{"id":252,"date":"2007-12-31T22:38:19","date_gmt":"2008-01-01T03:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=252"},"modified":"2008-12-14T09:48:01","modified_gmt":"2008-12-14T13:48:01","slug":"bandwagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=252","title":{"rendered":"Bandwagon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HolidailiesDecember 31, 2007
\nMonday<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u00c2\u00a0never do memes<\/a>, those sets of questions that make the rounds of blogs and MySpace pages, and I rarely read them. But approaching my sixty-first post in sixty-one days, I am truly tapped out of ideas, so I’m hopping on the bandwagon and answering twenty-five questions from the currently popular end-of-year meme. Once again, thank you for reading, so much, so often.<\/p>\n

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before? <\/em><\/strong>Bellied up to a bar<\/a> and asked for Alaskan Amber on tap.<\/p>\n

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?<\/strong> The Six Goals of a Quality Life<\/a>, first articulated here in 2006, remain my guiding principles. I’ve made progress on each except Number 6, which appears hopeless.<\/p>\n

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?<\/strong> My pastors became grandparents for the first time in July. I sent the baby a set of five handknit but mismatched socks from the Sock Lady<\/a> in Vermont.<\/p>\n

4. Did anyone close to you die?<\/strong> Eileen<\/a>, and Nan<\/a>, two women with a cherished place in my history whom I claimed to care about but who went away with no word of farewell, neither to me nor from me, because I’d been out of touch too long.<\/p>\n

5. What places did you visit?<\/strong> Wyoming, of course (do my readers really<\/em> need a link? does anybody really want<\/em> to go there with me again?), and Vermont.<\/p>\n

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?<\/strong> A clean and orderly house.<\/p>\n

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?<\/strong> March 9, I turned 60.<\/p>\n

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?<\/strong> Being awarded<\/a> the residency at Jentel.<\/p>\n

9. What was your biggest failure?<\/strong> See\u00c2\u00a0#4 and #6 above.<\/p>\n

10.\u00c2\u00a0Did you suffer illness or injury?<\/strong> Not anything worth mentioning.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

11. What was the best thing you bought?<\/strong> My cowboy boots!<\/a><\/p>\n

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?<\/strong> Lynn’s, of course, always. Other people<\/a> think so too.<\/p>\n

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and distressed?<\/strong> Well, besides the members of the Bush administration, assorted assassins, and the writers of Friday Night Lights<\/em> who seem to have lost their way and are working hard to ensure there will not be a third season, there were the people who made fun of Miss Teen South Carolina. Give the kid a break!<\/a><\/p>\n

14. Where did most of your money go?<\/strong> Millersville University and various bookstores around the world<\/a>. (The list includes only purchases made August through December for personal use, not for giving away.)<\/p>\n

15. What did you get really really really excited about?<\/strong> My own writing, the possibilities and the promise. I finally really believe in myself in this regard, at least for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?<\/strong> Are You All Right?<\/em> by Lucinda Williams and I’ll Follow You Into the Dark<\/em> by Death Cab for Cutie.<\/p>\n

17. Compared to this time last year, are you
\na. happier or sadder?<\/strong> Oh way happier! And I wasn’t unhappy last year!
\nb. thinner or fatter?<\/strong> About the same.
\nc. richer or poorer?<\/strong> In money, about the same. In all those other metaphorical aspects, that is, friendships, love,\u00c2\u00a0 joy, optimism, far far richer.<\/p>\n

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?<\/strong> Cleaning and decluttering, art projects, seeing friends in person.<\/p>\n

19. How did you spend Christmas last year?<\/strong> Taking two days off from Holidailies and anticipating Erin’s wedding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

20. What was your favorite TV program?<\/strong> Without a doubt, Friday Night Lights<\/a><\/em>. The link is to the official site at NBC. I hope I won’t have to go in and delete the link soon when the show is cancelled.<\/p>\n

21. What did you do for your birthday in 2007?<\/strong> I had dinner with an old boyfriend, only because he happened to be in town that day. Since I was turning sixty, I’d planned to have a big deal party for myself, complete with Elvis impersonator to sing “Love Me Tender” to me, but I didn’t, explained here<\/a>. (If you clicked on the second link in #4, you’ve already read it.)<\/p>\n

22. What was the best book you read?<\/strong> Stacey D’Erasmo, A Seahorse Year<\/em> (fiction). It’s the reason I asked for her to be my workshop leader at Bread Loaf. I was not disappointed.’<\/p>\n

23. Did you make some new friends this year?<\/strong> Oh indeed. There was the extraordinary young man<\/a> I met last December. What should have been a brief acquaintance (“Dear Editor, one of your staff has committed plagiarism;” “Thank you, we’ll take care of it<\/em>.”) extended itself into a series of discussions and then became a genuine friendship. And Father Henry<\/a> at Wernersville. Both give grace and joy to my life. And I reconnected in new and important and enduring ways with another old friend from college, my high school musical friend<\/a>, and my best girlfriend from elementary school, each of whom I’ve seen repeatedly this year. As much\u00c2\u00a0as the\u00c2\u00a0failures to connect described in #2 distress me, I did make progress on reclaiming old acquaintance, strengthening the habitual, and nurturing the new.<\/p>\n

24. Whom did you miss?<\/strong> Michael<\/a>.<\/p>\n

25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.<\/strong> You know not the hour and the moment when it will be too late to say a good word, to heal an old wound, to forgive so that you may be forgiven. So do it now.<\/p>\n

And you, reading this, some of whom have been alluded to above,\u00c2\u00a0thank you again and again and again for reading so much, so often.<\/p>\n


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