2007 a.k.a. a year when i guess some stuff happened, but i can't remember any of it

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Tried eel.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions?
I didn’t set any. So yeah, I kicked ass.

3. What countries did you visit?
Canada, woo.

4. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Motivation. More time.

5. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Olivia’s first birthday, when the Sox won the series again.

6. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I got a pretty sweet promotion.

7. What was your biggest failure?
I let some ugly emotions rule me for a little while. Not a good feeling.

8. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nope.

9. What was the best thing you bought?
A 30 gig iPod. Which I never would have had I known I’d be getting two 80 gig ones free from work.

10. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My friend Kasey, for accepting a risky and intimidating work assignment in Moscow.

11. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Assholes on the road. Just like all the time.

12. Where did most of your money go?
Mortgage, Zappos.

13. What song will always remind you of 2007?
"Moneymaker” by Rilo Kiley.

14. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) Happier or sadder? Happier
b) Thinner or fatter? Same
c) Richer or poorer? Richer

15. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Exercise.

16. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stressing out.

17. How did you spend Christmas?
I’ll be in my pajamas. Oh, and with my family.

18. Did you fall in love in 2007?
I fall in random, short-lived love a lot.

19. How many one-night stands?
So many its ridiculous.

20. What was your favorite TV program?
Rock of Love.

21. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nah, why hate?

22. What was the best book you read?
That giant Nirvana book.

23. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Not really anything. I can’t even make anything up. The Into the Wild soundtrack was amazing though.

24. What did you want and get?
A new car.

25. What did you want and not get?
Sack o’ cash.

26. What was your favorite film of this year?
Superbad.

27. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I’ll be 30! I’m going to dinner with my people and plan to get really fucking trashed.

28. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More drinking, less drama.

29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
I wore clothes. I am still a fan of the pointy power boot.

30. What kept you sane?
My friends. You guys rawk.

31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
This is such a nothing question. I like the same ones, Christian Bale, Eddie Vedder, John Krasinski and George Clooney. And since I didn’t date any of them, thus finding out that they’re not as cool or beautiful as I once thought, I still like them.

32. What political issue stirred you the most?
The war, illegal immigration, the burgeoning presidential race.

33. Who did you miss?
Amanda; we only saw each other for one day. I owe you a visit in 08.

34. Who is the best new person you met?
Did I meet anyone new? I like new people. If you’re new and I met you, you’re the best new person I met.

35. Tell us some valuable life lessons you learned in 2007.
Even if you have a baby, you should still go out and get drunk sometimes. ESPECIALLY if.

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Long nights allow
Me to feel i'm falling
I am falling
Safely to the ground
-Long Nights, Eddie Vedder, Into the Wild

Craaaaaaaaap

Blah, I got in a fender bender this morning on 128.

I skidded on some black ice in stop-and-go traffic and rear-ended this middle aged guy in a Toyota Avalon. After the impact, I watched him have a mini conniption, gesticulate wildly, and jerk his finger toward the median, and we summarily went from two strangers in an unavoidable situation to passive-aggressive adversaries even before pulling over. We exchanged registrations and he made ridiculous comments like, "At least you could have picked a warmer day to do this." My reply: "This wouldn't have happened on a warmer day." Also, shut up.

In accordance with the Law of Jerks, his car sustained minor scratches, while I got a jacked up bumper, a smashed grille, and a bent license plate. It wasn't even his car; it belonged to his company. One of those motorist assistance vans showed up (who do those guys work for? How he hell did he show up so bloody fast?) and the guy came over to make sure we were both all right. Then he stopped traffic to let us back on the road.

The best part? While we were busy jotting down information, some random drove by and yelled, "IDIOTS!" Hello, asshole? It's first thing in the morning and 22 degrees out; why don't you shut your window and redirect that impotent rage into demeaning waitstaff and jerking off at work, okay?

Not a great morning, I guess is what I'm saying.

Oh look, it's snowing... WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE TRAPPED?

Yesterday was one of the weirdest winter days ever. It's New England, it snows here, we usually know what to do in these situations. We're not like North Carolina where they get half an inch and have to close school for a week. Yesterday, though, I don't know what the hell was up. People went completely apeshit bananas and jammed up the roads worse than Dick Cheney's arteries.

The snow started around noontime or so. We knew we were looking at somewhere between 8-12 inches over the course of the day, so my coworkers and I kept saying, "OK, we'll go downstairs for our free, fancy holiday lunch and then we'll leave." We went down to the cafeteria, sat around chatting, then went upstairs to shut down and pack up. We had our coats on and were walking down the stairs when one of the facilities people approached and said, "We strongly urge you not to leave yet."

"What? Why?" we asked. "We want to get out of here."

"Look out there," she said, pointing out the front door with her Nextel walkie-talkie. We looked. Taillights. Backed up from the road, into our parking lot. Nobody moving. We work at the top of a giant hill near a reservoir. If people weren't getting out of the parking lot, it meant the whole hill was backed up, and the reservoir ring road. No getting out.

"I'm chancing it," said the coworker I was with. "It's only going to get worse." And she went out the door, just as two wet, snow-covered, beleaguered looking people came in.

"Did you just come from the line?" I asked.

"Yes. Don't even go out there," he said.

I went back upstairs, hauled my laptop out of my bag and turned it back on. No work got done, though. By then we all knew we were stranded, at least for the immediate future. We stood at the windows looking at the same line of cars that hadn't moved in an hour. We watched NECN reports on the flat-screens. We called our people and let them know we wouldn't be home anytime soon. Some of us went out to get a jump on clearing off our cars.

3:00 came, then 4:00, then 5:00. The snow started falling at a rate of 1-2 inches per hour. Reports started coming in that the highway were giant parking lots. None of the roads were treated because the plows and sand/salt trucks couldn't get through. Then there were reports of multiple jackknifed tractor trailers criss-crossing the roads, reports of 30 minute drives taking 6 hours, reports of people running out of gas and abandoning their cars in the middle of the highway. People who had been sitting in the line of cars turned kept filtering back saying, "I waited for 2 hours and never even got past the guard house." "In 4 hours I only made it as far as the next building."

6:00 came, and the reports were only getting worse. The highway was closed in one direction, but we couldn't confirm which it was. We received an email: complimentary pasta buffet in the cafeteria at 6:30, movie and popcorn in the auditorium at 7:30. We went downstairs to eat and the kitchen staff stood by like war heroes. They had made us a feast: three varities of pasta, marinara and pesto sauces, sausages, chicken, and meatballs, salad, rolls, tiramisu, cookies. We gave them a standing ovation when they came out to finally rest and eat. The cafeteria was more crowded than at peak lunchtime. It was like bizarro adult summer camp.

8:00, 9:00. A cop arrived at the bottom of our hill and started turning people back up because it was so treacherous and crowded. When the cop left, people began to brave it. We checked SmartRoutes obsessively, trying to make sense of the colors and symbols. Everything was red and Alert! We called the brave ones on their cell phones and spoke in code "Left is bad but moving. Right is just bad."

10:00 p.m. Finally we got word that the access roads were clear. We made a group decision to go. We all tromped out to help clean off each other's cars and make fun of the new guy from Tucson. The plows in our parking lot generously helped push away the banks blocking us in. Inching along, I got down the hill and onto the highway. It was otherworldly... silent, abandoned cars all over the place, in the middle of the road, covered over, plowed in, hazards still blinking. I passed more than a dozen in both directions. I listened to Loveline, Jay Severin's show having ended three hours ago.

11:00 p.m. Home. Driveway plowed. Thank god.

Today. Sleep late. Work from home.