Meme

Pomgirl tagged me. I think it's an epidemic.. this 'meme' thing, which, by the way, am I the only one who doesn't know what the hell 'meme' means?? Apparently so. It's four letters.. FOUR. How hard could it be? But no.. I remain clueless and just do what everyone tells me like a mindless little sheep. Just like my mother always said, if everyone jumped off a bridge, I'd obviously need to do it too. But hey, I'd be cool then.

What were you doing 10 Years Ago?

Let's see.. I was 24 and it was my first year in Seattle. I lived in a house with 4 other people and my room was in the basement. The owner's son, the third one back in the cro-magnon evolutionary line of the human race, lived in the house with us. I lasted 6 months before me and another girl couldn't take his caveman behavior anymore and moved out together.

The only job experience I had was waiting on tables and working as a barista.. so the first job I landed here was slinging coffee in Wallingford at Nice Day Coffee. Already you can sense the irony, can't you?

It wasn't far from my house in Ballard, but was owned by this lying, cheating, cocaine-addicted narcissist who was related to the Paul Mitchell empire and sniffed all his daddy's money up his nose. After three days there I couldn't wait to quit - it was that bad. He went thru four managers in my 2-3 months there and only after my first few weeks, our banks started letting us know our $150 paychecks were bouncing. He said there was a 'misunderstanding' at his bank, accused us of stealing the deposits, but I finally just started cashing my paychecks at his bank immediately so I could then deposit them into mine.

The guy was sick - grossly overweight, talked with this ridiculously high voice, denied his own homosexuality as he was married, and oh yeah.. had the ugliest baby I'd ever seen. His power was in manipulation and fear. I once witnessed him threaten a sweet and passive 18-year-old when she simply wanted to talk to him about how he treated her. He actually told her he could make it so she 'never worked in this town again.' Riiiiiiight. We all hated him immensely. I watched many a big blow out between him and numerous quitting managers out in the street - it was the norm.

He 'fired' me the day after his wife came in with their frightening example of an offspring. He said she'd told him I was rude to her. Um.. hi, do you think I didn't know who she was? I was very nice and needed the job at the time, but that was his nature and she was obviously as coked up as he was most of the time.. I counted it a blessing that he actually did me that favor and not long after that, he drove the place into the ground, someone else MUCH nicer bought it and turned it into a cybercafe. *Shudder* So glad that's over.

5 Years Ago?

I was 29 and still reeling from the worst year of my life. 28 was my favorite age, but that February, my grandfather (my mom's step-dad) died of cancer with all of us surrounding him at home. If you've never seen your grandmother hysterically crying over the man she's loved for longer than you've been alive and telling him it's ok to let go, feel lucky. It was one of the toughest things I've ever witnessed, but I felt blessed to be there when my grandfather passed.

That May, one week after my father's 54th birthday, and the day after Mother's Day, my father died in his sleep. He'd been in remission from leukemia for 5 years, but over time, the harsh medicine and his condition had just worn his heart out. He was already on a list for a new liver, which I knew he'd never last long enough to receive.. and if I was actually wrong about that, I didn't think he'd survive the transplant or at least not the recovery that would require. Again I had to listen to my mother's hysterical voicemail before she actually reached me at work to tell me the news. It was pure torture.

Only one month later, still struggling to break free of this auto-pilot my body clicked on all on its own, my grandmother (my dad's mother), who'd been in a retirement facility and who barely recognized us anymore due to advanced Alzheimer's, finally died. I was happy for her cuz she just missed my grandfather so much who'd died years ago during my freshman year in college. She'd not been the same since anyway and she was only waiting to go in order to be with him again. The only negative part was the funeral, where, only one month prior, I'd seen all the same people who'd come to my father's funeral. Dad's side has a huge extended family and we knew most everyone in that small-town community so the church was packed both times, but the only people I remember even being able to relate to were my 14-year-old twin cousins. Ali, my boyfriend at the time who lived in Vancouver, BC was called a lot cuz he was the only person I felt could console me.

Ali and I broke up the next month in July - I don't remember the rest of the year very clearly after that. We'd been together close to 8 months and before him, I thought I'd never loved anyone so deeply. He was going thru his own crisis of trying to take care of himself and trying to support me emotionally while 3 hours away so visits only every other weekend became too much of a struggle. We didn't last more than a week without talking cuz we were still really close, but I mourned that relationship for two years before I finally let it go. Surprisingly, we're still really good friends after all this time.

1 Year Ago?

Recovering from yet another broken heart in January. Let's just say the first quarter of the last few years hasn't been my time.. I think it's mostly my fault in setting up false expectations that the new year will bring instant happiness, just add water. I was also struggling with a friendship I adored, but couldn't seem to find the balance in figuring out who we were to each other and because of a stupid secret someone else informed me of in a not so nice way, we stopped speaking to each other for about three months or so. During that time, we both did some discovering and after much discussion, made up. We've since become much closer friends and I'm really grateful for that. Unlike the boy at the time, she was much more vital to my life.

Five snacks you enjoy:

My Rockstar hummus (roasted red pepper and jalepeno)
Luna bars - peanut butter cookie, to be exact
Trader Joe's multigrain crackers
Granny Smith apples and peanut butter
Trader Joe's dark chocolate covered soy nuts

Five songs (you think) you know by heart:

The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels Band (I grew up listening to country music since that's all my parents listened to.. and I still love this song.)
Criminal - Fiona Apple (You should hear me karaoke this one.. ooh. I rock!)
Shape of My Heart - Sting
Chain of Fools - Aretha Franklin
At Last - Etta James

Five things you would do with a LOT of money:

Pay off my family's and friend's debts
Travel the world
Buy a much better car - stay away from Fords people!
Buy a house
Put the rest in savings!!

Five things you would never wear:

A Britney Spears concert t-shirt
A muu-muu
Combat boots
Anything in support of George W. Bush
A tongue ring (ow!)

Five things I should never have worn:

Neon
A peach satin bridesmaid's dress (Pom - I wore one too!)
4 inch heels in the 7th grade (what was my mother thinking?)
Shaker sweaters
My Midsummer Night's Dream costume my junior year of college - ohmygod.. let's just say being fairies in painted bodysuits wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Five things I enjoy doing:

Reading blogs, books
Hiking
Going to theatre and movies
Not working
Kissing (like who doesn't..?)

Five bad habits:

Procrastinating
Whining
Biting the skin around my nails
My occassional road rage
My lack of patience

Five people I would like to do this:

Kario
Doug
Adammmmmm
Treena (just do it ok? God.)
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