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as requested:

What is your favorite meal to prepare? pasta with mushrooms. this has a lot of variations (cream sauce, just olive oil, various other vegetable additions like olives or asparagus, shrimp, parmesan), but it's a definite comfort food for me and i know i'm adept at cooking it, so i know it will turn out tasty and soothing.

Is there a food that you indulge in when you know you shouldn't? i hate the concept of "shouldn't," but i definitely over-indulge in dairy-based stuff like cream sauces.

What food always reminds you of home? oddly enough, hamburger helper cheeseburger macaroni. whenever my dad made dinner, that's what we'd have...and no one made it as good as him. i don't know what he did, but not even my mom could compare. i always loved hamburger helper nights, and it was even better as leftovers the next day.

What's the perfect snack? it's really hard for me to pick "perfect" anythings, because so much of what i want to eat depends on several different variables...but my most recent "perfect snack" was coming home and fixing myself some pear cubes with manchego cheese.

What was your most memorable meal? i can never pick a MOST memorable meal, but the first one to come to mind was the first time michael and i went out to eat together...we went to the pacific dining car around midnight, and i was wearing polka-dotted wedges that kept sliding off my feet because it was so hot out, even in the middle of the night, and i was frustrated because i wasn't able to walk very seductively at all. i was a little overwhelmed at the steakiness of the menu, but i knew that steak was his favorite food and i wanted to impress him by eating some steak. (i think that's the first time i've ever used "steak" three times in one sentence.) i got steak smothered in mushrooms with grilled shrimp on the side, and it was surprisingly delicious--i hadn't eaten steak in years because i normally don't eat red meat at all, and i'd forgotten what it tasted like. it still won't ever be a craving or a first choice for me, but i think my choice of steak had its intended effect on michael. aside from the food, the meal was memorable because the conversation was so easy and comfortable--we talked for hours, about all sorts of things. i definitely remember talking about my sexuality and the panels that i've done, and being so relieved that he was so open and accepting of it. we had some delicious wine (they had my favorite, zolo torrontes, which i hardly ever see on wine lists), delicious food, and stuffed ourselves to the gills before going back home and falling asleep together.

When you are out at a restaurant or bar, what's your drink of choice? this all depends on what the "purpose" of the night is and what time of year it is. ideally, in the cooler months, i would love to order sidecars whenever i go out...but in my experience, most bartenders don't know what that is. sigh. so i never ask, because i don't want to be "the girl with the complicated drink order." at restaurants, i normally order wine--beer is too heavy with food, in my experience, and cocktails are better on their own. at a bar, sometimes i'll order a black russian: all liquor, no mixer, tastes like dessert so i drink them quickly (i hate holding onto drinks). if i want something crisper, i'll get a gin and tonic. if i'm in a beer-drinking mood, yuengling is my standard, but they don't have that in california so i'll have to switch. now that i'm actually giving this a lot of thought, i don't really have anything that i drink consistently.

What's your favorite restaurant and what do you order there? i am a very predictable orderer. if i can get pasta with shrimp and mushrooms in a cream or olive-oil based sauce, i'll get that. mushroom ravioli on the menu? give me that. thai: always pad thai with shrimp. sushi: always something with eel and avocado.

What three things are always in your refrigerator? parmesan cheese, a bottle of white wine, and some pasta leftovers.

Do you have a comfort food? i have so many comfort foods: the aforementioned pasta with mushrooms (the true "comfort dish" will have olives and LOTS of cheese), cookies and milk, and tiramisu come to mind.

What are you having for dinner tonight? ooh, tonight is a special night! it marks the first of my "m cubed: monday movie meat night" gatherings where i have my friends over, use them as guinea pigs as i learn how to cook meat, and we watch one of the movies i have saved on my DVR. tonight is going to be shrimp scampi (starting off with something easy, as i'm comfortable cooking shrimp but have never made scampi sauce); the movie is going to be "them!" (1954) about mutant ants terrorizing los angeles. i'm really excited, except it will mean dishes for DAYS.

well, i finally did it. i made the leap into the world of digital SLRs:


my new baby, the nikon d40.


i sold my old camera, the fuji finepix S9000, to hezzamonster...it was really tempting to keep it, but i am trying to embrace the idea of making space for new things that i bring into my household. as much as i loved that camera (28-300mm zoom in one lens! so amazing for shows and places where "professional" cameras aren't allowed), i needed to let it go. so i'm glad heather is going to give it a good home and get lots of use out of it! i'll still have my tiny finepix Z3 for pocket purposes (that camera has been responsible for the vast majority of my photo-of-the-day shenanigans, so it definitely holds a little special place in my heart), plus my film camera for when i get a wild hair to use film (hasn't happened since summer vacation 2006, but i'm not counting it out!).

the camera arrived yesterday--i got the "kit" with the 55-200mm lens because i am a glutton for zooming--and i gleefully took everything out of the box, put it together, charged the battery...and realized that i didn't buy a memory card to go with it. oops. so i'm going to pick up a memory card after work today--then the playing will commence! so exciting! i want to really get comfortable with it--getting back in the habit of using the viewfinder is going to be odd, i know--before michael and i do our cross-country road-trip so i can take a gazillion pictures. plus, what better way to mark this transitional period in my life than with a new, awesome camera?

while perusing my regular sites on the internet today, tomato nation had an entry that linked to this NYT article called "it's not you, it's your books." reading the comments on the blog about books or reading habits that signified the end to a crush/relationship got me to thinking about my own reading habits and what people would think of them. generally speaking, i think my book collection would be intimidating to someone who may have only read five books in their whole life, but would make a true literary snob laugh behind my back (or perhaps even to my face!).

i was an english major, but i also wouldn't categorize myself as a literature snob or even well-versed in much "literature" in general. if you check my mothballed myspace page, i don't list favorite books, only favorite authors; complete strangers (or, in the context of the above article, potential dates) looking at my page would discover that i like dorothy allison, david sedaris, mary karr, lemony snicket, stephen king, flannery o'connor, chris van allsburg, jeanette winterson, v.c. andrews, alice walker, elaine brown, amber hollibaugh, audre lorde, myla goldberg, beverly cleary, jk rowling. a smattering of queer, children's, modern, and "trash" authors...hmm.

i am still plugging away at the photo-a-day project. there are definitely days where i am uninspired and take a crappy picture of something (usually a cat) while sitting on the couch, or where i think i am taking good pictures and then upload them to my computer and find out that they're all blurry...but for the most part, i'm pretty proud of what i've done.

march highlights:


first picture of the march set! cutest boyfriend in the world! on the smoking patio at verdugo bar. i always forget that he smokes until he goes outside to smoke, oddly enough.


this was a happy accident--it was during "project runway" night where my friends came over to drink wine and watch some reality tv, and i was trying to take pictures of my wine glass with the blue wall in the background, lit by the lamp above. when i saw this on my little camera screen, i was pissed that my camera had screwed up the lighting; when i saw this on my computer screen, i immediately loved it. i'm not sure how it happened, but i'm glad it did.


one afternoon, i needed to take some books back to the library and pick up some books on hold. usually i just stop on my way home from work, but that day was so gorgeous and i decided to go straight home and walk to the library instead. i brought my camera and took some pictures while walking around my neighborhood. this location doesn't have any emotional resonance for me, but i love how blue the sky is contrasted with the whiteness of the steeple.


this is from my mom's journal, taken as i was working on transcribing it. i love her handwriting and how she started using dashes as her primary punctuation. on these two pages she was writing about exciting experiences she'd had that we probably didn't know about, like going skinny-dipping in a mountain pool or gambling in back rooms of bars. (if you look at the large/original versions of this picture, you can read the whole story.)


it never fails: i document food more than anything else! this was a butterscotch dipped cone from dairy queen, which i never knew existed! in all my days getting dipped cones at dairy queen (which happens only about once a year or so), i've never been presented with flavor options for my dips until that day.


this is one of my favorite pictures that i took in march. mostly i love the expression on mary's face as she looks at her newborn son (he's a week old in this picture), and i also like the natural lighting. (the "almost ready to pop" picture i took a couple weeks earlier was a little blurry, but still cute.)


last picture of march, with eleven minutes to spare! lit only by the lamp next to my bed (hence the jaundiced color of my skin), i took this right before falling asleep.

to my utter surprise, i got an email from microcosm publishing asking if they could include an excerpt from baby girl #8 in the 2007/08 zine yearbook! joe wrote, " We found your zine to be truly exceptional...actually, so much so that we were not able to come to a final decision as a group about what to include and were hoping you might be able to tune us into what you thought were the most important parts."

i'm putting that question, then, to all of you who have read the zine: what do YOU think were the most moving and/or important parts? i've gone through and made a short list of what i think would work best as an excerpt (which is hard, because i didn't write any stand-alone pieces), and if anyone is interested, my list includes: one of the times my mom wanted to give up on chemo, a conversation we had about death and dying, one of the times she had to deal with the staph infection (although in the zine some of those entries are edited to exclude the draining, stupid relationship stuff), and later battles with radiation and feeling generally weak. i wanted to select something from when she was moving into hospice, but those seemed more disjointed to me. i'm really curious to see what other people think, though! it's hard for me to critically look at my own writing sometimes and see what would work as a published stand-alone piece.

if you haven't read the zine, i still have plenty of copies!

(baby girl #7 is also available!)

i just finished writing that "how i became a feminist" piece for the susan b. anthony luncheon...it's not great by any means, but it at least has some kind of point, and i don't have to be there while it's read. the events coordinator for the women's center told me it was "perfect," so that assuages my ego a little bit, even though it was like walking across nails to write the damn thing.

i regret not being able to incorporate this quote in there, though, because it's one of my favorites:

As feminists, many of us have committed our whole lives to struggling to chance what most people in this society don’t even question, and sometimes the intensity of our struggle has persuaded us that the only way to accomplish chance is to make hard bargains, to give up some points and compromise on others. What this has always meant in the end, unfortunately, is trading some people for others.

I do not want to do that.
I do not want to require any other woman to do that.
I do not want to claim a safe and comfortable life for myself that is purchased at the cost of some other woman’s needs or desires.

--Dorothy Allison

katherine's new puppy, miette! she appears to be half/mostly bluetick hound, and is totally precious and adorable. katherine brought her by the house last night, because she's staying in jacksonville for a few days.


katherine does still look like a hobo, but who cares when there is puppy belly to coo over?


miette!

marissa (thimblewinder  ) tagged me to do the handwriting meme, so now i have a chance to show everyone my borderline-illegible handwriting:

1. Your name/username.
2. Left-handed or right-handed?
3. Favorite letters to write?
4. Least favorite letters to write?
5. Write "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog".



i'm supposed to tag six people, but i couldn't think of six people off the top of my head who would read this AND have a digital camera at close hand AND actually follow through with it, but do it if you're so inclined! i like looking at people's handwriting!

i'll admit it: i LOVE valentine's day. i always have, and i suspect i always will. my obsession probably started in elementary school, when i can remember carefully selecting which box of paper valentines my mom would get me to give to my classmates. they had to be cute but not over-the-top girly (no barbie valentines for me), and they had to have a balanced ratio of crushy messages (for cute boys) and generic "happy valentine's day" messages (for all the people i didn't like). if i was lucky, my mom would also buy me a bag of candy hearts, and i would spend HOURS in my bedroom with the supplies all spread out around me. i had a list of everyone in my class, stacks of valentines waiting to be assigned to the proper recipient, and all the candy heart messages that needed to go to the appropriate people. it was a very serious business! i've never lamented not having a partner on valentine's day (although, truthfully, it's a rare v-day that i've spent alone, starting in 7th grade when geoff foster gave me a tiny gold heart on a chain that has definitely been thrown away since then) because i just get so caught up in a "holiday" celebrating love. i'm a romantic. a pragmatic romantic, i like to think, but i get totally swept up in the trappings of valentine's day: hearts, flowers, pink and red everything, something to satisfy a sweet tooth, expressions of love to your beloved(s). that's kind of my default setting anyway, so an entire day to totally wallow in mushy stuff like that? yes, please!

my mom always indulged me on valentine's day, too. not a year went by that i didn't get some kind of present; mostly it was chocolates (and when i got older, she always got a box of fancy chocolates from me), but sometimes it was something equally exciting, like stickers. i think those presents from her really centered my appreciation of valentine's day as a day where you celebrated love for all the people in your life that you loved, not just a boyfriend or girlfriend. plus, who doesn't like being told they are adored?

so, love.

my friends, obviously--just thinking about how amazing they are makes my heart swell. i'm lucky enough to have a passel of friends that spans from elementary school through high school through JASMYN (and i already adore so many of michael's friends, which makes me even luckier). they are the friends that i may not talk to for months (in some cases, years), but once we get back in touch it's like no time has passed and we're still so excited and giggly to talk to each other. they are the friends who come over on wednesday nights for "project runway" and "america's next top model" and bring wine and desserts (or, in the case of last night, we had the classy combination of champagne and donuts). they are the friends who call out of the blue, just to check up and see how i'm doing (even though i've always been notoriously bad at returning messages and being on the phone in general). they are the friends who will be a refuge for me when i'm going through some kind of life crisis, always ready for dancing, dinner, or just hanging out on the couch and talking for hours. they are the friends who know my dirty secrets, who can laugh about all our drunken (and sober) antics and all of our past terrible relationship decisions. in a nutshell: my friends are the most generous and kind-hearted people i've ever known, and it doesn't hurt at all that they are all also funny, intelligent, and very attractive. taya, my best friend for years now, deserves special mention; she is my mind-twin, my doppelganger, and we often get mistaken for sisters. she is the best housemate a girl could ask for, greeting me in the afternoons with "hi dear!" and graciously sharing her delicious vegan treats. we thrive on having "girl time" together, curling up on the couch or in one of our beds and talking about everything we need to get out of our system: relationships, parents, drama. i look at her and just want her to be surrounded by people who see how incredibly sharp, funny, sweet, and beautiful she is at all times and will dote on her like she deserves.

even more obvious to gush about: michael. i feel like my life has been bisected into two time-frames: "before michael" and "after michael," and every experience "after michael" is richer and more vibrant in intensity. i don't have the language to really talk about how i feel about him, which causes me to tell him, "you're perfect" every single day because that's the closest thing i can think of. my brain churns around clichés like crazy, but they are all true: he completes me, he makes me a better person, he makes my heart feel like it's going to burst right out of my ribcage with how much i love him. i have no reservations when it comes to being with him, which is utterly different than anything i've ever felt before. i feel completely myself around him, and it's hard to express just how amazing that is to me: to feel completely comfortable in my own skin, no matter what, around him. i feel equally sexy when i just wake up next to him, unshowered with oily skin and dirty hair, as i do when i put on makeup and high heels. i am constantly overwhelmed by just how amazing he is: romantic, funny, intelligent, articulate, gorgeous as all hell, sexy (omg you have no idea), loving, doting, and beautiful in every way. i know i will never get tired of hearing his laugh, of going to sleep next to him, of looking at his face even when it's all wrinkled and old (in fact, i can't wait). he is home to me, and i want to always be home for him too.

oh, and as i was in the middle of typing all of that, these showed up in my office:


perfect.

Valentine Postbox

leave heartofkudzu a valentine's message your message, (30 characters or less) get your own valentine postbox

of course i am a sucker for something like this! yay for messages!

still haven't arranged for flowers for your significant other/mom/crush? organic bouquet now is doing a "buy a dozen roses, get a dozen roses FREE" deal, which is pretty freaking fantastic considering how gorgeous their roses are.

in 15 minutes i'm about to leave work and head to the airport to start my cross-country journey to see michael, who just so happens to be the cutest boy in the world!



last night i got a manicure and a pedicure, and have come to this conclusion that OPI's "big apple red" (on my fingernails) is vastly superior to "double decker red" (on my toenails). the end.

okay! los angeles, here i come!

snerped from heathergalaxy

january is almost over, and i'm proud to report that i've successfully taken a picture every day for the 365 photos project. (well, except for two days, and that was before i knew about the project. so it doesn't really count.)

here are some of january's highlights:

january 4:

michael at karaoke on the last night i was in LA.

january 9:

the octopus on the wall in my office!

january 14:

catching the baking bug and making chocolate chip cookies from scratch!

january 19:

getting a card from michael to celebrate six months together (our anniversary date is the day we met).

january 24:

sleepy on the way to work after a sexy phone date that kept me up late the night before.

january 29:

the room in the kids' section of the cummer museum where you can run around and your image is projected in all sorts of crazy ways. I LOVE THIS ROOM SO MUCH. you can tell i was doing some interesting movements before stopping to take a picture.

january 31:

the LGBT center gave away "gay? fine by me!" shirts for students, faculty, and staff to wear, and then we all gathered for a group photo in a rare break in the afternoon drizzle. seeing everyone together was very heartwarming, but it also made me feel pretty old and out of touch with all the queers on campus nowadays. ah well. (i'm in the middle area, to the left of the girl wearing a white shirt and white hat and right above the baby in the front row...in case you were wondering!)

if anyone is planning on sending roses for valentine's day to a significant other/parent/friend, organic bouquet has a deal where if you order roses by the end of the day tomorrow, you get a free vase and a teeny box of chocolates:

go through this link

plus, use the code GIFT20 and it should work for a 20%-off discount.

i've ordered through them twice in the past, and both times the flowers have been absolutely GORGEOUS and organic/eco-certified. they come highly recommended.

bisexuality's not a gateway drug!

and we're actually capable of being in long-term, monogamous relationships! shock!

(the actual study, if you're interested in that type of thing.)

hello! it's a little surreal to be back with access to the internet, and i have a LOT of catching-up to do. now i'm about to leave work, though, but just in case:

pictures from los angeles!

i took over 500 pictures, about 400 of them which made it online...and it doesn't feel like anywhere near enough!

suffice it to say, briefly, that i had an amazing time with michael and it was truly the best two and a half weeks of my life. he took the best care of me, and living with him for merely half a month only cemented the knowledge that he is The One and that we're going to be wonderful together, always.

last night i was trying to clean up the craft room a bit, organizing some of mom's stuff into bins instead of the assorted bags and boxes (or nothing) we had brought back from hospice. blankets, pillows, and some robes went into a large plastic bin; her papers, cards, and legal pads went into another smaller plastic bin for me to sort through later. i hung up all the huggable hangers to get them out of the bag they were in, and sorted out some of our dishes and books.

there was a box from QVC that had arrived while she wasn't conscious, and no one ever opened it. i assumed it was a present for someone, although it seemed like a lost cause because there would be no way to tell for whom it was meant. it had sat unopened for weeks now, and finally i opened it...to discover some "diamonque" jewelry cleaner. i have to assume it was meant for me; in the last few weeks, we had talked a lot about how i couldn't find the jewelry cleaner she used to have at the old house (god knows what happened to it in the move) and how some of my silver pieces were in desperate need of cleaning before i would wear them again. and lately, as i've been preparing to go to los angeles, i've been thinking a lot about how i needed something to clean my jewelry so i could wear some pieces in LA. i had no idea where to find jewelry cleaner, and i didn't have time to go on a hunt anyway...so when i opened the box last night, it was like mom was still taking care of me, coming through with a surprise just when i needed it. i took it out, assembled the cleaner, cleaned some necklaces...and now they look beautiful.

thanks, mom.

snerped from on_reserve:

Did you do something you would never do?
not that i can think of.

Did you keep any New Year's Resolutions?
i can't remember if i actually made any!

Did anyone close to you give birth?
no, but mary got pregnant! i can't wait to buy cute baby stuff!

Did anyone close to you die?
my mother.

Did you visit any countries?
none!

What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
i didn't really lack anything in 2007, but when i move to LA in 2008 i'd like to have a job that pays more than what i'm making now!

Will any date from 2007 stay etched in your memory forever?
november 26, when my mom died. july 21, when i met the love of my life.

What was your biggest achievement of 2007?
being the recipient of the susan b. anthony award at UNF! moving into a house with taya and living on my own for the first time! all things grad-school related, even though i had to withdraw in the middle of the semester.

What was your biggest failure?
letting my yoga practice totally slip by the wayside, and not really exercising in general.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
only the standard colds and general run-down feelings...michael STILL hasn't seen me when i'm completely healthy, so that's another thing that would be nice in 2008.

What was the best thing you bought in '07?
a plane ticket to LA over labor day weekend. other awesome things: the couch in our living room, DVR, and several cute dresses and pairs of shoes.

Did your behavior change over the year?
i spent more time with my friends and made the effort to be more social, but at the same time i started to feel more domestic and wanted to learn how to cook. the most dramatic change, however, wasn't with my behavior but with my mindset. i stopped feeling crushingly self-conscious and started to have more positive than negative thoughts about myself, which was certainly a welcome change after the past DECADE or so (if not longer).

Where did you spend most of your money?
moving and furnishing the new house; plane tickets to see michael; hundreds of dollars on zine copies.

Are you happier than this time last year?
yes, definitely. i'm in love and in the best relationship of my entire life with someone perfect for me in every way, and i finally feel like a have a direction and a clearer idea of what my future will hold. and even though this time is hard after losing my mom, i do feel more at peace this year than i felt a year ago.

What song will remind you of 2007?
"teen love" by peter bjorn and john, even though it wasn't released in 2007, will always remind me of meeting michael and our whirlwind courtship and falling in love. "shake" by ying yang twins feat. pitbull will always make me think of dancing with taya at the pearl. everything from of montreal's "hissing fauna, you are the destroyer" will make me think of seeing them with claire and then with robyn at pitchfork, and listening to them incessantly all year. "in the morning" by junior boys, because it will remind me of robyn AND being obsessed with "so you think you can dance" with taya.

What do you wish you would have done more of?
yoga, definitely. some denise austin workouts, at the very least! and i wish i'd made more of a concerted effort while my mom was alive to really learn how to cook from her.

What do you wish you would have done less of?
procrastinating, always.

What did/will you do for Christmas '07?
this will be the first christmas in my entire life that i'm spending away from my family, but my mom wanted it this way; she wanted me to be with michael, because she knew i would be taken care of. we're going to try to replicate some of my family traditions, but on a much smaller scale...so while i can't predict what exactly i'll be doing on christmas, i know it will be wonderful.

Did you fall in love in 2007?
haha, YES. i don't think there's anyone left who doesn't know that. not only did i fall in love, i found someone who couldn't be better for me and who really is The One. i have no doubts, qualms, or reservations about us.

Did you get your heart broken in 2007?
nope! i got dumped in the alleyway of the pearl, but it was actually a relief because it meant i didn't have to do it.

Favorite TV program of '07?
does the latter half of the third season of "lost" count? i was obsessed with it, and my mom and i had our weekly "lost" dates where she would make shrimp pasta or something delicious; she would snuggle in the recliner and i would be on the couch, and we'd watch it together. 2007 was also the year that i FINALLY clued into the genius that is "the office," even though i haven't seen all the episodes from this season because michael and i are waiting to watch them together when i'm out there. other things i watched religiously: so you think you can dance, it's always sunny in philadelphia, ugly betty, and dirty sexy money (my favorite new show of 2007).

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
i'm too full of rainbows and puppies and snuggles to have room to hate anyone.

What was the best book you read and/or movie you saw?
i read LOTS of great books this year, so that's a hard question. the most memorable, of course, was the last harry potter book. i read it the weekend i was in atlanta, as i dragged taya to a bookstore so i could get a copy right away instead of waiting until i got home to my preordered copy. i actually was THISCLOSE to not meeting michael because it was tempting to burrow in the hotel comforter and finish the book...but instead i went out to meet thimblewinder and touchmenots and ended up meeting the person who would change my life! whew! i also went through a graphic novel phase, where i fell in love with alison bechdel's fun home and marjane satrapi's persepolis series. most recently, robyn brought me wicked while i spent that week at hospice, and it was the perfect balance of entertaining and intelligent. i didn't see many movies, but i went to see "harry potter and the order of the phoenix" the night it opened like a good fangirl!

What was your greatest discovery?
how totally DELICIOUS pad thai is! i had never eaten thai food before 2007, and now i'm obsessed with pad thai with shrimp (pattaya thai is my favorite restaurant, and i don't get to eat there nearly as often as i would like).

What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
i turned 26 on june 7, and i had a really great weekend full of friends, baseball, delicious food, and dancing!

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
i don't know about satisfying, but being a little more together financially would be the icing on the cake. it's been a year of big expenditures and not as much wallet-restraint as i should have exercised.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2007?
"dress my age." around april and march, i was my mom's personal fashion project. fueled by many episodes of "what not to wear" over the years, we did a MASSIVE closet overhaul where i got rid of things that were old, didn't fit me anymore, or were too "young" for someone about to turn 26 years old. i started wearing nicer things, expanded my awesome shoe collection, and really embraced the ideas of "quality over quantity" and "investment pieces." plus lots of (tasteful...mostly) cleavage.

What was your greatest disappointment in 2007?
i disappointed myself by not videotaping my mom with follow-up questions about her time in hospice and thoughts about death like i wanted to.

Whose behavior merited celebration?
all of my friends. when i needed them, they really came through in ways i didn't even expect. the main example of that is when my mom was dying, how completely well-taken-care-of i was (by people who live in my city, but also by those who don't--and some of you i've never even met in person), but i also think of the move and how everyone came through to help pack and move boxes and/or to help paint the house. the theme of this year really is "lindsey has the greatest friends in the world," and i think i've really strengthened many relationships over the year. also, michael's behavior definitely merits celebration because he has constantly made me feel special, beautiful, and capable and i hadn't felt that way consistently in a long time.

Who was the best new person you met?
michaelpop, of course.

Who did you wish you did not meet?
i can't think of anyone...

Who was your best friend?
needlegirl is my BFF(AE), and she's been absolutely amazing through all the tumultuous times. plus, she makes the best vegan cupcakes, is the best housemate a girl could want, AND is my psychic mind/mime twin when it comes to our dance moves.

Who was your enemy?
time and space, for not bending to my will.

Who do you miss?
being in a long-distance relationship means that i miss my boyfriend on an almost-constant basis; although we've managed to see each other about once a month, it's still not enough time together.

Who will you never forget?
everyone at hospice who made my mom's last five months wonderful.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007
i'd been gradually learning this life lesson, but it really clarified itself this year: to not settle, and to do what i need to do in order to be happy. also, that the conventional wisdom of "the best way to lose your best friend is to move in with them" is not always true!

What will you always remember about 2007?
traveling: atlanta with taya, chicago with robyn, los angeles and north carolina for michael. lots of parties with friends. the whole moving process. finally being really happy, on a constant basis.

Aspirations for 2008...
go on a vacation with michael. move across the country successfully and find a job i enjoy. something involving, um, a ring.

Any resolutions?
start life in LA debt-free. make sure i don't fall out of touch with people after moving. dance a LOT.