(no subject)
Ten years ago today, it was 1996. Take this survey, post the results, and see how many things have changed since then.
1) How old were you?
Then: Twelve. Lord, I was a baby.
Now: Aged twenty-two. Although I forget sometimes whether I'm 22 or 23. Not sure why, but 22 doesn't stick properly in my head.
2) Where did you work?
Then: I didn't have a job that year, but the next year I started working at Kaz Gym in the day care room.
Now: AIG Insurance, yo.
3) Where did you live?
Then: Auburn
Now: New York
4) How was your hair style?
Then: Just starting to grow out from my pre-public school bowl-cut. I was a tomboy in my younger days, plus I was swimming competitively. So I had a short-short haircut when I was 11, even shaved up the back of my neck. In the middle of 7th grade, once I'd realized how everyone thought I was a boy, I started growing my hair out. So in 8th grade I had a chin-length bob with bangs and I was trying to figure out how to make it all either flip in or out at the same time. (Something that I have not, to this day, accomplished.)
Now: I'm again in the growing-out stage of a short cut, albeit one which did not make me look masculine. My sideswept bangs are edging toward being less bangs and more long layers, and I'm due for a haircut to even everything up.
5) Did you wear contacts?
Then: No, I didn't need any correction yet.
Now: I still don't have contacts, but I've been wearing glasses since just before I started college.
6) Did you wear glasses?
Then: See above.
Now: See above re: getting glasses about five years ago.
7) Who was your best friend?
Then: Min-Jye and Holly were my best friends.
Now: Jennifer (who I met later that year) is my bestest, plus some great girls from college.
8) Which of your pets were still alive?
Then: Jonquil, our tabby cat, was still alive; she died when I was 14. I still have dreams about her occasionally.
Now: I don't have any pets, unless you can count the baby mouse who visits me occasionally from under the radiator.
9) Who was your boyfriend/girlfriend?
Then: Hah. Nonexistent.
Now: Hmmm. Not much has changed.
11) Who was your celebrity crush?
Then: Paul Newman (in The Sting)
Now: Johnny Depp, Edward Norton
12) Who was your regular-person crush?
Then: This boy Brian who sat next to me in English. And this other boy Chris who sat behind Brian. I was polyandrous from a young age.
Now: There are a couple of attractive and amusing boys at the office, but no one I have a true crush-crush on.
13) How many piercings did you have?
Then: My parents allowed me to pierce my ears just before 7th grade started, in an effort to make me look more like a girl. (It didn't work.)
Now: Just the ears, so far. I don't think I'd like the look of piercings on my face, and to poke holes in any of the other popular spots of the body just grosses me out.
14) How many tattoos did you have?
Then: None
Now: One, which I hope I won't end up regretting.
15) What was your favorite band/singer?
Then: I was on a Celine Dion kick at that time.
Now: Rachael Yamagata, Susie Suh, Beth Hart, KT Tunstall, Joss Stone, John Legend, Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas, Charlotte Martin, Imogen Heap, etc. I've broadened out a bit.
16) Had you smoked a cigarette?
Then: Blech
Now: See above
17) Had you gotten drunk?
Then: Not hardly. I had just learned about my family history of alcoholism.
Now: Still haven't gotten crazy-ass-drunk, but I've had some entertaining times.
18) What kind of Car did you drive?
Then: My dad would drop me off at the junior high school in his 1970 Spitfire convertible, which was so old that the passenger side door was rusted shut, so I'd have to jump out over it. This was at the time in every person's life when anything that brought extra attention to you was a horrific, terrible thing. And the junior high school didn't allow us to go inside the building until just before classes started, so *everyone* saw this funky little car dump me out. I hated it.
Now: I take taxis or the subway. My beetle is back in Auburn, being looked after by my mother.
19) Looking back, are you where you thought you would be in 2006?: I was pretty solidly convinced back then that I would be a Writer, with a capital W. I wrote short stories and poems and they were (with no false egotism) really damned good for a 13-year-old. However, as I got older I think I failed to progress in my creative writing skills, so that when it came time to pick a career, I realized I couldn't make it as a Writer. Besides, I had discovered by that point that although my parents had in my younger days encouraged my communications skills (to the detriment of my interest in anything mathematical), I was pretty darned good at playing with numbers, too. So, no. I had no idea back then that I would move to NYC and work at an Insurance company.
1) How old were you?
Then: Twelve. Lord, I was a baby.
Now: Aged twenty-two. Although I forget sometimes whether I'm 22 or 23. Not sure why, but 22 doesn't stick properly in my head.
2) Where did you work?
Then: I didn't have a job that year, but the next year I started working at Kaz Gym in the day care room.
Now: AIG Insurance, yo.
3) Where did you live?
Then: Auburn
Now: New York
4) How was your hair style?
Then: Just starting to grow out from my pre-public school bowl-cut. I was a tomboy in my younger days, plus I was swimming competitively. So I had a short-short haircut when I was 11, even shaved up the back of my neck. In the middle of 7th grade, once I'd realized how everyone thought I was a boy, I started growing my hair out. So in 8th grade I had a chin-length bob with bangs and I was trying to figure out how to make it all either flip in or out at the same time. (Something that I have not, to this day, accomplished.)
Now: I'm again in the growing-out stage of a short cut, albeit one which did not make me look masculine. My sideswept bangs are edging toward being less bangs and more long layers, and I'm due for a haircut to even everything up.
5) Did you wear contacts?
Then: No, I didn't need any correction yet.
Now: I still don't have contacts, but I've been wearing glasses since just before I started college.
6) Did you wear glasses?
Then: See above.
Now: See above re: getting glasses about five years ago.
7) Who was your best friend?
Then: Min-Jye and Holly were my best friends.
Now: Jennifer (who I met later that year) is my bestest, plus some great girls from college.
8) Which of your pets were still alive?
Then: Jonquil, our tabby cat, was still alive; she died when I was 14. I still have dreams about her occasionally.
Now: I don't have any pets, unless you can count the baby mouse who visits me occasionally from under the radiator.
9) Who was your boyfriend/girlfriend?
Then: Hah. Nonexistent.
Now: Hmmm. Not much has changed.
11) Who was your celebrity crush?
Then: Paul Newman (in The Sting)
Now: Johnny Depp, Edward Norton
12) Who was your regular-person crush?
Then: This boy Brian who sat next to me in English. And this other boy Chris who sat behind Brian. I was polyandrous from a young age.
Now: There are a couple of attractive and amusing boys at the office, but no one I have a true crush-crush on.
13) How many piercings did you have?
Then: My parents allowed me to pierce my ears just before 7th grade started, in an effort to make me look more like a girl. (It didn't work.)
Now: Just the ears, so far. I don't think I'd like the look of piercings on my face, and to poke holes in any of the other popular spots of the body just grosses me out.
14) How many tattoos did you have?
Then: None
Now: One, which I hope I won't end up regretting.
15) What was your favorite band/singer?
Then: I was on a Celine Dion kick at that time.
Now: Rachael Yamagata, Susie Suh, Beth Hart, KT Tunstall, Joss Stone, John Legend, Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas, Charlotte Martin, Imogen Heap, etc. I've broadened out a bit.
16) Had you smoked a cigarette?
Then: Blech
Now: See above
17) Had you gotten drunk?
Then: Not hardly. I had just learned about my family history of alcoholism.
Now: Still haven't gotten crazy-ass-drunk, but I've had some entertaining times.
18) What kind of Car did you drive?
Then: My dad would drop me off at the junior high school in his 1970 Spitfire convertible, which was so old that the passenger side door was rusted shut, so I'd have to jump out over it. This was at the time in every person's life when anything that brought extra attention to you was a horrific, terrible thing. And the junior high school didn't allow us to go inside the building until just before classes started, so *everyone* saw this funky little car dump me out. I hated it.
Now: I take taxis or the subway. My beetle is back in Auburn, being looked after by my mother.
19) Looking back, are you where you thought you would be in 2006?: I was pretty solidly convinced back then that I would be a Writer, with a capital W. I wrote short stories and poems and they were (with no false egotism) really damned good for a 13-year-old. However, as I got older I think I failed to progress in my creative writing skills, so that when it came time to pick a career, I realized I couldn't make it as a Writer. Besides, I had discovered by that point that although my parents had in my younger days encouraged my communications skills (to the detriment of my interest in anything mathematical), I was pretty darned good at playing with numbers, too. So, no. I had no idea back then that I would move to NYC and work at an Insurance company.