New Year Survey

Posted after Carrie Fisher's death. So true!


Sunday Stealing: Bud's Last Stand of 2016

1. What did you do in 2016 that you’d never done before?

became a contract professional

2. Best thing that happened to you was...

completing our will updates

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Jennifer!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No, thank goodness.

5. What countries did you visit?

didn't go out of the country in 2016

6. What would you like to have in 2017 that you lacked in 2016?

more concerts!

7. What dates from 2016 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

the day we were told Lauren had a brain mass

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

pulling the trigger on the kitchen remodel

9. What was your biggest failure?

Not getting the front yard re-landscaped.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nope

11. What was the best thing you bought?

wood-look tile

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

American Abbey D'Agostino and New Zealander Nikki Hamblin, the two runners who went down during a race at the summer Olympics. Hamblin helped D'Agostino up, so they could complete the race. (They won the rarely awarded Pierre de Coubertin medal for extraordinary sportsmanship.)

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Donald Trump

14. Where did most of your money go?

our kitchen remodel

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

the final kitchen walkthrough, after which the contractors were out of the house and at last we could use the kitchen again!

16. What song will always remind you of 2016?

"Cake by the Ocean" DNCE

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer?

happier, thinner and poorer

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

home projects

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

spending time at hospitals with loved ones

20. How will you spend New Year's Eve?

We ordered pizza and hung out at home.

21. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

I read the news today, oh boy...

"A Day in the Life" The Beatles

22. What was your favorite new TV program?

This is Us

23. What was the rudest thing someone did to you in 2016?

Hmm. I can't think of anything.

24. What was the best book you read?

I was going to make a joke here about the phone book or the dictionary, but those aren't actual books anymore. Ha! Didn't read a single book in 2016.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

the original version of "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" so different from the radio version

26. What did you want and get?

a mini-vacation

27. What did you want and not get?

a long vacation!

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

La La Land

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

I was 49. (Me and Jamie Foxx!) We probably went to dinner. (Jeff and I, not Jamie Foxx.) Nothing major.

30. What one thing made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

leaving my workplace

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2016?

dressy casual

32. What kept you sane?

having time to help Lauren manage her health needs and also to take care of other things at home

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Adam Levine

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

The new Texas law forcing hospitals to bury or cremate the remains of early miscarriages and abortions (currently temporarily blocked by a US District judge). National law allows for abortions, and thus does not recognize fetuses to a certain gestational age as "people." Burying fetal remains should be the choice of the parents, based on their own religious or personal beliefs. This law is in place to attempt to limit legal abortions by placing burdens on the clinics that provide them, but it will also have effects on women who are suffering already, either from having a miscarriage or having made a difficult decision to have an abortion.

35. Who did you miss?

my work friends

36. Who was the best new person you met?

Carol, a friend and caregiver of my grandfather's. She is a very selfless person who dedicates her time in retirement to visiting and helping out older seniors in her community.