Reflection of 2007 (Meme)

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?
Host a party with my two brothers.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I am sticking to my resolution thus far, and I may make one for next year too.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No. Oh unless you count Crazy-cat-lady....but we're not close.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
:o( Yes, my cousin Jack. It was tragic on (2) two levels. (1) He was down in Jamaica, VI for his wedding, and we were not there yet. (2) It was so unexpected.

5. What countries did you visit?
None in 2007.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
My own place. :-) Self love, a more committed relationship. Is that too much to ask for?

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
September 28- it was the first night I hung out with someone, and has been leading me down an interesting road.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Speaking up (even though I was pushed) and telling H.R. I did not want a specific situation. This led to me getting to work with the people I like, doing the job I like.

9. What was your biggest failure?
The closeness with my mom....but I think I can regain it.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Bronchitis, sinus infection, a cyst on my side.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
In 2007? I know it's something which I use every day but for the life of me I can't think of what it is right now. ACK!!!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Erm, mine? For not fighting with my mother.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My mother's. Because we had been getting along so well, that I forgot that she can not be the person I'd like her to be, nor can she love me the way I need her to love me. Because of this, and some other stuff she has said to me and her actions, I've come to realize that I can not rely on her for anything.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Bills, cat food, supporting myself.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Seeing Pooka & Cro`i when I come home at night, seeing someone special, getting ready for a night out.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
'The Way I Am' by Ingrid Michaelson

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?
I am happier, a bit fatter (but working on that), and on my way to being poorer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Laugh.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Second-guessing conversations.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
For 2008, I have no clue yet. 2007 was spent seeing Sweeney Todd and having dessert at my cousins.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Yes.....or the beginning of love.

22. How many one-night stands?
None....what I had thought was going to be a 1-night-stand turned in to repeats.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
SuperNatural, Paranormal State, Ghost Hunters, and Grey's Anatomy and Brothers & Sisters.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Yes....and ex-boss who was almost my boss again, but was thwarted and still tries to be EVERYONES boss.

25. What was the best book you read?
For 2007- Asking For Trouble by Elizabeth Young

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Rhianna

27. What did you want and get?
A laptop
28. What did you want and not get?
GPS
29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Oh jeebus! 3:10 To Yuma, Bee Movie, and Sweeney Todd

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 31, and had bare-stage rehearsal and ate dinner at Caraba's.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Meeting someone. who has made me realize what I want in life, and to go get it. Forging a closer bond with my cousins.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
As my own. :-) Jeans, sexy tops...sweaters. BOOTS. Boots are very important.

33. What kept you sane?
My cats. Smoking. Nelson and Peter listening to me and making me drinks. No seriously.....a circle of close and good friends keep me sane.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Johnny Depp.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
(Product) Red.

36. Who did you miss?
My Uncle Frank...my Cousin Jack.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
There are two. Keri (my cousin Christina's roommate) and Squirrel.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
Don't be afraid to go after what you want.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"Cuz I love the way you call me baby.And you take me the way I am."

Happy St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is upon us, and this is one day that makes EVERYONE Irish. From bagels dyed green, to rivers also. Everyone celebrates. So sit back, lift a pint, and enjoy these St. Patrick's Day facts I dug up for everyone to enjoy.

In Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day, people traditionally wear a small bunch of shamrocks on their jackets or caps. Children wear orange, white and green badges, and women and girls wear green ribbons in their hair.

Many cities have a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Dublin, the capital of Ireland, has a huge St. Patrick’s Day festival from March 15-19, which features a parade, family carnivals, treasure hunt, dance, theatre and more. In North American, parades are often held on the Sunday before March 17. Some paint the yellow street lines green for the day! In Chicago, the Chicago River is dyed green with a special dye that only lasts a few hours. There has been a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston, Massachusetts since 1737. Montreal is home to Canada’s longest running St. Patrick’s Day parade, which began in 1824.

The Irish flag is green, white and orange. The green symbolizes the people of the south, and orange, the people of the north. White represents the peace that brings them together as a nation.

On St. Patrick's Day this Friday, some revelers will raise a pint of stout and wish their companions "Slainté!"—the Irish word, pronounced SLAN-cha, for "health." The toast may brim with scientific truth. At a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida, three years ago, researchers reported that Guinness may be as effective as daily aspirin in reducing the blood clots that cause heart attacks. (The benefit derives from antioxidants, which the researchers said reduce cholesterol deposits on arterial walls. The compounds are found in dark Irish stouts but not their paler cousins.)

Irish brigands kidnapped St. Patrick at 16 and brought him to Ireland. He was sold as a slave in the county of Antrim and served in bondage for six years until he escaped to Gaul, in present-day France. He later returned to his parents' home in Britain, where he had a vision that he would preach to the Irish. After 14 years of study, Patrick returned to Ireland, where he built churches and spread the Christian faith for some 30 years.

In the United States, it's customary to wear green on St. Patrick's Day. But in Ireland the color was long considered to be unlucky, says Bridget Haggerty, author of The Traditional Irish Wedding and the Irish Culture and Customs Web site.

Colonial New York City hosted the first official St. Patrick's Day parade in 1762, when Irish immigrants in the British colonial army marched down city streets. In subsequent years Irish fraternal organizations also held processions to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The various groups merged sometime around 1850 to form a single, grand parade.

The first St. Patrick's Day in America was celebrated in Boston in 1737.

The tradition known as "drowning the shamrock" comes from the Irish superstition that if you leave a shamrock floating on the top of your drink and then drink it, you will have a year of good luck and good fortune.


St. Patrick's Day in Ireland- In the recent past, Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated only as a religious holiday. It became a public holiday only in 1903. The life of Saint Patrick. is celebrated and taught to the masses. People learn from his teachings and try to do as much good for the people around them as Saint Patrick did in his adult life.

How can you tell if an Irishman is having a good time? He’s Dublin over with laughter.

What's Irish and stays out all night? Patty O’Furinture

Since 1980, the Irish president has presented a shamrock to the U.S. President in a White House ceremony held annually around St. Patrick's Day.

U.S. Presidents with Irish ancestry include John Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. In Canada, statesman Thomas D'Arcy McGee and recent Prime Minister Brian Mulroney were of Irish descent.

St. Patrick is also supposed to have rid Ireland - specifically County Donegal - of a fierce lake monster. After he had killed it, the blood turned the lake red and so since then the lake has been known as Red Lake or Lough Derg. It is now a pilgrimage place and many people go there between 1 June and 15 August in the fond hope that the journey will rid them of all their sins.

St. Patrick built the first church in Ireland at Mag-inis.

St. Patrick ordered that after death he be buried wherever the oxen pulling his funeral cart stopped. They reportedly didn't go further than Downpatrick, so he's buried somewhere there.