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I’m pretty sure I’ve done this before, but given my blog adventure last year, I’m not sure I’d know where it is. So, borrowed from Cassandra:

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Made a conscious effort to eat more locally. Ran, and plan to again (well, hadn’t done that in 15 years, but that’s pretty close to never). Learned to have the guts to be my own patient advocate.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My “resolution” centered on health, if you recall. All aspects of it. Among other things, I tackled purging things I don’t need (there is still much more to go), coming to terms with a new normal in my physical health, adjusted my perspective on what material-wise and food-wise  I view is healthy, tried to make some progress on the health of my marriage (baby steps), and a whole bunch of other little things. I wasn’t expecting monumental changes, but lots of little changes in lots of areas is a pretty sweeping attitude change. I consider it a success.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No, but there are at least a couple of babies coming in 2010 that I’m excited about!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, fortunately, but FAR too many people died who were close to people who were close to me. One degree of separation. Simply, too much pain for too many people I know personally and would not like to see a repeat of in 2010.

5. What countries did you visit?
Nothing new this year, unfortunately, but I WILL make it to the Netherlands in 2010. It may kill my pocketbook.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
An exercise routine that I stick to. I frankly wouldn’t mind being pregnant, but we’re still not actively pursuing that (and I’m ok with it).

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Probably Inauguration Day was the only one – for obvious reasons. My cousin’s wedding. The Sunny Day Real Estate show since I’d wanted to see them for SO long.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Grew a garden. My “resolution” was kind of a big one, in a strange way. Finally got the old tattoo on my ankle covered and got the one I had planned for my 30th birthday, which was 2 years ago, LOL.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not achieving anything bigger in 2009. My weight – after working so hard to lose weight before I went to Europe, I have inched up again. Lesson learned: age and metabolism are not friends. Not taking care of my debt and getting carried away by impulse buys.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, thankfully. Just dealt with what I already have and attempted to manage it. I know what I need to do, it just seems to be up in the air as to whether or not I’ll do it.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My GTI.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
J, who is infinitely patient with my quirkiness, as always.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My mother and her husband. A large number of the people around the Metro DC area. In many cases, I agree with Cassandra about Americans in general – as in the post I referenced in #2.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Debt. Toys.  <- THIS needs to change.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Wonderful things happening for my friends and family.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Unfortunately, anything by Lady Gaga, who I really don’t like.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:?a) happier or sadder? ?b) thinner or fatter? ?c) richer or poorer?
Happier, about the same, about the same.

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

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Spending money and eating.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent it with my inlaws in North Carolina.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
No. Stayed in love, which is a big thing in and of itself.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Hmmm….I started watching a bunch of new shows this year that I hadn’t before….Mad Men? Biggest Loser?

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Hate isn’t worth the energy.

25. What was the best book you read?
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Sparta. Why must I discover bands after they’re already broken up?

27. What did you want and get?
My GTI.

28. What did you want and not get?
There’s always something. New kitchen counters.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Probably “Up”…I did like “New Moon,” but in a hedonist kind of way.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 32. Spent time with my mother, went out to dinner at a new local restaurant. Other than that, I don’t really remember!

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Feeling like I belong somewhere in this world and having something significant to contribute.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Evolving. Found a blog that changed my attitude and have been running with it.

33. What kept you sane?
Having not too much of anything. Not too much work, not too much play….

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
No one really.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Marriage equality, I’d say.

36. Who did you miss?
My friends and family who are all over that place that are not HERE.

37. Who was the best new person you met? Why?
Didn’t really meet too many new people, but Facebook continues to be a fun place to reconnect with old friends!

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
Just because you CAN have something it doesn’t mean you need to have it or should have it. I hope to apply this more in 2010.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
“You set a fire to forget, to burn up all you regret. But really, nothing has changed, today. You can’t go on this way.” – Sparta

Onward and upward, forward is the only way to go. Cheers to 2010.

I had every intention of posting this on Friday – but the day got away from me. And then, the weekend here was beautiful – gorgeous weather, lots of time outside! I went to Pilates like a “good girl” early on Saturday morning, and J and I went down to the shore for the first crabs of the season.

They were SO worth it.

We won’t talk about my first speeding ticket in 15 years, or how it was a total trap because he was sitting in the few hundred yard window where the speed limit went from 55 to 45 before going back up to 55. Honestly, I am a speedy driver, so my number was up.

ANYWAY – I mentioned last weekend that we had reverse engineered a recipe…and we call it a success! Are the originals still better? Of course! But they’re not the easiest thing to come by, and my poor, sensitive stomach took days to recover from them, so I’m quite happy with this substitute. A couple of weeks back, we checked out a new (to us)  music venue called The Birchmere, which has almost a “dinner theater” kind of setup, to listen to Juliana Hatfield (Bonus! Remember her?) and Bob Mould rock out on the night of the launch of his new CD. It was an awesome show, and the food was great. We wondered what “chicken sliders” could possibly be, and upon reading that there was BBQ’d pulled chicken involved, we were all in.

They were AMAZING. Open faced, tangy/spicy pulled BBQ chicken on garlic bread, topped with mozzarella. To die for. And easy enough to make our own version, right?

Well – sort of. We tossed the chicken into the crockpot with some BBQ sauce on the way out the door to the museum and came home to…well…a bit of a mess. Not enough sauce. While my Dad dug in and salvaged as much as he could of the chicken breast, I ran out to the store to get a container of the ol’ standby Lloyd’s.  In the end, we mixed them together and it was just perfect.

The moral to the story? Premade BBQ chicken = good. Chicken in the crockpot with anything less than about 2 cups of BBQ sauce = bad.

Chicken Sliders

1 lb (-ish) chicken breasts, thawed (or just one package from the store)
1 FULL bottle BBQ sauce of choice

OR

1-2 packages of premade BBQ pulled chicken (Lloyd’s was great)
Gouda cheese, grated, for topping (a little more character than the mozzarella)
Loaf of crusty bread, sliced into 1 – 1.5″ slices
Butter
Garlic powder and/or minced garlic

The morning of, toss the chicken and the BBQ sauce into a crock pot, mix, and set on low for 8 hrs. Go to work. Pray for the best. (If using prepackaged, obviously, skip this step.)
When it’s done, use two forks to shred the chicken. Set aside. Preheat broiler. Spread butter and garlic on one side of each bread slice, broil until lightly toasted. Remove, flip the toast, and do the same to the other side. Add chicken, top with shredded gouda, and broil again to melt the cheese.

Eat in large quantities. Best with beer.