It has been my tradition since the beginningless past, circa 2006, to complete the same New Years' meme each year, and so record my growth as a person or lack thereof as the case may be (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). It is a tradition so strong it must defy even death, in this case the death of this LiveJournal (I'd feel silly posting it on my blog). So here goes:
1)Was 2013 a good year for you?
Yes!
2) What was your favourite moment of the year?
All the time spent with Ozy was time well-spent. If I'm not allowed to be gooey, well, I've used hikes as my answer to this question in the past, and I'll stick to that strategy. The hike I took with Kenzi to Richmond was a particularly good one. Winter Solstice gets second place.
3) What was your least favourite moment of the year?
I got a bad evaluation on one of my medical rotations. I don't usually get bad evaluations and it was mildly traumatic until my boss cheered me up by saying he didn't believe it. I would also add having to leave the Bay Area, but I did that of my own free will and it's my own darned fault.
4) Where were you when 2013 began? Who were you with?
I was in the Box, all alone. Mike and Alicorn had gone to celebrate with Mike's relatives, and my super-genius friends had somehow found a way to get their New Years party scheduled January 16.
5) Where were you when 2013 ended? Who were you with?
I am in my apartment in Michigan with my wonderful girlfriend.
6) Did you keep your new years resolution of 2013?
I wanted to explore more of the Bay Area. I did that.
7) Do you have a new years resolution for 2014?
Debatable! I have vague intentions to try writing more fiction and to study super hard for my Psychiatry Resident Standardized Test, but I don't know if I want to go so far as to call them resolutions.
8) Did you make any new friends in 2013?
Ozy seems like a pretty darned important person in this category. Honorary new-2013-friend status goes to Arundelo, even though I technically met him briefly in 2012.
9) Did you travel outside of the US in 2013?
I...actually don't think that I did! I managed to stay in the same country the entire year! I'm growing up!
10) How many different states did you travel to in 2013?
California, Virginia, Idaho, Washington, Massachusetts, New York, Utah, Michigan, Georgia, New Jersey.
11) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2013?
Not really.
12) What was your favorite book you read in 2013?
I've been really bad at reading this year, but Infinite Jest springs to mind.
13) What was your favourite movie that you saw in 2013?
I've been really bad at watching movies, and the three I can think of all kind of sucked.
14) What was your favourite TV show that you saw in 2013?
I re-watched Scrubs. It didn't get any worse. I keep trying to get into Breaking Bad, but it's so darned SLOW.
15) What was your favorite music that you heard in 2013?
I really like Green Day! I discovered them thanks to Mike Blume and Ozy.
16) Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2013?
I can't immediately think of any alcohol I had this year. I may have avoided it entirely.
17) Did you do a lot of drugs in 2013?
Even if I did, I wouldn't admit it publicly.
18) How many people did you date in 2013?
I dated four people, of whom I continue to date three. Also two random OKCupiders that never got past the first date, but those don't count.
19) Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
I don't know about ashamed. My two biggest mistakes I can think of right now were weaseling out of attending a CFAR workshop I could have gotten in for free, and donating my whole year's charity budget to MIRI when they ended up easily getting all their matching funds and fulfilling their donation targets; I could have let other people do that and donated to something else that would have needed it more.
20) What was the biggest lie you told in 2013?
To my patients: "Yes, we have an excellent reason for our treatment plan and I am fully aware of what it is. I am not at all suspicious that my attending is operating off of sphexish pattern-matching to how ze thinks a case like yours should proceed, nor am I just carrying out zir orders without fully understanding them to avoid exacerbating my reputation as someone who asks too many annoying questions."
21) What was the worst lie someone told you in 2013?
From my patients: "Oh yeah, I totally stopped using heroin."
22) Did you treat somebody badly in 2013?
I have treated patients badly, not out of malice but out of this being my first year and me not knowing that much and me having to carry out the will of my attendings as in (20).
23) Did somebody treat you badly in 2013?
No! People have been super-amazingly nice to me!
24) How much money did you spend in 2013?
TOOO MUCCCH. I think it took about $10,000 just to get set up in Michigan, between getting a plane ticket here and putting down security deposit on house and putting down deposit on car and getting furniture and buying the air conditioner that is sitting in my room uninstalled even though I got it six months ago and it is now twelve degrees Fahrenheit outside. Since then I have been mostly cash-positive, minus large charitable donations which are taken out of a separate budget that I will later replenish.
25) What was your most embarrassing moment of 2013?
The daughter of the first patient I ever saw as a resident asked me "Is this your first time as a doctor?" I guess I looked awkward and deer-in-headlights-y. But her father ended up not dying of his extremely fatal ruptured aneurysm, so I had the last laugh.
26) If you could go back in time and change one thing in 2013, what would it be?
I would have dated Liz sooner. We spent several months being sort of like "We really like each other. We should date sometime.""Yeah." And then by the time we got our act together, I had to leave two weeks later.
27) What are your plans for 2014?
Continue working as a resident psychiatrist in Michigan. Visit Berkeley in March. Have Ozy move in with me in May/June. Go to Alicorn and Mike's wedding in September. Otherwise take things as they come.
28) What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?
I got a house, a car, a serious primary girlfriend, and a serious career-path job, all within the space of about two months from never having had any of those things. I feel like I got hit by the Adulthood Train at 95 miles per hour.
29)Did anyone close to you give birth?
I don't think so. Feel free to make me feel guilty if I forgot about you.
30)What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
Can I ask for more Ozys? Would that be greedy?
31)What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
March 11 was the day I learned I had "matched", which is medical terminology for getting a residency you wanted.
32)What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Annnnnnnd see above.
33)What was your biggest failure?
My efforts to learn Spanish have totally fallen by the wayside.
34)What was the best thing you bought?
Electric razor! I can run it over my cheeks for half a minute, clean up with a few strokes of a normal razor, and then I just have less facial hair. No wounds gushing blood. No unsightly marks at places where I cut myself. No more walking into work having to claim I got in a fight with a werewolf just to deflect the awkward questions.
35)Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Ozy! I am quietly and internally celebrating zir existence right now!
36)Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Most people who write about politics and society on the Internet.
37)Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Same
ii. thinner or fatter? Fatter, but working on it
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer in terms of net worth, but better salary and earning potential
38)What do you wish you'd done more of?
I think I've put "meditating" here every year since the beginningless past. I shall add "fiction writing".
39)What do you wish you'd done less of?
Outrage-blogging. Also, I don't think there is a single doctor who would not answer "Documentation!" to this question.
40) How did you spend Christmas?
I was in hospital, telling drug addicts to take less drugs. My boss offered to give me the day off, but I took advantage of his generosity to suggest that maybe if I worked Christmas, I could have the following Friday off to take Ozy to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. It went well.
41) What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 29. I'm pretty sure I worked at a neurology clinic. My grandmother gave me a California Pizza Kitchen gift certificate, which turned out to be a really good birthday present and then I went to California Pizza Kitchen and had pizza.
42) What was your personal fashion concept in 2013?
At work - a lab coat large enough to hide the fact that I don't iron my shirts regularly. At home - t-shirt and sweatpants.
43) What kept you sane?
Blogging helped. And when it was the blogging that was driving me insane, Ozy helped.
44) Which celebrity figure impressed you the most?
Let's follow TIME's example and go with Pope Francis.
45) What news story do you remember most from 2013?
I remember the FDA and 23andMe thing pretty well because it felt personal. I don't think this is news, per se, but it had a big effect on me.
46) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.
Having friends is fun and I should remember to do it more often.
47)Quote a song lyric or poem.
1)Was 2013 a good year for you?
Yes!
2) What was your favourite moment of the year?
All the time spent with Ozy was time well-spent. If I'm not allowed to be gooey, well, I've used hikes as my answer to this question in the past, and I'll stick to that strategy. The hike I took with Kenzi to Richmond was a particularly good one. Winter Solstice gets second place.
3) What was your least favourite moment of the year?
I got a bad evaluation on one of my medical rotations. I don't usually get bad evaluations and it was mildly traumatic until my boss cheered me up by saying he didn't believe it. I would also add having to leave the Bay Area, but I did that of my own free will and it's my own darned fault.
4) Where were you when 2013 began? Who were you with?
I was in the Box, all alone. Mike and Alicorn had gone to celebrate with Mike's relatives, and my super-genius friends had somehow found a way to get their New Years party scheduled January 16.
5) Where were you when 2013 ended? Who were you with?
I am in my apartment in Michigan with my wonderful girlfriend.
6) Did you keep your new years resolution of 2013?
I wanted to explore more of the Bay Area. I did that.
7) Do you have a new years resolution for 2014?
Debatable! I have vague intentions to try writing more fiction and to study super hard for my Psychiatry Resident Standardized Test, but I don't know if I want to go so far as to call them resolutions.
8) Did you make any new friends in 2013?
Ozy seems like a pretty darned important person in this category. Honorary new-2013-friend status goes to Arundelo, even though I technically met him briefly in 2012.
9) Did you travel outside of the US in 2013?
I...actually don't think that I did! I managed to stay in the same country the entire year! I'm growing up!
10) How many different states did you travel to in 2013?
California, Virginia, Idaho, Washington, Massachusetts, New York, Utah, Michigan, Georgia, New Jersey.
11) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2013?
Not really.
12) What was your favorite book you read in 2013?
I've been really bad at reading this year, but Infinite Jest springs to mind.
13) What was your favourite movie that you saw in 2013?
I've been really bad at watching movies, and the three I can think of all kind of sucked.
14) What was your favourite TV show that you saw in 2013?
I re-watched Scrubs. It didn't get any worse. I keep trying to get into Breaking Bad, but it's so darned SLOW.
15) What was your favorite music that you heard in 2013?
I really like Green Day! I discovered them thanks to Mike Blume and Ozy.
16) Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2013?
I can't immediately think of any alcohol I had this year. I may have avoided it entirely.
17) Did you do a lot of drugs in 2013?
Even if I did, I wouldn't admit it publicly.
18) How many people did you date in 2013?
I dated four people, of whom I continue to date three. Also two random OKCupiders that never got past the first date, but those don't count.
19) Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
I don't know about ashamed. My two biggest mistakes I can think of right now were weaseling out of attending a CFAR workshop I could have gotten in for free, and donating my whole year's charity budget to MIRI when they ended up easily getting all their matching funds and fulfilling their donation targets; I could have let other people do that and donated to something else that would have needed it more.
20) What was the biggest lie you told in 2013?
To my patients: "Yes, we have an excellent reason for our treatment plan and I am fully aware of what it is. I am not at all suspicious that my attending is operating off of sphexish pattern-matching to how ze thinks a case like yours should proceed, nor am I just carrying out zir orders without fully understanding them to avoid exacerbating my reputation as someone who asks too many annoying questions."
21) What was the worst lie someone told you in 2013?
From my patients: "Oh yeah, I totally stopped using heroin."
22) Did you treat somebody badly in 2013?
I have treated patients badly, not out of malice but out of this being my first year and me not knowing that much and me having to carry out the will of my attendings as in (20).
23) Did somebody treat you badly in 2013?
No! People have been super-amazingly nice to me!
24) How much money did you spend in 2013?
TOOO MUCCCH. I think it took about $10,000 just to get set up in Michigan, between getting a plane ticket here and putting down security deposit on house and putting down deposit on car and getting furniture and buying the air conditioner that is sitting in my room uninstalled even though I got it six months ago and it is now twelve degrees Fahrenheit outside. Since then I have been mostly cash-positive, minus large charitable donations which are taken out of a separate budget that I will later replenish.
25) What was your most embarrassing moment of 2013?
The daughter of the first patient I ever saw as a resident asked me "Is this your first time as a doctor?" I guess I looked awkward and deer-in-headlights-y. But her father ended up not dying of his extremely fatal ruptured aneurysm, so I had the last laugh.
26) If you could go back in time and change one thing in 2013, what would it be?
I would have dated Liz sooner. We spent several months being sort of like "We really like each other. We should date sometime.""Yeah." And then by the time we got our act together, I had to leave two weeks later.
27) What are your plans for 2014?
Continue working as a resident psychiatrist in Michigan. Visit Berkeley in March. Have Ozy move in with me in May/June. Go to Alicorn and Mike's wedding in September. Otherwise take things as they come.
28) What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?
I got a house, a car, a serious primary girlfriend, and a serious career-path job, all within the space of about two months from never having had any of those things. I feel like I got hit by the Adulthood Train at 95 miles per hour.
29)Did anyone close to you give birth?
I don't think so. Feel free to make me feel guilty if I forgot about you.
30)What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
Can I ask for more Ozys? Would that be greedy?
31)What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
March 11 was the day I learned I had "matched", which is medical terminology for getting a residency you wanted.
32)What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Annnnnnnd see above.
33)What was your biggest failure?
My efforts to learn Spanish have totally fallen by the wayside.
34)What was the best thing you bought?
Electric razor! I can run it over my cheeks for half a minute, clean up with a few strokes of a normal razor, and then I just have less facial hair. No wounds gushing blood. No unsightly marks at places where I cut myself. No more walking into work having to claim I got in a fight with a werewolf just to deflect the awkward questions.
35)Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Ozy! I am quietly and internally celebrating zir existence right now!
36)Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Most people who write about politics and society on the Internet.
37)Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Same
ii. thinner or fatter? Fatter, but working on it
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer in terms of net worth, but better salary and earning potential
38)What do you wish you'd done more of?
I think I've put "meditating" here every year since the beginningless past. I shall add "fiction writing".
39)What do you wish you'd done less of?
Outrage-blogging. Also, I don't think there is a single doctor who would not answer "Documentation!" to this question.
40) How did you spend Christmas?
I was in hospital, telling drug addicts to take less drugs. My boss offered to give me the day off, but I took advantage of his generosity to suggest that maybe if I worked Christmas, I could have the following Friday off to take Ozy to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. It went well.
41) What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 29. I'm pretty sure I worked at a neurology clinic. My grandmother gave me a California Pizza Kitchen gift certificate, which turned out to be a really good birthday present and then I went to California Pizza Kitchen and had pizza.
42) What was your personal fashion concept in 2013?
At work - a lab coat large enough to hide the fact that I don't iron my shirts regularly. At home - t-shirt and sweatpants.
43) What kept you sane?
Blogging helped. And when it was the blogging that was driving me insane, Ozy helped.
44) Which celebrity figure impressed you the most?
Let's follow TIME's example and go with Pope Francis.
45) What news story do you remember most from 2013?
I remember the FDA and 23andMe thing pretty well because it felt personal. I don't think this is news, per se, but it had a big effect on me.
46) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.
Having friends is fun and I should remember to do it more often.
47)Quote a song lyric or poem.
The peace of God is on us now; such things can now be told
Yes, there is strength in striking root, and good in growing old
And we have honest things at last, and marriage, and a creed
And I can safely write this now, and you can safely read
G. K. Chesteron, The Man Who Was Thursday
