10/10/2007

20 year meme

Filed under: — Aprille @ 12:00 pm

I try not to do memes too often, because they’re kind of silly most of the time, but this one kind of grabbed my interest.

20 years ago, I…

…was 10 years old and in fifth grade. I really loved school. That was the year my school got an extensive new playground, and it was a big community effort that my whole family was very involved in. I spent all kinds of time over at the playground. My best friend was Pam Olson, I had a crush on a boy named Jacob Luft, and I loved to read books by John Bellairs (really great books; they still hold up when I read them now). I wrote John Bellairs a fan letter and he sent me back a reply that was obviously hand-typed on a typewriter and personally signed. I’m working on a young adult novel right now that I hope follows in his tradition (though with more jokes. I can’t resist the jokes).

15 years ago, I…

…was fifteen and a sophomore in high school. That was a fun year–I was involved in a lot of school activities that I really enjoyed (theater, literary magazine, choir, dance), and I had a lot of good times with my best friends Sarah Teas, Sara Stevenson, Ruby Hsu, and Emily Olson. I had a crush on Andrew Farrington. He smoked a lot and I thought he was very exotic. He was actually really smart and interesting, and I’m always glad when I hear from him now and then. I do hope he’s quit smoking, though (if you’re reading this, Andrew, it’s only because I care!).

10 years ago, I…

…was 20 years old and having fun in college. I lived in an apartment on Clinton street with three of my friends (Buffy, Becky, and Carrie). I was still doing a lot of theater, mostly No Shame, but also a really cool play called “A Wild Romp through the Endocrine Canal,” which was written by a playwright in the Playwrights Workshop. It was a semi-autobiographical account of some serious health problems she’d had, done in a really humorous but also very touching way. I played her brain.

My grandparents came to see it, and my grandmother really identified with a scene in which the protagonist was trying to explain her symptoms to doctors, and the doctors were just practicing their golf swings and generally not caring about her as a human being. I think that rang true to my grandmother, who had battled breast cancer and understood how dehumanizing the medical world can be for patients.

5 years ago, I…

…was fairly new at my first grownup job, having finished my MFA and found a job in instructional technology (where I remain to this minute). It was exciting having a regular paycheck, since I’d gotten accustomed to living on a T.A. budget. My personal life wasn’t doing so hot at that time; I was at the tail end of a relationship with someone whom I cared about very much (and still do—he’s a high quality person and I’m glad we’re on good, if not close, terms). It just wasn’t right for the long-term. Looking back, there are some things I would have done differently, but I don’t regret any of the things I learned and experienced during that time.

2 years ago, I…

…was a newlywed. Denny and I got married in July of 2005, and I’m very glad we did. He’s my best influence in so many ways. I’ve gushed about him on here recently enough, and every now and then I get a surprise about who’s reading this blog (hi, Vern D.!), so I’ll keep the more personal details under wraps for the time being. I will say that I’m glad we had a big wedding with lots of friends and family, but I am NEVER DOING IT AGAIN (any party of that size, not just a wedding). It was a lot of work. Our honeymoon to Nevis was fun; I got to snorkel with a really big stingray, or maybe it was a manta ray. I was delighted to be living in our house and making some aesthetic changes therein.

1 year ago, I…

…was fielding a lot of “when are you going to have a baby?” comments. I was also getting very excited about our trip to Rome, which I was in the midst of planning. I bought a new laptop and I was mad at Blackboard (the company) for being litigious and stupid. I gleaned these facts by looking at my website archives. They are very useful.

So far this year, I’ve…

…begun cultivating a human, taken a self-portrait every single day, considered some changes in my work life, wished for some pork-flavored Chinese stamps (I never did get any), gained a certain amount of fondness for a surly faculty member, made Oscar-themed treats for my friends’ annual Academy Awards party, bought the shoes I’m wearing right now, and lots of other boring crap.

Yesterday, I…

…worked all day like a sucker. Yesterday was a really busy day; it felt like I had about eight meetings. After work I made dinner (homemade waffles a la Alton Brown—we’d just seen a Good Eats on that topic and Denny was hungry for them), then chilled out some, then we watched Bones and House on Tivo. Both shows were a little too much for me last night; Bones had some really gross scenes of a cadaver swarming with maggots (ew ew ew) and House had a really sad part where a disabled guy and his beloved guide dog died together (cry cry cry). I should have just watched The Golden Girls. Last night when I was trying to go to sleep, Bisquito was being very kickful and it was quite distracting. It kept making me laugh.

Ooh, another exciting thing from yesterday: we paid off the small mortgage on our house (we have our main mortgage, then an additional one that allowed us to put 20% down to avoid having to pay for some sort of extra insurance). We now officially own 1/5 of our house. I hope it’s Bisqui’s room. That’s the nicest one at the moment.

Today I…

…got up, went to work, went to some meetings, tried to get some actual work done, got sushi for lunch, and worked on this thing. I was planning on doing some exercise-walking over lunch (still might), but I’m feeling really tired all of a sudden. I should, though; I’ve been slacking on that lately. I think I’m making Mongolian beef for dinner, which is good because it always makes enough for leftovers, which means I don’t have to think about what to pack for lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrow I’ll…

…probably do more of what I did today, though thankfully with fewer meetings and more actually getting the things done that I get assigned to do in meetings. I have a library book I need to finish because it’s due tomorrow. We have baby class starting on Saturday, then afterwards we’re going to visit Denny’s parents and go to the Covered Bridge Festival (that’s the covered bridges of Madison county, which you may have heard of), so maybe I’ll get some packing done for that little adventure.

Whew. That was hard.

6 responses to “20 year meme”

  1. map says:

    The only downside to people reading your blog is people reading your blog. IMO.

  2. Katy Baggs says:

    Ohhhh, you’re WRITING a book, when you last said you were “working” on a book, I thought you meant you were reading one gradually over time, like how one “works on” a big sandwich, I guess. But yeah, awesome!

    I do enjoy Alton Brown. He’s smart and goofy and chummy, so sometimes I think of him as like Mike Nelson from Mystery Science Theater, if Mike were a foodie with geek glasses.

  3. Strong Bad says:

    That was by far the most intense blog entry I’ve read in ages.

    Hate to ape what somebody else already posted, but Alton Brown is fantastic. I have three of his books and one of them autographed. He really does remind me of MST3K’s Mike Nelson – really smart, a charming goofball and (I’ll sound gay for saying this as a guy) very handsome.

  4. janna says:

    I loved reading this!

  5. Texas Mommy says:

    Hi you! Just trying to figure out what state you live in and I decided to check out your blog when I saw the thing about the covered bridge festival. It reminded me of when I read The Bridges Of Madison County and sobbed most of the way through it. Like, hopefully nobody hears me, kind of sobbing! The ugly cry, I’m telling you! That was a great book and I’ve always wanted to go see the bridges. I bought a book a long time ago that was just pictures of the covered bridges. So, how was it?

  6. […] My friend Aprille1 did a 20-year post a while back, and when I read it, I thought it would be an interesting exercise for me to try. You see, my memory is really bad. I don’t remember things. Important things. This morning I couldn’t remember if a friend of ours had two kids, or one and she was pregnant. (Two kids, it turns out, and I have actually met them both…) I don’t remember stuff from my childhood. I don’t remember stuff from the childhood of my own kids. […]

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