Triumphant return??

I know, grad school has been crazy. Life has been crazy. I've been gone for some time. I am going to TRY to get back to blogging (hence the questionable triumph). I figured I'd start with the 2008 wrap-up, using the same questions as last year.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
Visited Europe; went on a vacation by myself; drove a giant moving truck cross-country; killed a cockroach (well ok, many); flew over-seas; started grad-school; switched to an Apple computer - bought a laptop.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I did fairly well last year. Since this is year is going to be particularly crazy what with graduating from Hopkins, leaving Baltimore and moving to Europe, I have no resolutions this year, other than to savor the calm moments and get plenty of sleep.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Just cousins again.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Not this year.

5. What countries did you visit?
England, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France!

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A significant other.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
The days I left for and returned from EuroCrazy08. Election day (hooray Barack Obama!)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Acceptance into and success in grad school.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Medical school rejection, again.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No "real" injuries thank goodness (there were a couple sprained wrists and ankles from nights of drinking and dancing). Illness - yes. Two head colds, one bought of coughing, a UTI, and food poisoning all during my EuroCrazy08 trip.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My Gregory backpack and my MacBook.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
The American people.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The locals in Barcelona. My neighbors in Baltimore. Israel and Palestine.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent. EuroCrazy08 Trip. Grad school tuition.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My trip to Europe! Getting A's at Hopkins. Getting a position at the University of Utrecht Medical School to do my PhD!

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Ghosts by Ladytron

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?
teensy bit happier, a little thinner, and a LOT poorer

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Sightseeing in Massachusetts.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worry about my future, argue with my family.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I was in the Illinois with the family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
I did. But thanks to bad timing and our lives going in two completely different directions we decided to do the difficult but necessary thing and say goodbye. I think this is the hardest reality of moving to Europe: leaving the people I love.

22. How many one-night stands?
That's personal information thanks.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Pushing Daisies. CSI. Lost.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No but my family sure is trying hard to make me.

25. What was the best book you read?
Microbe Hunters by Paul deKruif.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Ladytron and Apocalyptica.

27. What did you want and get?
Acceptance into grad school. A career path. To prove to myself that not only can I make it at Johns Hopkins, but I can ace it.

28. What did you want and not get?
A certain guy.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Tie: Persepolis and Dark Knight.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 26. It was amazing. I went on the Sam Adams Brewery tour with Anne and Erik and then we met all of my wonderful Boston friends at the Milkyway for candlepin bowling and pool and beer and fun.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
To have the vaccine paper accepted somewhere.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Same as 2007: Wear whatever doesnt make me look like a pudgeball - it involved lots of black.

33. What kept you sane?
My friends!

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Well wasnt everyone enamored with Barack? Jon Stewart was pretty awesome too.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
the same one that always does: the Environment and Global Weirding

36. Who did you miss?
Everyone in Boston. Friends in other countries. My Grampa.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Marty.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Life is not always bunnies and cupcakes.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
I'm drawing a blank here. But I do have a quote from a little quote book I have that I ripped out and tacked up on my wall (its even here in Baltimore): "Failure is the mother of success."