Tens...

I'm going to try to be better about posting more often...so here's something for today:

Ten Years Ago: I had just started my junior year of high school. I lived with my mom and dad, sister, family stray Flip, and, occasionally my brother. That was his senior year and, as I recall, he was in and out a bit. I didn’t quite have a car yet but was soon to acquire the best car I ever had: a 1986 Mazda 626 that was rhinoceros gray and had a dent in every panel. It also smelled funny because my cousin, its previous owner, had spilled airplane fuel in the back seat. It came with a wide array of accoutrements including blue plastic sunglasses whose frames lit up, several dollars in change, a Mozart cassette tape and a UB40 cassette tape.

Five Years Ago: In September of 2000, I was a newlywed living in Lansing, Michigan. I had left school temporarily and had just gotten my first “real” job as the sales department assistant at Nissui Corporation, an American offshoot of a Japanese manufacturer of recycling machinery for large-scale plastic injection-molding machinery lines. Mostly, I just came home and cried at night since I was one of very few native English speakers and could never understand what, exactly, they wanted me to do. Also, I couldn’t understand what the machinery did or how it worked and I was THE person you called to order replacement parts. I can’t believe I did as well as I did. They loved me.

One Year Ago: I was just settling into my current job and still believed I was unbelievably lucky to have found it. I lived in a manufactured house on a very nice lot in P-town. I drove an 0’something (can’t remember anymore) red Subaru Outback which I LOVED. We had been trying to start a family for a little while and had just finally begun the cycles of fertility drugs that nearly drove me insane.

Yesterday: I dragged myself out of bed after an extra “snooze” session and went to work. I had meetings all morning. I came home from work at 4, had a snack and went to sleep. It was my intention to sleep until around 5 or 5:15 and then get up and have dinner before going to class. But I couldn’t. So I slept until 5:30 and went to class without dinner. Actually, I had two apples and half a bag of pumpkin seeds. I had a rotten night at class, came home and yelled at Owen for going golfing instead of cleaning up the house and then went to bed. It was an exhausting day.

Five Songs I Know All the Words To:
American Pie
Anything from Wicked
Power of Two
Closer to Fine
Galileo

Five Snacks:
Gala Apples
Double Stuff Oreos
Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked
Baked Lays
Frozen peas

Five Things I'd Do With $100 Million:
Pay off all my loans and build a gorgeous house
Retire my parents and Owen’s parents (and I don’t mean in a Mafia kind of way)
Take my whole family on a huge trip all over the world
Quit “work” and work for charity – maybe start my own kids program
Give bunches to great charities who support my beliefs

Five Places I'd Run Away To:
Prague
London
NC
Chicago
NYC (even though I’ve never been)

Five Things I'd Never Wear:
Stretch pants
Anything forest green
Anything from Abercrombie and Fitch (even if it DID fit…)
A scrunchie (unless I had desperate need and couldn’t find anything – even a twist tie)
Anything proclaiming any sort of conservative message

Five Favorite TV Shows:
Sex and the City
Alias
Law and Order
Law and Order: SVU
CSI

Five Greatest Joys:
Great discussions (especially with Owen…about social issues)
Getting ready for the baby
Hanging around with my mom and my sister
Shopping when I actually have money to spend
Sleeping

Five Favorite Toys:
My laptop
My iPod
The digital camera
TiVo
Books? Do they count?

1. What is your favorite word? “Discount”2. What is your least favorite word? “Outsource.” Also “terrorist”3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Lively discussion
4. What turns you off? People who are rude.
5. What is your favorite curse word? I love to drop the F-bomb…but only when necessary
6. What sound or noise do you love? The sound of a an old manual typewriter clacking
7. What sound or noise do you hate? Sounds associated with people eating. ESPECIALLY chewing hard candy.
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Attorney
9. What profession would you not like to do? Anything in sales
10.If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? “Yes, they’re all here…they’ve been waiting for you.”