A decade in lists
I tried this a few days ago--and then remembered how dismal-seeming the early aughts were for me. I'm in a better mood now, so I'm going to try again. I guess I forgot it has a happy ending :)
the 2000's: In January, 2000 I was three weeks away from 17; my family had recently moved to Santa Barbara and I was attending SB City College full time.
--joined The Channels writing staff, changed my major from psychology to journalism
--had my first real job at Borders Books, made more money than a teenager needed
--went to Fresno for the Journalism Association of Community Colleges state-wide conference, got caught up in a stupid scandal that actually didn't have anything to do with me
--started shedding some of my excess weight
--was promoted to Features Editor, worked about 80 hours a week between the paper, the bookstore, my classes and work study
--my grandfather had a stroke and was hospitalized
--just a few days later, my uncle died
--when my grandfather found out, he had another major stroke that he wouldn't recover from
--my cousins, 9 and 12 at the time, came to live with us
--I started my first livejournal, aoife28, and met cool folk like Judy, Liam and Whitney (all of whom I'm still friends with)
--I was accepted to Semester At Sea, but after six months of stress I wasn't able to raise the money and had to drop out
--a custody battle ensued for the kids. We lost, and weren't allowed to contact them anymore
--I went on my first date
--I met Adam on livejournal
--I met Heather, Colby and others through Adam
--Adam fucked with my head/heart a lot
--I "took a semester off" from school and never went back full time
--my mom took on the cause of earning my grandpa recognition for his 50 year career, started her own business and became REALLY involved in that
--my grandpa died
--my mom kind of lost it
--I found out that several of the pieces I'd written the semester before were submitted to the next JACC. I won Best Feature and 2nd Place Feature, and an honorable mention for layout
--I started talking to Liam on livejournal, then IM, then on the phone a lot since his girlfriend dumped him
--over the summer that turned into a long-distance relationship
--things kind of fell apart, we had to move out of Santa Barbara. Cori and I crashed on a couch in a really skeezy house in Goleta. I agreed to rent a room there but never actually pulled it together to pay rent, had to leave all clandestine-like early one morning.
--moved back to Nevada County for a while
--Liam came to visit for my 20th birthday, we went to Disneyland which was awesome
--That summer went on a cross-country promotional tour for my mom's business, saw a lot of cool stuff, fought with the family a lot. We picked up Liam on the way and brought him back to CA with us, thinking we would move to San Francisco the next month
--We couldn't get the money together, my parents wanted to move to Missouri, so we had to go somewhere. We took a bus north to Vancouver and stayed with Liam's aunt and uncle on Denman Island for two fabulous weeks.
--They said we couldn't stay forever, so it was arranged for us that we'd go to Sarnia
--Lived in Sarnia for a year
--Liam and I got engaged, then called it off a few months later
--I felt lonely and cold, kind of hated it
--I gained about 35 pounds
--The Missouri experiment didn't work out, Cori left first and moved to Portland
--We started making plans to move back west--in August we came to Portland, and in January Liam moved to Vancouver BC to go to school, we went back to doing things long distance
--Saw Tom Waits!
--worked at Barnes and Noble, scrapped it together for a good long while with Cori. Mostly worked the closing shift, so I'd stay up all night smoking weed, sewing and watching Adult Swim. Really an excellent time, actually.
--started sewing ALL THE TIME, even though I was pretty crappy at it. I had the worst, tiniest sewing machine ever, and mostly did stuff by hand
--Started working at the Zoo. Great job in the summer, crappy in the winter.
--Liam came back to Portland, we got engaged for real
--was ever-more involved in sewing and crafting, started making small things to sell (xmas ornaments, necklaces, embroidered hoodies.) I had no idea how to make a profit
--Got promoted to lead at the zoo my second year, basically used that as leverage to get a better job at OMSI
--my dad was declared healthy by social security (incorrectly) and he lost his income
--Got married June 2007
--moved into our first apartment together, had lots of good times
--got a raise at work
--wanted to give a go at making garment design and construction a real job, changed my schedule to accomodate more sewing time and took a small business training course to get the fundamentals
--had a mini-mental breakdown once I realized my skills still weren't at the point that my ambitions were, broke up with sewing for about a month. Decided to be more patient with myself--that was a long time coming!
--started selling hoodlets (scarves with hoods) on etsy, had a few customers
--found a three-bedroom house for rent in our price range, made a snap decision to move out to "the numbers"
--coincidentally, my parents lost their house at the same time. they moved in with us
--that didn't work very well, was a very stressful time
--the house was a horrible scam
--started doing weight watchers alongside my sister
--got a promotion at work
--got a dog!
--joined a gym, started enjoying exercise for the first time in my life
--finally got Liam officially immigrated
--were able to move out of the house at the end of our lease, into a lovely townhouse, which is where we ended the decade
--By December 2009 I'd lost 55 pounds
See? Happy ending.
the 2000's: In January, 2000 I was three weeks away from 17; my family had recently moved to Santa Barbara and I was attending SB City College full time.
--joined The Channels writing staff, changed my major from psychology to journalism
--had my first real job at Borders Books, made more money than a teenager needed
--went to Fresno for the Journalism Association of Community Colleges state-wide conference, got caught up in a stupid scandal that actually didn't have anything to do with me
--started shedding some of my excess weight
--was promoted to Features Editor, worked about 80 hours a week between the paper, the bookstore, my classes and work study
--my grandfather had a stroke and was hospitalized
--just a few days later, my uncle died
--when my grandfather found out, he had another major stroke that he wouldn't recover from
--my cousins, 9 and 12 at the time, came to live with us
--I started my first livejournal, aoife28, and met cool folk like Judy, Liam and Whitney (all of whom I'm still friends with)
--I was accepted to Semester At Sea, but after six months of stress I wasn't able to raise the money and had to drop out
--a custody battle ensued for the kids. We lost, and weren't allowed to contact them anymore
--I went on my first date
--I met Adam on livejournal
--I met Heather, Colby and others through Adam
--Adam fucked with my head/heart a lot
--I "took a semester off" from school and never went back full time
--my mom took on the cause of earning my grandpa recognition for his 50 year career, started her own business and became REALLY involved in that
--my grandpa died
--my mom kind of lost it
--I found out that several of the pieces I'd written the semester before were submitted to the next JACC. I won Best Feature and 2nd Place Feature, and an honorable mention for layout
--I started talking to Liam on livejournal, then IM, then on the phone a lot since his girlfriend dumped him
--over the summer that turned into a long-distance relationship
--things kind of fell apart, we had to move out of Santa Barbara. Cori and I crashed on a couch in a really skeezy house in Goleta. I agreed to rent a room there but never actually pulled it together to pay rent, had to leave all clandestine-like early one morning.
--moved back to Nevada County for a while
--Liam came to visit for my 20th birthday, we went to Disneyland which was awesome
--That summer went on a cross-country promotional tour for my mom's business, saw a lot of cool stuff, fought with the family a lot. We picked up Liam on the way and brought him back to CA with us, thinking we would move to San Francisco the next month
--We couldn't get the money together, my parents wanted to move to Missouri, so we had to go somewhere. We took a bus north to Vancouver and stayed with Liam's aunt and uncle on Denman Island for two fabulous weeks.
--They said we couldn't stay forever, so it was arranged for us that we'd go to Sarnia
--Lived in Sarnia for a year
--Liam and I got engaged, then called it off a few months later
--I felt lonely and cold, kind of hated it
--I gained about 35 pounds
--The Missouri experiment didn't work out, Cori left first and moved to Portland
--We started making plans to move back west--in August we came to Portland, and in January Liam moved to Vancouver BC to go to school, we went back to doing things long distance
--Saw Tom Waits!
--worked at Barnes and Noble, scrapped it together for a good long while with Cori. Mostly worked the closing shift, so I'd stay up all night smoking weed, sewing and watching Adult Swim. Really an excellent time, actually.
--started sewing ALL THE TIME, even though I was pretty crappy at it. I had the worst, tiniest sewing machine ever, and mostly did stuff by hand
--Started working at the Zoo. Great job in the summer, crappy in the winter.
--Liam came back to Portland, we got engaged for real
--was ever-more involved in sewing and crafting, started making small things to sell (xmas ornaments, necklaces, embroidered hoodies.) I had no idea how to make a profit
--Got promoted to lead at the zoo my second year, basically used that as leverage to get a better job at OMSI
--my dad was declared healthy by social security (incorrectly) and he lost his income
--Got married June 2007
--moved into our first apartment together, had lots of good times
--got a raise at work
--wanted to give a go at making garment design and construction a real job, changed my schedule to accomodate more sewing time and took a small business training course to get the fundamentals
--had a mini-mental breakdown once I realized my skills still weren't at the point that my ambitions were, broke up with sewing for about a month. Decided to be more patient with myself--that was a long time coming!
--started selling hoodlets (scarves with hoods) on etsy, had a few customers
--found a three-bedroom house for rent in our price range, made a snap decision to move out to "the numbers"
--coincidentally, my parents lost their house at the same time. they moved in with us
--that didn't work very well, was a very stressful time
--the house was a horrible scam
--started doing weight watchers alongside my sister
--got a promotion at work
--got a dog!
--joined a gym, started enjoying exercise for the first time in my life
--finally got Liam officially immigrated
--were able to move out of the house at the end of our lease, into a lovely townhouse, which is where we ended the decade
--By December 2009 I'd lost 55 pounds
See? Happy ending.