramatic shift, while with Zam it&#8217;s been more incremental.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>20. What was your biggest failure?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t honestly say there were any huge &#8220;failures&#8221;.  I had one job that went sour unexpectedly, but I can honestly say I did my best on that one, and I&#8217;ll tell it to the face of the little jag that caused the issue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>21. Did you suffer illness or injury?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was actually very healthy this past year.  I hope I haven&#8217;t jinxed myself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>22. What was the best thing you bought<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t think of a single thing I bought.<\/p>\n<p><strong>23. Whose behavior merited celebration?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Honestly?  My daughter&#8217;s.  With the school change, she went from being &#8211; honestly &#8211; a straight F student to achieving well in line with her abilities; and oy, does she have abilities.  I am serious &#8211; you can not imagine the weight this has lifted from me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>24. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chad the Elder.<\/p>\n<p>No, seriously, I expect so little of people (especially celebrities) that nothing really appalls me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>25. Where did most of your money go?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe mortgage, Excel Energy, and food.<\/p>\n<p><strong>26. What did you get really, really, really excited about?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t ask.  It didn&#8217;t pan out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>27. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I drank <em>so <\/em>little this past year.  I bought a six-pack of St. Pauli Girl in October, and there&#8217;s still a bottle left in my fridge.  I barely made it to Keegan&#8217;s, either.<\/p>\n<p><strong>28. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I wish.  That might actually be a relief.<\/p>\n<p>But honestly, I may have had a dozen Aleve this past year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>29. Did you treat somebody badly in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No.<\/p>\n<p><strong>30. Did somebody treat you badly in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No.  A couple of situations disappointed me, but it had nothing to do with &#8220;bad treatment&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>31. Compared to this time last year, are you:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>i. happier or sadder? &#8211; At the moment, sadder.  But it won&#8217;t last.  If you leave out the comedy of my personal life, I&#8217;m probably happier.<br \/>\nii. thinner or fatter? &#8211; A little thinner, actually.  That&#8217;s a big goal for this year.<br \/>\niii. richer or poorer?  &#8211; A little richer, and a lot smarter.  That&#8217;s another big goal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>32. What do you wish you&#8217;d done more of in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Everything fun; relaxing, hanging out with friends, sex, travelling &#8211; yet more goals for the coming year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>33. What do you wish you&#8217;d done less of?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Worrying, grovelling.<\/p>\n<p><strong>34. Did you fall in love in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yet again, let&#8217;s not go into that, either.<br \/>\n<strong>35. What was your favorite TV program(s)?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I finally discovered <em>Scrubs.  <\/em>Oh, I&#8217;d seen part of an episode or two, years ago, and thought it was funny, but I never absorbed all the real poignancy the show also has.  For all the surreal laughs (and go ahead and ask my kids &#8211; I laugh harder and more loudly to this show than any show I&#8217;ve ever seen), it&#8217;s got a bittersweet, real edge to it.  It yanks me back and forth from shrieking mirth to gulping back a tear in less time that it&#8217;s taken to write about it.  Wonderful.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and catching up on <em>24 <\/em>was a six week hoot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>36. What song will always remind you of 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That &#8220;OK Go&#8221; song.<\/p>\n<p><strong>37. How many concerts did you see in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>None.<\/p>\n<p><strong>38. Did you have a favorite concert in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>NA<\/p>\n<p><strong>39. What was your greatest musical discovery?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t actually think of one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>40. What was the best book you read?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No question &#8211; Red sicced me on <em>Children of the Arbat <\/em>by Anatoli Rybakov.  A chillingly mundane look at the early Stalin era.  Incredible.<\/p>\n<p><strong>41. What was your favorite film of this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I think <em>Eternal Sunshine <\/em>was last year, right?  It might have been <em>Little Miss Sunshine.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>42. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Opened a card and presents from my parents, took the kids out to Bascali&#8217;s, a little Italian joint by the Fairgrounds that I save for special occasions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>43. What did you want and get?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nothing, and more than I could have asked for.<\/p>\n<p><strong>44. What did you want and not get?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Puhleeze.<\/p>\n<p><strong>45. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many little things, few big ones.  Everything from finally conquering my personal finances to meeting the &#8220;right&#8221; person.<\/p>\n<p><strong>46. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Stay Alive.<\/p>\n<p><strong>47. What kept you sane?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Prayer, Blogging, the NARN, and the fact that going insane is never really an option.  No matter how freaked out I start to feel, dinner&#8217;s gotta get cooked.<\/p>\n<p><strong>48. Which celebrity\/public figure did you fancy the most?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The winner, as for the past 15 years &#8211; Marisa Tomei.<\/p>\n<p><strong>49. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sorry, no.<\/p>\n<p><strong>50. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.<\/strong><br \/>\nWith a nod to the honorable mention, Warren Zevon&#8217;s &#8220;Play It All Night Long&#8221;, I gotta go with one that might be no surprise; if my life were a movie, Bruce would be half the soundtrack:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>One soft infested summer, me and Terry became friends\/Trying in vain to breathe the fire we were born in.\/Catching rides to the outskirts, tying faith between our teeth,\/sleeping in that old abandoned beach house, getting wasted in the heat, and&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>(CH) Running on the backstreets, running on the backstreets. \/With a love so hard and filled with defeat.\/Running for our lives at night on the backstreets.<\/p>\n<p>Slow dancing in the dark, on the beach at Stockton&#8217;s Wing,\/where desperate lovers park we sat with the last of the Duke Street Kings.\/Huddled in our cars, waiting for the bell to ring,\/In the deep heart of the night, we could cut loose from everything, and go<\/p>\n<p>(CH) Running on the backstreets, running on the backstreets. \/Terry you swore we&#8217;d live forever &#8211; taking it on the backstreets, together.<\/p>\n<p>Endless juke joints and Valentino drag, where dancers scraped their tears up off the streets dressed down in rags,\/running through the darkness, some hurt bad, some really dying,\/and at night sometimes it&#8217;d seem you could hear the whole damn city crying.\/Blame it on the lies that killed us, blame it on the truth that ran us down,\/hell, you can blame it all on me, Terry.  It don&#8217;t matter to me now.\/When the breakdown hit at midnight there was nothing left to say,\/but I hated him.  And I hated you when you went away&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Lying in the dark you&#8217;re like an angel on my chest,\/another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness.\/Remember all the movies, Terry, we&#8217;d go see, trying to\/learn how to walk like the heroes we thought we had to be?\/Well after all this time, we find we&#8217;re just like all the rest,\/stranded in the dark, and forced to confess to&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>(CH) Running on the backstreets, running on the backstreets. \/Terry you swore we&#8217;d be forever friends, on the backstreets &#8217;til the end&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another meme via Red. 1. Was 2006 a good year for you? It had its tough spots &#8211; a planned job change followed by an unplanned one, some other stuff, runarounds with schools that are fodder for many posts to come, and the unending comedy of my personal life &#8211; but all in all, it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mitch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}