I also did it because I'm unemployed
I thought I would do this, because it's popular to think about what's happened in the last year just now and I'd like to see just how disastrously pointless it's all been. I don't mean that. I think. Just so you know, I stole the template from lunali, who probably stole it from somebody else. I've seen it elsewhere, at any rate.


What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Been hit on by a fifty-something, married, male baptist minister

Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I prefer to engage in subtler forms of self-delusion. Like when I get up, I'll say to myself, "I think I'll clean the house today." That kind of thing. But I've never been naive enough to think I could pull off a New Year's resolution, no.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
My brother/sister-in-law had this adorable little girl.

Did anyone close to you die?
Is it bad that I had to think about this? I don't believe so. At least, I don't remember going to any funerals. A teacher I knew in the Delta was pretty brutally beaten to death.

What countries did you visit?
I still don't even have a passport. I traveled through Missouri, though, and I was briefly in Nebraska for the first time. I count those as foreign countries.

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A permanent, steady job and a sense of where I'm going.

What date(s) from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I don't remember dates exactly, but there was the day I decided to leave the Delta (I will tell you the story some time, if you ask), and also the day I got drunk with my friend Aaron and climbed on top of the Morris Theater to yell at the drunks leaving the Met, then rode moving carts down that hill by the on-campus apartments and connected a long (50+ yards) string of pipes sitting by the old elementary school to be used for construction.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I would say the night I mention above, with the drinking and the climbing and the connecting of pipes.

What was your biggest failure?
I suppose it was the Delta. But really I made that failure in 2007, and redeemed myself in 2008 by seeing what I had to do and doing it. I had hoped to figure out what I was doing my life this year, but I just lived it instead. I don't know if that should really count as failure, but I would like to have this figured out anyway.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
I had a stomach ulcer for much of the first half of this year, I think. I didn't have health insurance so I couldn't really check it out, but I was unable to drink any amount of alcohol without getting really sick and I ate Rolaids like candy.

What was the best thing you bought?
Calvin the cat.

Whose behavior merited celebration?
The people of Minnesota, for supporting the Arts/Environment amendment. Also those of the US, for electing Obama (even if I do think we've got a Jesus-sized political crush on him).

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
That old baptist minister, for one. Plus, the state of California, for enacting Proposition 8.

Where did most of your money go?
Repaying student loans, as ever.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Moving back to the Midwest, and Morris in particular.

What song will always remind you of 2008?
"Fireworks", Animal Collective
"No Fun", Vampire Hands

Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
Happier
ii. thinner or fatter?
Fatter. Let's say, "less emaciated".
iii. richer or poorer?
If we're counting debts into this, considerably richer. But if we're just looking at bank accounts, then I'm much poorer.

What do you wish you'd done more of?
I don't really have any regrets this year. I did what I needed to do when I needed to do it.

What do you wish you'd done less of?
Well, if anything, I worried too much.

Did you fall in love in 2008?
No. But I was enraptured with an old love again, with similar results.

How many one-night stands?
I'm not really that kind of guy, but if we're counting, there was one, kind of.

What was your favorite TV program?
The Newshour with Jim Lehrer

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I've met some new people, yes.

What was the best book you read?
Slaughterhouse V, Kurt Vonnegut

What was your greatest musical (re)discovery?
Deerhunter, Elliot Smith, Animal Collective / Panda Bear, Vampire Hands, Eagan Heath / Huck Brock / John Hanson / Jared Walhowe / Ina Mae

What did you want and get?
My life in Minnesota back.

What did you want and not get?
haha my answer was the same as lunali's: direction.

What was your favorite film of this year?
Sigh. I suppose it was The Dark Knight.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I lived with my grandparents at the time, so we went to this place called The Royal Fork in Sioux Falls, which is sort of like a place your grandparents would take you for your birthday. It was more a gift for them, really, as I don't care much for that place. I was and am 24.

What one thing would have made the year immeasurably more satisfying?
There was this thing with the South Pole, and I was not pleased with it. Listen this is personal.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
You can get nice clothes for really cheap on clearance at the Gap. You just have to repress those thoughts of how they were made, and the bile that comes with them. I wore a lot of caps.

What kept you sane?
Music. Morris. Thinking, "I could still be in Arkansas. Imagine that."

What political issue stirred you the most?
The initial (bank) bailout.

Who did you miss?
Ms. Feitshans.

Who was the best new person you met?
Throngaard. Calvin, although he's a cat really. Mariah's house.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
You can make a new life, but you can't get an old one back.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"My big black mustache wasn't real, and some city boy called me out," which is one of mine.
But also: "I've got a brand new pair of roller skates," Deana Carter