I have so much to sum up...

[oloriel]

... that I'll just start with the usual retrospective meme. And then we'll see what else of 2012 I get summarised.



1.) What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
Attend various LARP and fannish events with a toddler.

2.) Did you keep your New Year's resolutions?
Didn't make any.

3.) Did anyone close to you give birth?
Sort of -- Jamie, the wife of hamnar! (Congratulations again! <3)

4.) Did anyone close to you die?
Up until the day before yesterday, the answer would have been a clear No; then, my great-great-something-uncle Joggel (properly Otto-Adolf, and no, actually he was named Adolf before it was hip to do so, and no, I actually have no idea why his nickname was Joggel) died. While this is a great loss for the clan (he was our head geneaologist), he was 98, so his death was neither entirely unexpected nor extraordinarily painful. Rest well, Uncle Joggel.

5.) Which countries did you visit?
The Netherlands, Switzerland and France. Belgium if you count drive-throughs. (Also Bavaria, Newfiveland, the Dragonlands and Sapientia, although those probably don't fully count.)

6.) What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2013?
More contact with old friends, a chance to go to the cinema every now and then, a regular period (YES REALLY!) and a job.

7.) What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory and why?
Ummmmm...

I'm crap at remembering dates.

8.) What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Did I achieve anything this year? The only thing that comes to mind at all is winning NaNo. Which is kind of sad.

9.) What was your biggest failure of the year?
The fact that there's no big achievement. Also, my applications getting mostly ignored (with a few "Don't call us, we'll call you"s thrown in for variation) sure feels like failure.

10.) Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing serious, as usual.

11.) What was the best thing you bought?
I don't recall feeling excited about anything I bought. I feel excited about a couple of my Christmas presents, but that's not the same.

12.) Where did most of your money go?
I HAVE NO MONEY *wails*. If collective you: Fuel, food, building materials, as always.

13.) Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Brother and mother-in-law come to mind for various heroic deeds. Also, my parents invited us to Brittany, which was pretty awesome.

14.) Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Our tenants', more precisely, Mr. Tenants. Fortunately, they'll be moving out in February. Good riddance and a plague upon their new flat.

15.) What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Felix' many achievements. Brittany!

16.) What song will always remind you of 2012?
EUPHOOOOORIA!

17.) Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
Sadder.

ii. thinner or fatter?
thinner, even though I've mysteriously gained weight during the past two weeks.

iii. richer or poorer?
Even richer in debts.

18.) What do you wish you'd done more of?
Met friends; created art

19.) What do you wish you'd done less of?
Gotten pointlessly angry.

20.) How did you spend Christmas?
Christmas Eve was celebrated at home with Jörg, his mum and brother, my parents, brother and grandmother; Feast of Stephen (HAH!) at my parents' with my grandmother and my father's side of the family; the day before yesterday, at a friends' house; and yesterday, at my parents with my aunt, three of her sons and her new boyfriend. No wonder I feel so full.

21.) Did you fall in love in 2012?
Usual answer.

22.) How many one-night stands?
Whenever I come to this question, I wonder whether there are people doing this meme who have one-night stands habitually. Again, usual answer.

23.) Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Hate? I wouldn't go quite so far. Strongly dislike, though.

24.) What was your favourite TV program?
Aside from the same old, Sherlock Season II, MasterChef and If Walls Could Talk.

25.) What was the best new book you read?
That would probably be The Help and The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

26.) What was your favourite film of this year?
As I still haven't seen The Hobbit, the winner is... Prometheus.

27.) What was your greatest musical discovery?
No real musical discoveries this year.

28.) What did you want and get?
Brittany vacation !!1!eleventyone. New clothing, because the state of the old was getting ridiculous.

29.) What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
Nothing. I went hiking in the Black Forest a couple of days later, though. I was, and still am, 29.

30.) What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Many things, not one thing.

31.) What kept you sane?
As always, what makes you think I'm sane?
Felix both drove me insane and kept me sane, I guess.

32.) How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
"It's got holes in it, so I should replace it after all."

33.) Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Thorin really is kinda hot, isn't he?

34.) What political issue stirred you the most?
"stirred" is maybe too much, but I payed attention to the fall of our federal president, to ACTA etc and to the US presidential elections.

35.) Who was the best new person you met?
If you think you should be listed here and your name slips my mind just now, please forgive me.

36.) Who did you miss?
Several friends I didn't manage to meet at all or as often as I'd have liked.

37.) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012:
Yes, everything really does change when you become a parent, no matter how much you plan to be different.

38.) Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Can't think of a song that fits this year.


Wasn't that fun. :P

Comments

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

"It's got holes in it, so I should replace it after all."

That's me.

33.) Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Thorin really is kinda hot, isn't he?

This is definitely true. :D

Hope you have a great 2013!

[jokergirl.livejournal.com]

Thorin IS hot. Kili's not bad either.

I would do that meme but I don't have good answers for more than half of the questions, so it's kind of pointless. Maybe I should just leave out any of those. *shrugs*

;)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I didn't have good answers either. I just did it this time around to create some sort of continuity, so when I go back to look at my end-of-year entries at some point in the future, I'll know that 2012 was unspectacular ;)

Have a great 2013 as well!

[independence1776]

I hope 2013 is good to you!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

And to you!

[satismagic.livejournal.com]

"It's got holes in it, so I should replace it after all."

I'm worse.

I'm like: "How big are the holes? Oh, well, it will do. The kittens would only tear holes into anything new, too."

Actually, since the kittens are cats now, it's getting better. But most of my stuff has tons of tiny holes.

This just in: (totally random, sorry)

[fuchs.livejournal.com]

http://gingerhaze.tumblr.com/post/37926568957/i-did-one-million-hobbit-doodles-but-ill-save-the

http://gyzym.tumblr.com/post/39260518967/amber-and-ice-dewognatos-siwillli#notes

Re: This just in: (totally random, sorry)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I LOL'D. Thanks XD

(How's your own comic coming along? *big longing fangirl eyes*)

[chili-das-schaf.livejournal.com]

37.) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012:
Yes, everything really does change when you become a parent, no matter how much you plan to be different.


Do you know what's funny?

I've got one friend who is just not a children person, which is okay in my book, everyone is different etc. But she claims that as soon as I will be a mom I will stop being a creative person with any hobbies or interests beside my kid and that she probably will "lose" me then. I always claim in arguments that of course my life will change rapidly but that I just don't think I'm the kind of person who will just be a mom and nothing else and that it is possible to not lose all geekiness and interest in the world.

And as proof that there are parents who indeed manage to be "different" in that regard I always point out you :)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

I didn't mean that your personality completely changes and you lose all past interests and purely define yourself as a mom and nothing else!
But you do lose things you never thought about. Like, before I was a mother, I could have spontaneously decided that "This evening, I want to see a movie". Or to spontaneously drive to Paris, spend the day there and drive back through the night. Not that I ever did that, but I could have. Or I could have decided that "This place is filthy, time for spring cleaning" on any given day. Or spent a whole day painting or gardening. And that no longer works. You just are less flexible with kids. You need to arrange babysitters before you can go to the movies or choir practice or judo training, spontaneous road trips are too incalculable and you don't trust yourself to get the baby home safely when you're driving tired, before you can clean the flat you need to make sure the kid won't get underfoot or start playing in the waterbucket, and anything that requires some peace, quiet and attention is only possible while the kid sleeps or occupies itself for a couple of blessed minutes...

So things do change. Perhaps not in the way your friend expects, but it's like a job: A lot of your time will be spent on it, and your top priority will become to get sweep the floor, clean the flat, cook dinner or do the laundry done in the sparse time that isn't dedicated to the "job".
And only then is there time to indulge in geekiness and your interest in the world. (At which point you're generally too exhausted to do much. ;))

But one does tend to underestimate the 24/7 character of this particular job. Before I had Felix, I thought a baby would mostly sleep, and a toddler would be happy to be left in peace with his toys and no interfering mommy, and all babysitters are equally acceptable to Little Man, any time of the day. Yeah... NOPE. XD

[chili-das-schaf.livejournal.com]

efore I had Felix, I thought a baby would mostly sleep, and a toddler would be happy to be left in peace with his toys and no interfering mommy, and all babysitters are equally acceptable to Little Man, any time of the day.

Oh, babysitting already cured me from that expectation. I still know it will always be harder and more life-changing than I can ever imagine right now. And I actually did not want to argue about that ^^ just quote you as an example that you still can do cool stuff like taking your toddler to Drachenfest which not everybody would have done, I think, so it does makes you a little "different" :)

Sure you don't have much time for things like that, but you did not eradicate them from your life and are still more than capable about writing and talking about other things than the baby, which this friends claims has happened to all of the moms she knows.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised how many mini-people we met at the Drachenfest, including an 8-week-old baby. As long as they're kept away from the melees, the battles and the Chaos camp, they seem to be widely accepted, too. \o/

(One mother, who camped next to us, had indeed left her 9-months-old son with her parents for the DF because she hadn't dared to bring him along - but even she attended. Of course, she got teary-eyed whenever she saw some other toddler. I take it next year she'll bring the kidster along...)