Review (rĭ-vyōō')(n.) :the process of going over a subject again in study or recitation

As 2009 quickly approaches this is my 2008 in review. Ups, Downs and a whole lot of in between.

+What did you do in 2008 that you have never done before?
Worked two jobs
+Did you keep all of last years resolutions?
Nope. Some I did, most I didn't. 2 out of 5 completed.
+Have you any resolutions for next year?
Lose some weight. Get my BA. Enjoy Europe.
+What countries did you visit?
Just traveled all over the US of A.
+What would you like to have in 2009 that you didn’t have in 2008?
A husband.
+What date in 2008 will remain etched in your memory?
August 13,2008-The day we received the official news that Spencer relapsed.
+What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Surviving
+What was your biggest failure?
Not doing better in school.
+Did you suffer any illness or injury?
Nothing serious.
+What was the best thing you bought?
My DSLR camera.
+Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
John McCain and other various republicans. Most of the people who go to SDSU and everyone who voted yes on Prop 8.
+Where did most of your money go?
Bills
+What did you get really really really excited about?
Road Trip to Colorado
+What do you wish you’d done less of?
Drank coffee. Complained.
+How will you be spending Christmas?
In LA with the family plus Guy and minus the pups.
+Did you fall in love in 2008?
I was in love long before 2008 and but there have been many moments in which I fell in love with Guy all over again.
+How many one night stands?
Zero
+What was your favorite TV show?
Grey's Anatomy
+Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don't think I hate anyone. There have been people who have fallen from my graces, certainly.
+What was/were the best books you read?
The Plague by Albert Camus
Sula by Toni Morrison
Things Fall apart by Achebe
+What was your greatest musical discovery?
Sea Wolf or Kanye West
+What did you want and get?
A dog
+What did you want and not get?
a trip to Seattle
+What was your favorite film this year?
The Dark Knight
+What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
21, Went to Joe's Crab Shack, had a margarita and smoked a cigar.
+What one thing would have made your year more satisfying?
More money
+How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Whatever fits
+What or Who kept you sane?
Guy, Spencer and a lot of coffee and tea
+Which celebrity did you fancy the most?
Patrick Dempsey
+Which political issue stirred you the most?
Gay rights and Obama for President!
+Who did you miss?
All my out of town family, Spencer when we were in different cities.
+Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned this year?
It is nearly always possible to do more than you ever believed you could but sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is take a nap.
+Quote a song lyric that sums up your year…
"Do not, under any circumstances, belittle a work of fiction by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of real life; what we search for in fiction is not so much reality but the epiphany of truth."
— Azar Nafisi

Fortress (fôr'trĭs)(n.) :any place of exceptional security; stronghold.

Under the pink quilted covers,
I hold the pulse that counts your blood.
I think the woods outdoors
are half asleep,
left over from summer
like a stack of books after a flood,
left over like those promises I never keep.
On the right, the scrub pine tree
waits like a fruit store
holding up bunches of tufted broccoli.

We watch the wind from our square bed.
I press down my index finger-
half in jest, half in dread-
on the brown mole
under your left eye, inherited
from my right cheek: a spot of danger
where a bewitched worm ate its way through our soul
in search of beauty. My child, since July
the leaves have been fed
secretly from a pool of beet-red dye.

And sometimes they are battle green
with trunks as wet as hunters' boots,
smacked hard by the wind, clean
as oilskins. No,
the wind's not off the ocean.
Yes, it cried in your room like a wolf
and your pony tail hurt you. That was a long time ago.
The wind rolled the tide like a dying
woman. She wouldn't sleep,
she rolled there all night, grunting and sighing.

Darling, life is not in my hands;
life with its terrible changes
will take you, bombs or glands,
your own child at
your breast, your own house on your own land.
Outside the bittersweet turns orange.
Before she died, my mother and I picked those fat
branches, finding orange nipples
on the gray wire strands.
We weeded the forest, curing trees like cripples.

Your feet thump-thump against my back
and you whisper to yourself. Child,
what are you wishing? What pact
are you making?
What mouse runs between your eyes? What ark
can I fill for you when the world goes wild?
The woods are under water, their weeds are shaking
in the tide; birches like zebra fish
flash by in a pack.
Child, I cannot promise that you will get your wish.

I cannot promise very much.
I give you the images I know.
Lie still with me and watch.
A pheasant moves
by like a seal, pulled through the mulch
by his thick white collar. He's on show
like a clown. He drags a beige feather that he removed,
one time, from an old lady's hat.
We laugh and we touch.
I promise you love. Time will not take away that.