Caterwauling

Reader Poll Monday returns!

1. How did you ring in 2006?
I awakened at 12:02 a.m. to my voice mail chiming from my best friend Shan, who’s three time zones behind me. I called my Mom first and then called Shan back (as the latter call went on for HOURS). So, I welcomed the new year by talking to the people I love most on this earth — not too shabby.

2. How did you ring in 2000?
I was probably drunk — my friend Steve used to throw the BEST parties. Although I might have spent it with my family that year. Seriously, life in my 20s was a total blur!

3. So far, which has been your favorite way to ring in a new year?
Drunk. And with friends. I love being the party hostess, though — I don’t drink nearly enough if I’m not at home. I used to like going out dancing and trying to find a cab to take us to an all-night diner afterward. Although, in my 20s, those kinds of nights were called Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Ah, memories. …

4. Do you usually make resolutions?
I don’t make them with the intent of waking up the next morning and implementing them. I do a lot of, “By this time next year, I will have accomplished (fill in the blank).” A bunch of us tried to quit smoking one year, so we smoked two full packs each at the New Year’s party. And then we kept smoking after midnight, so there went THAT resolution that year!

5. If not, why? If so, do you keep them?
I found that I keep them if I trudge through January (and truly shake off the *ick* of the previous year) and then start fresh on Feb. 1. I always start a diet that day. Which means I can have lots of carbs and other miscellanous junk until then!

6. Do you do anything superstitious at the stroke of midnight?
I make a wish. Always, always, always.

And I don’t do this anymore, but my great-grandmother always had us in the habit of putting shiny silver quarters outside for when the clock struck midnight — and you were never to spend those coins that year, because they were sort of like your good-luck charm. But now that quarters = laundry money, I can’t keep them intact when I need fresh scandalous undies. 😉

7. Did you know that we were all given an extra leap second this year? Did you use it wisely?
I got an extra second of sleep. Whee.

8. Do you have any new year’s day traditions?
Tradition went out the window this year. My grandmother always insisted that we have pork and sauerkraut for luck. I refuse to do laundry or cleaning — something about an old wives’ tale that you’ll spend your whole year cleaning up messes (your own or others’). And hoo boy, I’ve seen it happen, so I don’t lift a finger anymore!

9. What are you most looking forward to this year?
My mom, in her infinite psychic wisdom, swears that February is going to bring a HUGE change in my life. Here’s to hoping it’s a positive one — so I guess I’m looking forward to that, whatever it is.

I’m looking forward to scraping up enough money to visit my friend Shan and to find a new apartment. I’ve not had to do my (long) commute to work in more than a week, and while it’s not a terrible drive, I certainly didn’t miss it.

It’s going to be a year of making long-awaited dreams come true, I promise you that.

10. Ask me something.
Think you’ll ever make it to San Francisco (to live), or are you happy in NYC for the time being?

I never blog about work because I, oh, like having an income. (Especially after that pesky incident in 2004 in which we found that employers REALLY don’t like it when you blog about them. No matter how much they might have deserved it.) 😉

But I have to break my vow of silence to share with you what a fucking idiot I can be sometimes. Because today was a SHINING example.

I was asked to attend a very important workshop in a VERY chi-chi part of the country. I also very last-minute booked the hotel which, to my horror, was about three times the cost that I’d budgeted for. Yikes!

So, I had to suck it up and only stay for two nights instead of three. Because I had to leave room on the ol’ credit card to allow for that little thing known as FLYING there.

I fired up my trusty discount sites and was appalled to find that not only could I NOT get a nighttime flight on my hotel checkout day (I’d figured I could haul my suitcase through my sessions with me and jet home after the fact), but the cost was QUADRUPLE what I’d planned on. Oh, yeah, and all the return flights left in the morning, so I didn’t want to leave before the end.

So I, in my infinite wisdom, booked a one-way flight across the country. Because it was all I could afford. And that way, I didn’t have to leave at all! (*slaps forehead, in lieu of finding a gun to just blow out brains*)

After not sleeping very well last night after doing this atrocity (and hereby blowing my credit limit by a freaking mile!), I hung my head and went to my publisher today to ask for help. I did give him the option, though, that without a return flight, I could easily stay until the end of the workshop. 🙂

He graciously saved me and picked up the tab for my return flight.

The thing is, if I’d had any fucking brains at all (I will not tell you my IQ. You would never believe it anyway!), I would’ve booked the three nights at the hotel that I’d originally needed and I would have asked for the company to cover my roundtrip flight. But that required WAY too much thought — I figured, it was more important that I get there than that I come home. I know, ingenious! Hah.

In any event, I regret to say it will be a whirlwind trip, but at least I will be able to come home from it. 😉