Ellen Herald

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before? went to thailand; drank mandarin sidecars; read a record number of books [yes, i still keep a record].  

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? i did and i didn't keep them, but this year was a write off, 2010 seems to be shaping up as the perfect year for big changes, so yes, i'm going to make more.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? not unless my sister does before january 1!

4. Did anyone close to you die? not anyone close, but this year was rough when it came to the concept of mortality.

5. What countries did you visit? thailand

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? happiness, financial security, a social life.

7. What date(s) from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? none, there are not many i'd like to remember.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? getting into three unis :)

9. What was your biggest failure? getting my shit together.

10. Did you suffer any illness or injury? just the usual.

11. What was the best thing you bought? my canon eos 500d.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? my friends and family, both immediate and extended in the last few weeks.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? my own, bne's.

14. Where did most of your money go? thailand, camera and way too much non-home cooked food.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? getting into uni, the thought of 2010, seriously, so hella excited!

16. What song will always remind you of 2009? my girls - animal collective; the vowels pt. 2 - why?

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? hmmm. i can see the light of happiness is probably the best way to put it.

ii. thinner or fatter? most probably fatter.
iii. richer or poorer? hmm...probably the same!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? seeing friends, taking photos, sitting at gigs instead of standing :)

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? crying, wasting my time, watching tv.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? first, i shall wake up in a motel i'm staying at with my mum and dad, then we're driving to hornsby and having an immediate family christmas, then we're going to gosford to see my grandma and aunt and uncle THEN i'm heading to hornsby to spend the night at my sister's IN THE BABY ROOM, then back to the coast boxing day.

22. Did you fall in love in 2009? heh. no. well...with famous people, yes. it's love even if they don't know you exist, right?

23. How many one night stands? none.

24. What was your favourite TV program? the wire.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? no, i hate all the same people ;)

26. What was the best book you read? man, i read a lot this year...i'd say:

experience - martin amis,
between mexico and poland - lily brett,
sins of the brother - mark whittaker and les kennedy,
helter skelter - vincent bugliosi and 
raven - tim reiterman and john jacobs

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? atmosphere and  why?

28. What did you want and get? my canon :)

29. What did you want and not get? still waiting on that one.

30. What was your favorite film of this year? i forget movies! ummm, i really liked moon.

31. What did you do on your birthday? i went to the museum, i think. it was a bit of a sad birthday. the beginning of the end of things with bne, really.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? to be brutally honest, if we'd made the decision to split much earlier. wait, this is the 'so why did you break up in '09' meme, right?

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? that of a 15-year-old boy who wears black a lot.

34. What kept you sane? mah mum.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? sean daley from atmosphere. oh my god, in his words, i could cook him and eat him.



36. What political issue stirred you the most? the clean feed.

37. Who did you miss? my dad's dad.
 
38. Who was the best new person you met? my posse at work :)

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. ways to control anxiety and if you are unhappy, leave the situation, preferable fast.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

as i lay me down to fall asleep
with my demons dying and my pilot light weak,
i curse the last six months
i've been hiding behind a mustache, yeah.
and to those last 10 years
i've been howling a paper moon.
well fuck you.  

my date for my younger sister's wedding isn't even born yet.

hurry up nephew whose name i know and use when i'm not around my older sister who will get me in trouble!

i have a whole stack of resolutions for 2010. most of the time i think new years resolutions are a croc, but i feel like i need some resoluting in my life, so resolute on, i say.

there's the usual, like lose weight, eat better food etc, but then there's a whole bunch more like:

- learn to cook
- stop finding awesome gifts for people, telling then i've found them, then never buying/posting them!
- send a birthday card to all my loved ones on their birthdays
- set a sleep pattern and stick to it
- read academic feminist texts like the old days
- study hard
- use all the organisational things i buy rather than photographing them and forgetting to use them
- take more photos, really learn how to run my camera through its paces
- go out more with the lovely people i know who are still, after all these years, asking me to things even though i seem to never go
- visit kelly in perth
- pay my bills on time
- be better with money and pack my own lunch
- return emails/comments/text messages!
- expand my wardrobe past that of a 15-year-old boy
- stress less/have more fun

***

in other news, i've been talking to a bunch of people about this lately, because i think it's funny. i don't know if it's like this everywhere, or just where i grew up, or it just happens to people at the age i was when i was last single, but...

i seriously do not understand "dating". seriously. bne and i basically liked the look of each other, hung out one night and ended up in an almost eight year long relationship. and that seems to be what happened with all my friends too.

not that i'm thinking about meeting anyone just now but seriously, when the time comes, i'm just going to be like 'what?!' and then run.

lucky i have a cat.

in a weird twist of fate that, strictly speaking, shouldn't have been possible, i got offers for uni next year from sydney uni, UTS and macquarie uni.

sydney uni didn't seem to be my bag, baby, so when UTS came in, i accepted, but then i got macquarie's offer and not only do they definitely offer evening classes, some of my subjects are by distance, plus they have a really good reputation for education, and i can do straight english, so...i accepted that one too and now i have to call UTS and drop out.

it was both flattering and stressful. but i'm happy with the choice i made, so start feeling scared for your kids, they may end up with me as a teacher some day :)