2018 in review: learn to navigate

What kept ’em goin’ was a great belief
That they had to learn to navigate
‘Cause the human race was special freight

This is that thing that Jaquandor does on December 31, but I do on January 1.

Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I saw this article that said that talking about making changes will make them less likely to happen. Why you shouldn’t share your goals – “Other people’s taking notice of one’s identity-relevant intentions apparently engenders a premature sense of completeness regarding the identity goal.”

Did anyone close to you give birth?
No

Did you attend any weddings?
Don’t think so

Did anyone close to you die?
Yeah, and I listed four of them a couple months ago. Since then, Katy Fletcher, who, among other things, was the primary cook of the Black History Month at church with her excellent Caribbean cuisine, died this fall.

What countries did you visit?
None, but my passport is in order, just in case

What would you like to have in 2019 that you lacked in 2018?
Less despair

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Help shepherd the merger between the Friends of the Albany Public Library and the Albany Public Library Foundation

What was your biggest failure?
Finding equilibrium

What was the best thing you bought?
A round-trip train ticket to see my friend Deborah

Whose behavior merited celebration?
A lot of people, actually, some of whom I mentioned on
Thanksgiving, plus:
The comedians, including John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah, the folks at Saturday Night Live
Those who helped the people dealing with the weather disasters
Those who helped the people dealing with the human-made disasters

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Supreme Court justice Brett “Bart” Kavanaugh
The federal government, generally
The GOP, generally, particularly in Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, and the ones in DC: “As John Nichols put it… in The Nation, the Republican Party is no longer a political ‘party’ per se, but a mere vehicle, a conspiracy for seizing and holding power on behalf of a tiny sliver of the wealthiest among us.”
The White House liars-in-chief, such as Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders
What’s his face and his family

Where did most of your money go?
The house, though we had no big projects

What did you get really excited about?
The idea of retiring someday

Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?
Sadder, for sure

Thinner or fatter?
About the same

Richer or poorer?
Richer, marginally

What do you wish you’d done more of?
Sleeping, writing, thinking

What do you wish you’d done less of?
Brooding

How did you spend Christmas?
Christmas Eve means singing at church, so that. Eventually, we go to the in-laws

Did you fall in love in 2018?
Sure

How many one-night stands?
Jaquandor: “Now, that’s not the kind of question a gentleman answers!” (Another stock response)

What was your favorite TV program?
CBS Sunday Morning, CBS This Morning Saturday, JEOPARDY!, Grey’s Anatomy

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Don’t know if hate is the right word. Enraged with, perhaps. But oh yeah. I certainly loathe the behavior of a whole lot of people; see above

What was the best book you read?
A Lucille Ball book I haven’t written about yet

What was your greatest musical discovery?
Some CDs I bought on Amazon years ago have extra songs I had never heard before if I listen to them online

What did you want and get?
The new Hess truck – surprise!

What did you want and not get?
Clarification of what I’m supposed to do about Medicare if I’m not retiring yet

What were your favorite films of this year?
In reverse chronological order:
BlacKkKlansman, Leave No Trace, RBG, Black Panther, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

What did you do on your birthday?
I took off the day from work and…that was nine months ago!

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2018?
Fashion is stupid

What kept you sane?
I continue to argue the premise of the question

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Robert Mueller – he be stylin’

What political issue stirred you the most?
The way we’ve possibly eroded our environment permanently

Who was the best new person you met?
Some new church members

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2018
The trouble with normal is it always gets worse (Same as last year)

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year
Lead Belly: “We’re in the Same Boat, Brother”
Lyrics:
Oh the boat rolled on through storm and grief
Past many a rock and many a reef
What kept ’em goin’ was a great belief
That they had to learn to navigate
‘Cause the human race was special freight
If we don’t want to be in Jonah’s shoes
We’d better be mates on this here cruise

Picture from Skin Horse by Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.skin-horse.com

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