Stalling...Plus Sort of a Wrap Up for 2013?

I was asked earlier today whether or not I will be doing a 2013 Book of the Year (BOTY) announcement. The answer is a resounding yes. However, I'm stalling because that string of posts requires some actual effort and brainpower. I lack both of those at the moment as I sit in my comfy, comfy bed listening to two out of the three dogs snore (one rather loudly). But...I will begin the BOTY trek before the week is out. That, my dear readers (I hope there is more than one of you) is my promise to you. Seriously...promise, not empty threat that will totally get ignored and then profusely apologized for. There will be something related to books and reading before Sunday arrives.

In the meantime, I'm catching up on my blog reading (only 25 more posts to go, whee!!) and dear Aunt Becky over at Mommy Wants Vodka has suckered me in to a yearly roundup of sorts. I've been seeing cutesy top 10 posts and the traditional year-in-review posts and the best of posts popping up everywhere and...well...I'm a follower, I guess. I just want to be liked you guys, come on. So...here's the best attempt I'm ready to throw energy at tonight.

1. What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before?

Spent more on vet bills than I did on my own health care. Seriously, it's a good thing we only have one kid living in this household, the pets are drowning us.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Ya, right. I'm a horrible plan follower. 2013 kind of threw me for a loop and put kinks in nearly all of the plans I had for myself. Posting decreased, creativity decreased, and stress increased. I got behind on just about everything possible. 

As with a lot of you, I did want try and do some kind of physical activity on a regular basis...because I am a horribly lazy slob. I managed to swing that until about April, when Wii Fit just lost all of it's fun. I later ditched the recumbent biking because my stupid basement flooded and everything down there went to crap for about six months. I'll call five out of twelve months a success.

This year...hmm... How about we try for an increase in blog posting, better completion of my reading goals, and actually getting some crap put up in the Etsy shop? That's a fair goal. I now have my uber crafty sister-in-law kicking my trash by having her Etsy shop take off over at Lost & Found Puzzles, so I have someone to motivate me into getting this stuff done.

She made us this puzzle guest book for our wedding. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

I got myself a brand new nephew and a new niece. Not too shabby for our little family. They're both super cute (I'm totally not biased), though my nephew seems to actually like me. I can't say that for my niece. She pretty much doesn't want anyone besides her mom and dad touching her (ask Collin...he touched her foot at Christmas and got what for). Maybe I'll grow on her.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

We lost Harley back in February and that was super tough. I loved that mutt. He was a pretty damned good dog and I still think about him nearly every day.

5. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?

A steady paycheck. Being self-employed is a total pain in the ass.

6. What countries did you visit?

That's pretty funny. I barely left the state, so unless California is now a different country (which I suppose it could sometimes be considered), I stayed relatively close to home. I STILL don't own a passport - something I would like to change at some point in the next decade.

7. What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why:

I'm gonna go ahead and throw out the wedding card here. September 13th. Yup...Friday the 13th. Because we're awesome like that.

We're going to call this expression on his face "relaxed", not "might fall asleep", okay?

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Not going bankrupt. Hang in there...that might still happen. Big goals for 2014.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Not getting my act together and putting stuff on Etsy to help balance out the fact that my office was a jerk in the payroll department this year. Laziness...always the laziness with me.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Really? Rarely in my life have I made it through a single month without injury, let alone a year. Numerous bumps, bruises, and scrapes. Scratches all over my arms from the new puppy we adopted in May, burns from my total inattention to hot things in the kitchen, a black eye in November just in time for Thanksgiving, and oh...the almost slicing my index finger off that occurred last week when my I tried to shake hands with the food processor blade on Christmas Eve. (I was just trying to show it some love. You'd think it would've been more appreciative.)

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Wow. This one is a little harder than I thought it would be. I really haven't bought much of anything outside of necessities in the last year. We'll go instead with the "best thing I spent money on"...just a little bend of the wording. Although it cost us a pretty penny, I'm very glad that we spent the money for Piper's ACL surgeries. (Yes, surgerIES. She managed to need both hind legs worked on.) She turned 10 this year, but you wouldn't know it by all the bounding around she does. It was a good investment, one I don't regret at all.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Piper wins again. I'd give it to the kid, but he's totally been slacking off and still trying the old "hide the homework" trick, so he loses out. Maybe next year. Darned tweens.

As for Piper, she has become a full blown indoor/outdoor dog with very little training. We started letting her in when Harley got sick so they could keep each other company. That was a slippery slope and now all three dogs (including the newbie, Mischa) are allowed inside. But most impressive was Piper, who has never really been and indoor dog before, but managed to make the transition nearly accident free despite her age. Good puppy.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Blegh. We're going to go with mine here. I was pretty much a slacker in the creativity and crafting department. I can't remember the last time I scrapbooked and the photos we took this year are pretty few and far between. If it wasn't for camera phones I'm pretty sure our 2013 photo albums would have less than one decent photo a month. It was a sad state of affairs.

I'm also convinced that I'm going through a kind of halfway quarter-life/mid-life crisis. I'm...let's face it...kind of a wreck at the moment.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Ugh. Sore subject. What little money I managed to bring to the household got totally sucked up by Wells Fargo. Nearly all of our income this year went solely to managing debt...and not very well. It's been rough. We're hoping 2014 starts letting us see a light at the end of this crummy, crummy self-employed tunnel.

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

Our wedding! I kind of enjoyed getting things ready for it and actually managed not to be the one freaking out on wedding day. Score! Our wedding was low key and fun and (as my mother-in-law said) totally us. 

16. What song will always remind you of 2013?

"Love is All Around" by Wet, Wet, Wet. It's the song I walked down the aisle to. (For those curious of the reason, I'm a HUGE fan of Love, Actually.)

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder?  Sadder.

ii. thinner or fatter? Fatter. (Wow...this isn't going very well, is it?)

iii. richer or poorer? Gah. SO much poorer. I actually had more money when I was a college student. It's a sad state of affairs. Maybe I should scrap it all, get a job at Starbucks, and go back to school to "find myself". It could be an improvement...

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

Becky's answer to this one was: "Reminding myself that things work out – one way or another, they always work out." Although I'm still working on feeling this way now, I think there were a few things that this applied to last year...so I'm stealing it. Good answer Becky, good answer.

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

Wallowing. That is all. I did lots of it. It wasn't helpful.

20. How will you be did you spending Christmas?

We hosted Collin's family at our house and then went to my brother's house the day after Christmas. It was nice. I love our families.

21. There was no #21. Becky made up a question, but I'm too freaking lazy. So...if you want to, I suppose you can go ahead and make up question 21 to ask me in the comments. Sure, why not?

22. Did you fall in love in 2013?

I stayed in love. After the serious hell that 2013 put us through, I think that's saying a lot. Collin and I have stuck it out through some really crappy stuff over the last 7 years. We're pretty tough together.

23. How many one-night stands?

I had an on again/off again relationship with this blog. Does that count?

24. What was your favorite TV program?

The Big Bang Theory. It was pretty much a nightly ritual for the majority of the year. However, the complete dump out of my cable company in October took it away for over two weeks and somewhat broke the spell. Our decision to cancel our cable here in the next couple of days will probably be putting an end to that. Oh, well. I'll survive.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Yup. But I don't want to breed more hate or speak ill of someone else (I'll just think ill instead), so I'll keep my trap shut. Hate is a strong word and I rarely feel that about anyone, but one particular person and one particular corporation have earned it this year.

26. What was the best book you read?

Nice try. I'm not spilling that yet. You'll just have to wait until the 2013 BOTY review gets finished over the next week.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

What? This is seriously an odd question. I didn't "discover" squat. I DID listen to the radio and a whole heck of a lot of Spotify. That's all I've got, sorry.

28. What did you want and get?

I wanted a normal life. HAHAHAHAHA. Right. That will never happen. I got an ulcer and a few migraines.

29. Where did 29 go? Is there no 29 either?

30. What was your favorite film of this year?

I think I saw a couple of movies this year. I honestly can't remember if it was more than a couple. I think I'll go ahead and lame out by saying Catching Fire. I'm sorry...it was good. It WAS.

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

I turned 35. It was actually a hard birthday for me. I don't like being closer to 40 than 30. I'm not ready for that yet. The only up side was that I spent my birthday on my honeymoon. That was nice. I got to spend it with my favorite person. And we walked the Golden Gate Bridge. It was fun.

32. And no 32? Wow. Someone can't count.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?

What's clean and doesn't completely clash? Perfect.

34. What kept you sane?

I defer to Becky again. "Sanity is overrated."

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

Nope. I have no "fancy" for anyone. I'm boring that way. Or maybe I'm just getting to old. Drat.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

The Affordable Care Act. I'm still rather pissed off about it. Mostly because it's bound to cause some serious issues for me in my line of work and yet no one seems to know exactly how it's going to work or how it's going to change things...and it takes effect in 1 more day. Very frustrating.

37. Who did you miss?

Harley. A lot. I cried about him several times. Losing a pet is hard.

38. Who was the best new person you met?

My social circle stayed pretty stable this year. I don't think many came or went. So I'm going to go ahead and give this one as a tie to my new nephew and niece (even though she doesn't like me yet). I'm a cool aunt, dang it. She should like me!

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:

Working hard doesn't always pay off. Sometimes you still get the short end of the stick.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year (because this Meme is apparently written for tweens):

"Let them wonder how we got this far, cause I don't really need to wonder at all. Yeah after all this time, I'm still into you." -Still Into You by Paramore. Pretty much that whole song is me and Collin. I'm so glad I had him around this year. I never would've made it without him.

And, of course, this is one of those things where you're supposed to tag other people. But I don't want to slap this on anyone else who doesn't want it. So...if you want it, do it. If you don't, don't. 'Cause I'm generous like that.

And with that, I'm going to post this thing and try to get some reading in. Don't judge my grammar or lack thereof, because my proofreading skills are at a minimum at the moment. I'm mildly distracted as I'd really like to finish this one last book before 2014 arrives.