2013 was one of the best years of my life. Remember email surveys? I got this one a few years back, and I’ve been using it as a template for my Stuff and Nonsense year in review ever since. Here’s the latest edition! Have a safe and happy New Year’s, everyone.
- Where did you begin 2013? On the phone with my friend Jenni
- What was your status by Valentine’s Day? Single
- Were you in school (anytime this year)? I was, until I dropped Intro Psyc. As for whether or not I was in a school anytime this year, the answer’s “yes.”
- How did you earn your money? As a student recruitment officer
- Did you have to go to the hospital? *searching for a clever answer*
- Did you have any encounters with the police? Only by photo radar
- Where did you go on holidays? Toronto, Winnipeg, Chicago, Kingston, Spokane, and Seattle
- What did you purchase that was over $1,000? Nothing
- Have you kissed anyone this year? A gentlemen does not kiss and tell.
- Did you know anybody who passed away? Yes
- Did you move anywhere? In June I left my one-bedroom apartment up by the university and moved back to Sunnyside, into a bright, spacious two-bedroom apartment that I share with the best roommate ever. Of course, three weeks later we were evacuated and didn’t have laundry until last month…but still, it’s by far my favourite place I’ve rented, residual flood damage notwithstanding.
- What concerts/shows/sporting events did you go to? Concerts: Pearl Jam x6 (chronologically: London, Ontario; Chicago; Spokane; Calgary; Vancouver; and Seattle), Soundgarden x2 (both in Toronto), the Tragically Hip x2 (Red Deer and Calgary), Americanarama with Bob Dylan, Wilco, and My Morning Jacket, Calgary Folk Festival, Queens of the Stone Age, Chris Cornell, and Nine Inch Nails; shows, the Stratford Festival production of Tommy x6, Les Miserables x4 (twice each in Toronto and Calgary), The Book of Mormon, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in the Park), Cats, The Merchant of Venice (Stratford), Once; sporting events, hockey games in Calgary (4), Toronto (3), and Winnipeg and baseball games in Toronto (5) and Chicago (AL)
- Are you registered to vote? Yup: I voted for Nenshi in 2013.
- What was the biggest change in your life? To be revealed.
- Where do you live now? Calgary
- Describe your birthday? Quiet
- What has been your favorite moment? When the curtain rose at my first performance of Tommy and I realized what was about to happen.
- What’s something you learned about yourself? The most incredible life’s within arm’s reach
- Any new additions to your family? None this year; I anticipate having a different answer next year, however.
- What was your best month? July
- What music will you remember 2013 by? I listened to more music (and more new music) in 2013 than in any other year of my life. In particular, I’ll remember it by: the Stooges, Fun House; Daft Punk, Random Access Memories; R.E.M., Monster; My Morning Jacket, Circuital; Mad Season, Above; Mudhoney, Superfuzz Bigmuff; Pearl Jam, Lightning Bolt; Arcade Fire, Reflektor; Nine Inch Nails, Hesitation Marks; Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle operas; and the catalogues of Alice in Chains, the National, the Ramones, Lou Reed, and–sadly, inevitably–Pink Floyd
- Who has been your best drinking buddy? J-What, now and forever
- Made new friends? Of course
- New best friend? No
- Favorite night out? Mine, Sherkin, and Pearl Jam Heather’s pub crawl the night before Pearl Jam at Wrigley Field
- What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before? Survived both an ice storm and a it-happens-once-every-hundred-years flood
- Did you keep your New Year’s Resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn’t many any–I usually don’t–but I’m making one for 2014: “WRITE.”
- Did anyone close to you give birth? Lots of people
- What countries did you visit? Just the United States, actually
- What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013? Something I’m not about to blog about…
- What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? May 17. This, ultimately, is how I’ll remember 2013.
- What was your biggest achievement of the year? Recovering from ACL surgery
- What was your biggest failure? Tearing my ACL…twice.
- Did you suffer illness or injury? Go fuck yourself.
- What was the best thing you bought? This, which I’d been dying to get my hands on for years and years and years. Don’t ask how much it cost (although feel free to use question #8 as a reference point).
- Whose behavior merited celebration? Naheed Nenshi: Canada’s greatest civic leader, a source of pride for Calgarians, and one of social media’s all-time winners
- Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Dave Nonis, Randy Carlyle, and the rest of the neanderthals who are running my beloved Maple Leafs into the ground
- Where did most of your money go? Rent, Pearl Jam tickets, and a new couch
- What did you get really, really, really excited about? Stratford’s production of Tommy
- Compared to this time last year, are you: a, more happy or more sad? b, thinner or fatter? c, richer or poorer? a, happier; b, 180 lbs of fatter; c, richer…and if not quite “richer,” then at least more financially stable than I’ve been in years
- What do you wish you’d done more of? Physical activity
- What do you wish you’d done less of? Rehabbing
- How will you be spending Christmas? In Toronto with my family
- What was the most embarrassing thing that happened to you in 2013? Getting pink eye, then having to explain to school counsellors on Vancouver Island that I was not, in fact, baked out of my gourd.
- Did you fall in love in 2013? No…
- How many one-night stands? None
- What was your favorite TV program? Breaking Bad
- What was the best book you read? Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff
- What was your greatest musical discovery? Oddly enough: Jimi Hendrix. I’d never really listened to him until this year.
- What did you want and get? I saw Tommy multiple times. You probably think I’m belabouring the point, about how Tommy was my favourite thing about 2013–yet I still don’t think I’ve adequately explained how much this production meant to me. I don’t think I can.
- What did you want and not get? Nothing of note
- What was your favorite film of this year? 12 Years a Slave; I didn’t “enjoy” it, per se, but it’s one of the most powerful movies I’ve seen this or any other year.
- On your birthday, how old were you? 33
- What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Two ACLs
- How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013? Rock t-shirts
- What kept you sane? Therapy
- Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Sir Alex Ferguson
- What political issue stirred you the most? Rob Ford’s mayoralty
- Who do you miss? My friends, family, and dog in Toronto
- Who was the best new person you met? My nerd lobster
- Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013. In high school, my friend Lauren and I used to sign each other’s yearbooks as follows: “Listening to you, I get the music/Gazing at you, I get the heat/Following you, I climb the mountain/I get excitement at your feet/Right behind you, I see the millions/On you, I see the glory/From you, I get opinions/From you, I get the story.” As an encomium for 2013 I’d say it’s just about perfect.
See you on the flip side.
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