1. what did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
 So many things!  Lived with a partner, started nursing school, moved to NYC

2. did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don't think I had any resolutions last year.  This year I just want to do well at school and maintain sanity while doing it.

3. did anyone close to you give birth?
Ryan's sister had twins.

4. did anyone close to you die?

My mom's best friend Mary Ellen died.  I felt really sad about that.
 

5. what countries did you visit?
Just stayed in the USA this year.


6. what would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
I want to feel more in control of school and to have confidence in my nursing skills.


7. what date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Ugh, I hate remembering dates.  My 1 year anniversary with Ryan was Oct 31st.  I think I left Philly on Aug 16th or 18th. 


8. what was your biggest achievement of the year?
Finally starting nursing school after working towards it for 5 years. 

9. what was your biggest failure?
I almost failed pathophysiology.  I felt like a big loser.  At NYU nursing the fail grade is 72 or below. 


10. did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing major.  I seem to always have weirdo ailments, but fortunately nothing much that inhibits daily life.


11. what was the best thing you bought?
A brand new couch and love seat.  A new winter coat that I love, boots from the thrift store that I wear everyday.  Ryan and I bought an amazing refrigerator that we had to leave at the house in Philly.  I love it though. 
 

12. whose behavior merited celebration?

I don't really know how to answer this question.

13. whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

This list could be pretty long.  There are  a lot of people that a pretty appalling.
14. where did most of your money go?
Paying for college.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Reading books on the subway, living with Dodger

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?

Probably unchained melody because I constantly sing it to Ryan in silly voices.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?
Good question.  Probably happier.  I feel less crazy after leaving Philly.  I love my apartment.  I'm not stoked on school though.


ii. thinner or fatter?

Not totally sure.  I do know that I gained about 20 pounds since I stopped riding my bike regularly.

iii. richer or poorer?

Probably richer, but soon to be poorer after paying off tuition and not having a job for 15+ months

18. what do you wish you'd done more of?
Riding my bike, cooking, walking, reading.

19. what do you wish you'd done less of?

Laying in bed watching tv.  I wish that I hadn't goofed off so much when school started. 

20. how did you spend christmas?
At a hotel in Piscataway with Ryan, Dodger.  Rebecca, Mom and Troy came over.  Ryan surprised me by putting up a tiny Christmas tree and stockings.  We watched a bunch of lifetime movies and opened presents and went to see Sherlock Holmes.  So fun!


22. did you fall in love in 2011?
Stayed in love.  My love for Dodger grows everyday. 

23. how many one night stands?

None.

24. what was your favourite tv program?
This year I watched a lot of Grey's Anatomy, Friday Night lights, the Office, 30 Rock, ER, and I have recently become obsessed with New Girl.  It is so funny.  I am rewatching Twin Peaks with Ryan.  So good!




25. do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Some people have really pissed me off and i have had to bite my lip a lot. 

26. What was the best book you read?

Hmm.  I like The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Do It Anyway by Courtney Martin, The Time Traveler's Wife.  Not sure what book was the best though. 

27. what was your greatest musical discovery?
 Watching The Voice!!  I was totally addicted.  I listened to the Adele record a lot when we moved to NY. 

28. what did you want and get?

I got into nursing school and I got to live in an apartment.  I wanted Ryan to move with me and he totally did.

29. what did you want and not get?

I wanted to get into nursing school and UPenn and I did not get it and I was very sad for awhile about it.

30. what was your favorite film of this year?

I watch a lot movies, but lately I've been more into tv shows.  I saw 50/50 in the theater and I liked it a lot. 

31. what did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 30!  I had people over to make pizza and we ate vegan ice cream cake and played apples to apples. 

32. what one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Making more friends at school, feeling more connection to school.  Making more money at PPSP and feeling like that place was doing better than it was. 

33. how would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

This question is weird.  Since moving to Brooklyn I have tried to step it up a notch.  I work more skirts and dresses this year and less hoodies and jeans. 

34. what kept you sane?
Different things at different times.  Getting out of town.  Making new acquaintances.  Moving.  Being in a health relationship.  My new school friend.  Eating vegetables.  Tv on the computer.  Reading on the subway. 
35. which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
hmm.  not totally sure.  I still can get pretty excited about grunge players in the 90s.  I watched the pearl jam documentary and loved it.  I still love reading about Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. 

36. what political issue stirred you the most?
Trying to defund Planned Parenthood, new ambulatory care restrictions in PA, Occupy stuff.


37. who did you miss?
I miss having a tight group of girls to hang with.  This is the first time in my life I don't have it and I have serious mourning for a girl crew.  Ladies to plan trips with and go to shows with and gossip with.  It really hurts not having that anymore.

38. who was the best new person you met?

I like my new friend Halley at school. 

39. tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.

I need to get rid of more stuff before I move again. 

40. quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

The only thing that comes to mind is "party rockers in the house tonight."

2012

Winter break from nursing school means that I can read blogs and update my blog.  I've been reading all these 2011 year in review and new resolutions for 2012.  It seems like 2011 was not a great year for a lot of people.  In thinking back on 2011, it was a year of change for me.  I moved in with a partner for a first time, we moved to New York, my first time in apartment living (as opposed to living in a group house), living with a dog for the first time as an adult, starting nursing school, taking out loans, paying tuition, not having a job for the first time in years, leaving Philly and living in Brooklyn, not really riding my bike for the first time in years, feeling less connected to good friends, not being very social, going to 6 weddings in one year, living in the same city as Molly again.  So many things have changed. 

I have never really liked making New Year Resolutions.  I am pretty sure it is because I am constantly in a state of examining my self and trying to do better.  I have never liked the "my diet starts on Monday approach to things."  If you want to start eating differently or better, start now.  Don't live the life that you don't want now, so you can start fresh in 2012.  But maybe this is hypocritical because until Jan 23rd I have a lot of time to myself and I made a big list of stuff that I want to and need to do until school starts, so I have been able to do some stuff that I have been putting off and it feels like a fresh start.  Since school ended, I've been reading lots of books, watching tons of tv, and doing some fun cooking.  Yesterday I was trying to use all the odds and ends of stuff that we had in the refrigerator.  For breakfast we had crescent rolls, fried tempeh with liquid smoke and agave, sauteed spinach and garlic, and sliced cucumber with garlic salt.  It was so yummy.  For dinner we had yellow split peas, frozen green beans, corn and cranberry sauce from a can.  I love cranberry sauce and corn from a can.  I am still not sure what to do with yellow split peas.  I put garlic salt, pepper, nutritional yeast on them, but I still feel like I am missing something, maybe curry?  I also started doing these crunch workouts that are on netflix.  Yesterday I did a dance one and I felt so stupid and self conscious, even though I was alone.  I stopped half way through.  Today I did the boot camp one.  It definitely kicked my butt.  I felt sooo out of shape.  I want to try to keep up with it.  Maybe I will pull out my old yoga sculpt dvd.    Since it is cold I don't want to do anything outside. 

Ryan and I started watching Twin Peaks over Christmas break and I love rewatching it.  I like thinking about psychoanalysis and catching all the stuff I missed last time around.  I'm reading Jay-Z's book Decoded.  I love reading what informs artist's art.  Jay-Z does a really good job of breaking down how his life has lead him to where he is.  I also like reading about Brooklyn in the 80s and 90s.  I love the trend of artist's describing where they came from.  I remember in college having a debate with a dude about whether you should take a writer's identity into consideration when reading their work.  Of course I was a women's studies major so my whole academic experience was shaped by looking at the intersections of race, class, and sex and how that influences everything.  I took classes in sociology, political science, English, as well as in other departements, but always looked at the subject through the lens of gender or sex.  If I had to teach a class about life influencing art, I would put Decoded, Andrea Dworkin's Heartbreak, Adrienne Kennedy's People Who Led Me to My Plays, and bell hooks's Bone Black on the syllabus. 

So far, I haven't really liked nursing school very much, but I don't think that means that I am going to hate nursing.  It makes me feel sad, since I love college so much the first time around and this will probably be the last time I'll be in college for awhile.  It was dream to go to NYU in high school, however a student teacher told me Rutgers was better and cost a lot less money, so I didn't apply.  I'm so glad I went to Rutgers, I had a great time there and learned so much.


Yesterday I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom and listened to this american life podcasts.  Today I would like to clean the living room, but I really hate cleaning the living room.  Give me a bathroom or kitchen any day.

I made delicious dinner tonight that reminded me why I like being vegan.  This is what it was:
1 c Quinoa
a few garlic cloves
an onion
1  package of tempeh
1 red pepper
1 tomato
a whole lot of kale
1 can of kidney beans
oregano, basil, garlic salt, pepper and lemon juice.

I sauteed the onions and garlic in olive oil, added the tempeh and pepper and then sprinkled the spices and lemon juice over everything.  I just poured a lot of lemon juice.  In my opinion you can't have too much.  Then I put the kale in and gave it time to cook down.  Then I poured the can of kidney beans in with all the liquid from the can, added the tomato and I put the spices on again and more lemon juice.  I let it simmer for awhile in all of the juices.  I cooked the quinoa in the rice cooker.  And then Ryan and I ate it while watching the office on netflix.  It was so good!  One of the reasons I became vegan was to eat more vegetables.  Lately I have been been doing pretty good at that.  Ryan and I have been doing a lot of home cooking with tons of veggies.

Nursing school has been going really well so far.  I keep waiting for it to get nuts, but right now it seems really doable.  My schedule is pretty awesome.  Mondays and Tuesday and Thursdays are pretty packed but I have Wednesdays off and Friday mornings off.  Usually I watch law and order on those days and try to do work.  I probably should be doing more reading for school.

I have been trying to keep up with all the news about Occupy Wall st and Occupy Philly.  I went to one of the Wall St marches.  I feel pretty disconnected from the Wall St stuff.  Probably because I am new to NYC and don't know a lot of people.  I feel a lot more connected to the Philly stuff, but I am so far away from it.  I feel pretty disconnected from street activism these days.  I just don't feel the passion like I used to.  I think my brain might be too critical.  I feel really happy that all of this this stuff is happening.  I'm just having a hard time relating to the "if you aren't documenting it, it didn't happen" actions.

Since moving to New York, I have watched all of Mad Men.  I have also become addicted to Scrabble and Words with Friends on my iphone.  I've been watching a lot of baseball lately.  I felt real sad when the Phillies lost in the playoffs.  I miss Philly, but I am glad to have a quiet calm life in Brooklyn.  It is pretty here and the people watching is top notch.

It is a rainy day in Brooklyn.  Ryan started his job at the high school this week while I have been trying to keep busy getting things in order before school starts.  Yesterday I went to the Fairway supermarket in Red Hook with Molly.  I bought many household staples that will hopefully hold us over for a few weeks.  Today I was supposed to do laundry, but I cleaned the kitchen and made an excellent bagel sandwich instead.  I started cleaning the bedroom, but I think I drank too much coffee and took too many vitamins because I started feeling nauseous and had to sit down for awhile.  I have been obsessed with cleaning and organizing since moving into the new apartment.  I love our apartment.  It is bright and newly refinished.  It has a huge bedroom and living room, hardwood floors, white walls, and arched doorway.  It is the nicest place I have ever lived.  I just finished reading a book called "Dirty Secret" by Jessie Scholl.  It is about being the daughter of a compulsive hoarder.  I also grew up in a hoarding household and am continually learning how that is affecting me in my adult life.  I never learned to clean or organize or get rid of things.  A few years ago I got a job as a house cleaner partially so I could learn how to clean properly.  I am pretty good at cleaning now, but organizing stuff and getting rid of stuff has been a major hurdle for me.  This move has been really nice because Ryan and I had a few weeks to unpack and organize.  We made several trips to box stores and the hardware store.  Ryan spent days building a wall sized shelving unit so we can store our library of books and records.  It is amazing to have a living space that I feel proud of.  This is the first time I have felt that.  It is a huge thing for me.  I am scared that once school starts I won't have time to keep up with maintaining an organized work and living space.  But I am hopeful.  Brooklyn has been a nice change from Philadelphia.  I haven't really had any obligations since being here and that has helped clear my mind.  I have hung out with a few friends and gone exploring some but it feels really different than Philly.  Things are new.  I've been making an effort to wear new outfits (the same old clothes, but in a different way).
I've been really nervous about starting school.  It starts Sept 19th.  I've been having anxiety dreams about going to the hospital.  My first day is at the hospital!  I have to be there at 7:30 am.  I have a little more that 1 week left of summer vacation.
Ryan and I have become addicted to Mad Men.  I want to watch it all the time.  I dream about it sometimes.  We have also become addicted to Klein's vegan ice cream.  They sell it at the kosher supermarket 2 blocks away.  It is the best vegan ice cream ever.  Normally I don't eat sweets very often.  I like salty snacks so much more, but this ice cream has been all I want everyday.  The kosher supermarket also sells the best vegan whipped cream ever.  
I bought Dodger an orthopedic dog bed and he loves it.  He sleeps on it all the time.  It is very cute.  TK likes the new apartment.  She found a special sleeping spot underneath some clothes that hang in the bedroom.  She keeps clawing the new couch and it is making me crazy.  I may try to get her some of those covers for her nails, since nothing else has been working.   

Things are hard right now.  Moving is very stressful and seems like it is never ending.  I don't really want to talk about it, but that is all anyone asks me about.  I've been pretty bummed out this week so I am going to try to focus on some things that have been keeping me sane.

Seeing friends when I can.-- I just had a 20 minute lunch with my friend Elliot and it was fun and nice to get away from my desk at work.

Ryan sending me picture texts of the new apartment.  He moved stuff to Brooklyn yesterday and texted me with pictures of the apartment.  I kept looking at the pictures daydreaming about the new apartment.

Capogiro Sorbet-- I feel so stupid that I have lived in Philly for so long, but I haven't gone here that much.  The fruit sorbet is creamy and delicious.  Way better than I ever expected. 

Having a sidewalk sale -- There have been a few boxes that I have been moving forever.  Getting rid of stuff is emotionally weird for me, but the process feels really healthy.  It was nice to make a few bucks for stuff I hadn't really looked at in forever.

Dodger and Titty Kitty.  I like it when Dodger sleeps with me and when he is wide awake first thing in the morning.  Seing Dodger excited for the day makes me more excited for the day.

Updates!!!!

It is official.  I am moving to Crown Heights in August.  Ryan and I drove up to NYC on Monday to sign our lease.  We will be living in an apartment building on the 6th floor.  There is an elevator.  We are optimistic about our apartment.  We have a big bedroom and living room, bathroom, kitchen and a few closets.  There may even be some hallway room for creative bike storage.  It feels really nice to have a lease signed.  The apartment is affordable and I really liked the neighborhood.  It is 5 blocks from  Ryan's school.  It will probably take me 45 min to an hour to get to NYU.  It will be nice for the pets to have Ryan home quickly since I will be having irregular student hours.  It looks like all of my classes first semester will start after 10AM  and some of them will be until 7 or 8pm.  My clinicals are going to be every other week from 3 until 10pm.  This will be so different from my schedule now.  I normally get up at 6:30 and work until 3:30 and try to do things until 11 or 12 when I go to bed.  Going back to a student schedule will be weird but will probably agree with me since I don't really like seeing 6:30am.  I went to NYU last week for orientation.  I got to hang out with Molly and Brian.  We watched the Bacholerette and tweeted our witty commentary.  The Bacholer/Bacholerette is a weird cultural phenomenom.  Watching it hurt my brain a little bit. 
It was good to spend 3 days in NYC I got to ride the subways on my own and check out apartments.  Molly and I walked around and drank coffee and made sandwiches.  Ryan came up on Wednesday night to pick me up.  The last apartment that we saw was the one that we ended up getting.  We looked at 2 before that were a decent size but they felt like the NYC nightmare apartment that you see in movies and tv.  One of them was in a building near a really congested interesection next to a subway station.  The previous tenants had been evicted so the apartment was a wreck with dirt and garbage everywhere.  The subway was above ground and went by the back of the apartment.  From the window you could see the train tracks and graffiti.  There were cops all over the block and the only parking was meter parking.  I had an internal freak out at the idea of living there.  Then we saw an apartment a few blocks away that was also in a congested shopping district. and it had a crazy layout and was also a mess.  It was nice relief to look at the apartment in Crown Heights.  It isn't too far from Prospect Park and there is a grocery store across the street.  We looked at a few places in Sunset Park that would be really close to Molly and Brian (in one case it was right downstairs) but the Crown Heights apartment definitely had the right price and accomodations for a dog that cannot do a lot of stairs and was bigger than the other one bedrooms that we looked at.  Next on the to do list is have a yard sale in Philly and figure out how to organize all of our personal items into a 3 room apartment.  We will have a least a week before Ryan starts school to unpack and organize right.  I feel up for the challenge.  Since I moved in with Ryan in April we never properly set the house up because we new that moving was in the near future and we still had to paint and finish the floors.  I have always lived in a chaotic bedroom and am hoping to for once live in one that is organized and attractive.  This is also the first time that I will have full reign over my living space.  I'll only have one person to compromise with instead of 3. 

Philly life continues to be busy.  Ryan is in a band called Must Be Nice with my old housemate Amy and another guy named Russ.  They started playing shows on Sunday.  We went to Scranton to Amy's parents house for a pool party/show.  It was awesome.  Sunday was perfect swimming weather.  There was tons of food and beverages and we got to see Must Be Nice and a pop punk band from Florida called Larf play.  A parent's house felt very appropriate for a first show.  They played outside so the sound was a little wonky, no montiors or Lollapalooza stage yet!  Ryan has been working on this band since we met in October with Russ and it WAS NICE to see them finally play a show.  Yesterday they played in West Philly with Larf again and tonight they are going to play in Sea Isle City NJ.  Tonight should be so good.  In my opinion Good Luck is the best band that is still playing and NJ rules. 

A few months ago, we planted a vegetable garden which has since exploded with tomatoes and other veggies and we have also been getting a CSA share all summer.  As of late I have made vegan cole slaw with CSA carrots and cabbage.  I'm not sure what else to do with cabbage in the summer.  We also have been getting a lot of beets in the CSA.  I never bought beets before but I am falling love with them.  I have been into making mashed beets and potatoes.  This has been so delicious.  I just boil the beets and potatoes together and just mash them up with almond milk and earth balance.  Everything turns pink so it is beautiful and delicious.  Last night we made salad with pasta, green beans, greens, apples, tomatoes, carrots, cukes, and peppers.  We just steamed the green beans and threw them in.  I have never eaten green beans in salad before and it is awesome.  I love the CSA because it forces me to cook with things I don't normally buy like beets, cabbage and green beans.  We were also getting scallions for awhile and I became a total fan.  I loved the scallions in salad. 

My last day of work is August 5th, then I'm going to Michigan for a week, then I am moving to Brooklyn.  Holy Crap!!!!

I staffed at the Wooden Shoe last night.  It has been awhile since I have staffed.  I had to take some steps back because I was so heavily involved in everything that I was doing (zines and finance) that no one was going to take over anything unless I backed off a lot.  Even if things weren't done my way I had to let other people learn through their own mistakes.  It is kind of crazy that everything I was doing as the treasurer has now been broken up into jobs done by several different people.  I used to enter all of the daily sales into the computer, made sure that the numbers added up, did all the cash deposits, paid all of the bills, paid the monthly sales tax, tried to keep up with budget reports, and reconciled the accounts once a month.  When I was prompt with all of the duties it too so long each month.  I eventually let some stuff slide because I had so much on my plate.  It is nice that so many people are interested with learning finance and are keeping up with things.  For so long it was just me.  It took me a really long time to figure out how to teach anyone finance stuff because I had to figure it all out myself.  The learning curve was steep. 

I was talking to Briton the other day about how many skills we have learned from staffing at the wooden shoe.  We both gained a lot from doing conflict resolution even though conflicts were pretty hard.  I don't think any of the conflicts that we were involved with were fully resolved, but dealing with them instead of ignoring them were beneficial for most involved.  I learned a lot of listening and communication skills and definitely got a lot more assertive as a result of being involved and challenging myself. 

I feel sad that I met a lot of friends through the collective and many of them are not involved anymore.  It is hard to understand what makes people leave completely, especially after working so hard to make it a better place to be.  It will be weird to move away and not be involved for the next year or so.  But I really don't see me wanting to volunteer at any other info shops.  Mostly because I want to focus 100% on school, but also because I feel like the wooden shoe is family and you just don't go around joining other people's families.  Bluestockings does have coffee though...

I am tabling this weekend at the Scranton Zine Fest!  Come visit.  Scranton is fun!