A 2007 retrospective survey

1. Where did you begin 2007?
I believe that I began it at home, with Marty, but I really do not recall what we did. It was probably a very quiet night, and we most likely had champagne at midnight.

2. Did you have to go to the hospital? 
Not as a patient, but I took Claire to the emergency room for a minor issue that needed immediate attention, while I was visiting her in Pittsburgh this past spring.

3. Did you have any encounters with the police? 
No. I stay away as far as I possibly can. I am a law-abiding citizen. I did not even have to report any drunken brawl at the student apartments that are located near my house – although I came very close to doing it once, early in the fall semester.

4. Where did you go on vacation?
Lord, this one will be a long response:
- Marty and I went to Tampa in early January, to visit his nephew and his family, we crossed the state to visit an old friend of his and her husband in New Smyrna Beach, went to the Kennedy Space Center, and then to Disneyworld. We then returned to Tampa, went to the Dali museum in Saint Petersburg, and then returned home (with an delay without luggage in Chicago.)

- We returned to Florida during my “winter” break in early March. We flew into Miami, drove to Key West where we stayed at the most romantic B&B, and then drove through the Everglades, where we saw some really cool crocs. It was a wonderful trip, and I don’t even “do” nature!

- Right after school was over in mid-May, I left for France to visit my family (which is always both a blessing and a curse), and then met Marty in Paris. We flew to Istanbul, where we stayed with K., his old videographer from previous business trips to Turkey, and his wife D. we also took a trip with K. down the western coast of Turkey, down to Bodrum, a lovely resort. After Turkey, we hit Barcelona, Spain, via Paris (and lost – forever – our luggage in the process), spent two nights and a whole day in Barcelona, and then took a train to Valencia, where we visited Marty’s brother, his wife, and their two-year old son. After that, we flew back to Paris where we spent another two nights and a day, and returned to the U.S. What an amazing trip – and we never let the lost luggage get to us!

- In August, Marty and I headed up north, with the intention of reaching Nova Scotia, which never happened. We did hit Acadia, Prince Edward Island, and Montréal, and it was a really fun trip overall. We plan on returning to Quèbec next summer.

5. What did you purchase that was over $500? 
I bought a new dining-room suit and a dresser that I put in my living room. That was my big splurge of the year. But I assume that any of the three trips mentioned in #4 qualify as well.

6. Did you know anybody who got married?
I am actually in this funky period in my life in which no one I know is getting married. I anticipate that the next individual to get married will be my nephew Pierre-Martin (unless he considers himself happy just shacking up with his girlfriend of the past three or four years.) I am not sure that I will even be able to be present at his wedding (if he gets married), although it was a delight to be present at my niece’s wedding a few years back.

My daughter will probably have friends who will get married within the next few years, and she may be invited, but not me, because I was never close to the families of her high school friends.

7. What sporting events did you attend?
I am one person who had not gone to any live sporting event in years, but I did go to one Pirates-Cubs game in Pittsburgh in September. It was raining really hard, and the Cubs lost. Marty and I left early.

8. What concerts/shows did you go to? 
Same deal here. I had not gone to a live show in a while, but I went to two this year:
- I saw Patti Smith in Pittsburgh with Claire in early August. One of the genuine highlights of my rock & roll life! (Listen to any track by that woman, and you’ll know what I mean!)
- Marty got me, as a late birthday gift, tickets to an Elvis Costello/Bob Dylan show in late September. Elvis was amazing, Bob was so-so.

9. Where do you live now?
Smalltown, Western PA. Although anyone of my faithful reader who is kind of astute knows exactly what town that is. I live in a very nice house, but my place looks more like an apartment than like a house, because of its weird configuration. I do not own, but rent this place, from very quirky landlords who live in a house separated from mine by a big backyard. They live here only from about June or July to early December, at which time they leave for the west coast of Florida, where they spend the winter.

10. Describe your birthday: 
This may sound terrible, but I remember very little about my birthday this year. It was on the day after labor day, and we probably had some sort of labor day picnic/event. I did get some cool presents, but nothing spectacular. I hit 55, which was a milestone in itself.

11. What's the one thing you thought you would never do, but did in 2007?
Most likely, become President of Faculty Senate. I am not a power-monger by any means, but sort of “moved up the ladder” and got elected to this office this past April. So far, so good – it’s been a rather unproblematic year.

12. What's something you learned about yourself?
I can handle quite a few rather daunting tasks, all pretty much at the same time, but that I kind of hate it. I am also becoming more and more impatient with social situations that I do not like, and I now turn down invitations to events that I know I will not enjoy. But I still have a long way to go on the assertiveness front.

13. Any new additions to your family?

My first grand-nephew, Eric. He is the son of my brother’s daughter, Marie-Julie, and of her husband Lionel. They already had a little girl (nearly three years old), Elsa.

14. What was your best month?
The whole summer was great, as usual, since I am off and travel. But I would say May-June, because of the trip to France, Turkey, and Spain – in spite of the lost luggage.

15. What music will you remember 2007 by?
- The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible, especially the song “Antichrist Television Blues.”
- The National - Boxer, especially “Fake Empire,” and “Apartment Story.”
- The New Pornographers - Challengers, especially “Myriad Harbour.”
- Bénabar – any song from his Best of.

16. Made new friends?
In a way, yes, but that friendship (if one can call it that) was undone rather swiftly, and it’s a weird story. All of a sudden, Marty and I began to be invited by this couple who lives in town – dinners at their house, we reciprocated each time (we never had this couple for dinner alone at our place, always with other folks, and it was always the same for us, we were always invited for dinner at their place with other people.) One night, Marty was invited by the guy to go and play poker with “the boys” at his place – and he absolutely hated it, lots of very crude humor was going on, it was, supposedly, despicable. We went to those people’s place a couple more times after that, and then Marty said that he no longer wanted to socialize with them, because the guy is too crude. Something must have happened, I am not sure when and how, but the fact is, we had developed some sort of a very fast, and rather superficial “friendship” with this couple, and have now severed all ties with them. It’s a bit weird.

17. Favorite night out?
Good God, I never really have any “night out.” But I’d say, any dinner I have had with Claire in Pittsburgh. We always go to great ethnic places (Indian, Thai, etc.) and have a fun-filled time.

18. Any regrets?
No, not really. Maybe one – I wish that I had not packed in my suitcase a piece of jewelry from Turkey that Marty had given me a couple of years ago, and that I really loved. It got lost with the luggage.

19. What do you want to change in 2008?
I wrote this a year ago, but I want to become much more fit, and lose about 15 pounds.

20. Overall, how would you rate this year? 
On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say a 7.5 – I had a great year, but was too busy at work, and got close to zilch accomplished this past summer on the work (i.e. scholarship) front.

21. Other than home, where did you spend most of your time?
At work, of course, both in the classroom, in my office, and in meetings.

22. Change your hairstyle?
In early November, for some weird reason, I decided to re-color my hair brown. I had been coloring it a funky shade of blonde for the past two or three years, because I felt that it concealed the grey hair better. But the truth to the matter is that it made my whole head of hair look grey. My friends, and my daughter like the “brown hair look” better than the old blonde style.

23. Buy a new car?
No.

24. Any car accidents? 
No. I don’t drive much anyway.

25. How old did you turn this year?
55.


26. Do you have a New Year's resolution?
See above – I want to try and stick to a fitness regimen, and to some sort of a healthy/healthier diet.

27. Do anything embarrassing?
Not that I can think of. Oh yes. I forgot to bring a copy of the academic calendar for the year 2009-10, which was to be discussed and approved at a meeting of Faculty Senate. I think that people forgave me for this oversight, but it was really embarrassing.

28. Be honest - did you watch American Idol?
No. In fact, I watched very little reality TV, except for Dancing with the Stars, because Marty is in love with Cheryl Burke. But he stops watching whenever she and her partner are eliminated. I plan on watching the first few episodes of the next American Idol, because they are usually quite funny, and I happen to love Simon Cowell. 


29. Start a new hobby?
No. Blogging is my only hobby at the moment, but I wish I had one having to do with staying fit.

30. Will you be happy to see 2007 go?
Well, there’s not much I can do about it anyway, right? I used to think that odd years were bad for me, and that even ones were much better. I am not quite sure whether this is true or not anymore: I met Marty in 2005 (an odd year), I prepared my promotion dossier that same year, but got the promotion in 2006. But I also taught the wonderful State System Honors Program to Paris in 2005 too, and got to go to France, Turkey, Spain, Québec, and twice to Florida in 2007. I just hope that 2008 is good to me.

31. Been naughty or nice? 
Mostly nice, I’d say. I am so over my naughty years!