These questions have been bouncing around the blogosphere (I got them from Household Opera).
Here goes nothing:
1. What did you do in 2004 that you’d never done before? (A) I took a spontaneous vacation. (B) I let the White House sic the FBI on me.
2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolutions–my mind doesn’t work that way.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes, and now I’m a sometime babysitter as a result (I guess that belongs under #1, too).
4. Did anyone close to you die? No.
5. What countries did you visit? None–I was too busy.
6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004? (A) A romance. (B) A Morandi etching. (I’d gladly settle for either, but I’m not hanging by my thumbs.)
7. What date from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory? None. I’ve never been good at remembering dates–I always have to look them up. The last one I remember is the one we all remember.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? The publication of All in the Dances: A Brief Life of George Balanchine and A Terry Teachout Reader. I haven’t had many two-book years!
9. What was your biggest failure? I promised myself that I’d try my hand at watercolor in 2004. I bought a starter set in September, but I have yet to moisten a brush.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Just the flu.
11. What was the best thing you bought? Max Beerbohm’s 1913 caricature of Percy Grainger.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Answering that question is what I do for a living. Spend an hour trolling through the “About Last Night” archives and you can answer it for yourself.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Ditto.
14. Where did most of your money go? Art and taxes (which beats death and taxes).
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? I can’t even begin to list all the things that fill the bill–I seem to spend my life in a perpetual state of arousal.
16. What song/album will always remind you of 2004? (A) Song: Diana Krall’s version of Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow.” (B) Album: Luciana Souza’s Neruda.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
– Happier or sadder? Somewhat happier.
– Thinner or fatter? About the same.
– Richer or poorer? Definitely poorer, but mainly because of the Teachout Museum, so I’m not complaining.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Taking the night off.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Sitting through plays by…oh, never mind, I gave him a hard enough time last year.
20. How will you be spending Christmas? Go here for retrospective details.
21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? Our Girl in Chicago.
22. Did you fall in love in 2004? No (sigh).
23. How many one-night stands in this last year? None. That’s soooo not my thing.
24. What was your favorite TV program? I don’t see enough TV to answer this question (unless you count the What’s My Line? kinescopes I watch every night on the Game Show Network).
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? So far as I know, I don’t really hate anyone (that’s also not my thing).
26. What was the best book(s) you read? The Library of America’s Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Erin McKeown.
28. What did you want and get? A new friend.
29. What did you want and not get? None of your business.
30. What were your favorite films of this year? Sideways, The Incredibles, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Triplets of Belleville, and Garden State (sorry to be so obvious).
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I had dinner at Caf