The obligatory year-gone-by wrap-up post-type thingy

I've been looking around at my friends' blogs, reading their answers to the usual year-end memes, and realizing that none of them really pertain to my year that was.

The odd thing is, the back of the paperback edition of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying Of Lot 49 kinda does:

The highly original satire about Oedipa Maas, a woman who finds herself enmeshed in a worldwide conspiracy, meets some extremely interesting characters, and attains a not inconsiderable amount of self knowledge.

I did a lot of things this year. Some of them I'd never done before; some of them I'd done way too many times already. Some of them I never thought I'd do, but I did. Some of the things that I thought I'd do didn't happen, but that's kind of how life goes for most of us.

I met some new people. I kept up existing friendships, for the most part. I tried to spend time with the people I love who love me because of who I am, not in spite of it or because they feel obligated to, and was (and am) grateful that there are so many of them. Was reminded that human relationships are often too complex to sum up in easy-to-parse sentences. Tried to accept that sometimes, I just have to cut my losses. Fell in lust at least once. Any new loves? Jury's still out.

I came to some realizations about certain people, especially in this most recent few weeks. If you're one of them, then you probably won't recognize yourself in that sentence.

Assessed my assets. Changed hair product, refocused my writing and bought some really good bras.

I didn't do anything of which I'm terribly ashamed, although some of the things I did do would probably surprise some people who don't know me as well as they think they do. (My political viability is, sadly, still intact.) I dropped the ball on a few things, but all in all I don't recall letting anyone down terribly, at least not without a sincere effort to make it up to them. I tried not to apologize for things that weren't my fault. I did, of course. That's just me.

Had my last show at one theater. Had my first shows at three others. Helped out on several other productions, because my friends needed the help and I needed the experience. Yay, symbiosis. And it turns out I'm pretty good at no-budget online marketing.

Made a conscious effort to stop expending so much energy on trying to categorize and label all the intangibles in my life -- which was kind of funny, since my job for the first half of the year was centered on categorizing and labeling intangibles. At least they weren't mine.

I spent the employed portions of my year at various contract gigs. You can tell a lot about a company by how they treat their contractors.

Sustained a few minor injuries, the sort of thing one incurs when one is a klutz with little depth perception. Developed some really weird reactions to all the stress I was under.

Made a bunch of crafty-type things. Read a lot of books. Sang a lot of karaoke. Watched too much TV. Saw too few movies.

Wrote a lot. Most of what I produced has my name on it, but some of the best stuff doesn't. Email me if you need the details on that.

Most importantly, I survived the year. And, look, here's another one. Time for my traditional toast:

Here's to the new year. May it suck less than the old.