I'm It

I was tagged! And, because I am purely reactionary, here go my answers:

10 years ago... I was fourteen years old, living in Las Vegas, and had just completed my sophomore year of high school. I was just entering the rebellious phase of my life, hanging out with an older crowd, and dating a much older man. I swam almost everyday in our pool, escaping the hundred-degree desert heat by slipping into cool water. I was a sprinter on the track team, my best friend was a girl named Jennifer, and I thought I knew everything.

5 years ago... I was still fairly new to the East Coast, and splitting my time between Milford and West Point, New York. I was dating my future fiancée, David, and taking accelerated night classes at The United States Military Academy. Back then, I was employed at a different in Milford and working six days a week as a teller. I still lived at home, but was aware that I was going to be married in just over a year. I spent most of my free time with David, going to his military functions and spending time with his friends. I was purely content at that time in my life.

1 year ago... I was experiencing my second year of living on my own, and still figuring out the nuances of independence. My godson was only four months old, and I was still telling the story, over and over again, about how my best friend had allowed me to witness his birth. At that point, I was trying, for the third time, to make my relationship with Tom work, and it was going steadily downhill. I had been in my current position for three years, and I was miserable there. A new supervisor had been hired and she and I butted heads - When she wasn't purposefully not speaking to me, she was going out of her way to make my life miserable. Although she was not actually my boss (she works on the residential side of the bank, and I work on the commercial side) she exploited the gray area of my position (that requires me to split my time between two departments) and bogged me down with unnecessary tasks. My situation at work had escalated to the point where no one but my boss spoke to me. Aside from work, though, I was generally happy.

Yesterday... I woke up early and went to the gym for the sixth time this week. I went to lunch with my best friend, then shopping with my mother. Around 10, I went out to celebrate the fifth wedding anniversary with Pollo & Chuck. We had drinks at a local bar then hopped on the interstate and went to the city of Newburgh. We paid an outrageous cover charge to enter a bar/restaurant/club hoping to dance, only to discover that the establishment, while beautiful, was more of a place to see and be seen than a place to dance. We stayed for a few hours, but drove home, disappointed and insanely sober, around two this morning. Not ready to go to sleep, I attempted to watch "Closer" on my laptop, but had trouble with it freezing up on me. I went to sleep around four this morning.

Today... I woke up late (almost one in the afternoon!), ate breakfast, then got myself gussied up to shop. I looked for a new pair of shoes, then - on a whim - decided to grocery shop instead. It was a bad decision. Not because I wasn't in the mood to grocery shop (I love to go grocery shopping...) but because my wardrobe was inappropriate: I wore a tube top, and every time I bent over or reached up to grab something, I was in danger of flashing all of Shop Right my bosom. But I kept shopping, while constantly adjusting my top, and came home ($75.00 later...) and unloaded my groceries. I watched a little bit of bad television, and now I'm writing this. Later tonight, I will fulfill my weekly obligation to my second job by transcribing the minutes of our last meeting.

Tomorrow... If I can muster the ambition, I will wake up early, go to the gym, then head to work. I'll have a loan closing early in the day, and that will make my Monday fly by - Hopefully. If, however, I was unable to drag myself from my comfortable bed in the morning, I will go to the gym after work. Then I will come home, do my laundry and cook myself some dinner, crawl into bed and go about my daily blog-reading. I will probably do that until I realize that it's after midnight, at which point I will curse myself for not paying attention to the time, turn off my computer, and go to sleep knowing that I have to be up by 6:30 am to get to my class at the gym on time.

5 snacks I enjoy... Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey, crunchy vegetables & dip, Wheat Thins, Pringles, and Mounds.

5 songs I know all the words to... I'm not kidding when I say this: I know the words to almost every song on the radio (not limited to a certain station; It could be an '80s station, a classic rock station, a pop station, an easy listening station, a hip-hop/rap/R&B station, an oldies station...) and every word to every song on every CD I own. So to limit it to five is pretty difficult. But here goes: Third Eye Blind, "Semi-Charmed Life," Barenaked Ladies "One Week," Otis Redding, "Try a Little Tenderness," Ray Charles, "Makin' Whoopee," Rage Against the Machine, "People of the Sun."

5 reality television shows I watch... Kept, Stripsearch, American Idol, The Real World (and all spinoffs), Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (does that qualify as a reality show?).

5 television shows I watch daily... I don't watch any TV show daily, but there are a few I watch Weekly: Reno 911, Desperate Housewives (it's on hiatus now...), Sex in the City reruns on TBS, Chappelle's Show, Best Week Ever.

5 things I would do with $100,000,000... I would payoff my family's houses and cars, I would buy a new car for my little brother, I would buy the house I'm living in now, I would donate some to help out the troops and their families, and I would free myself of debt.

5 locations I would love to run away to... Las Vegas, The Former Yugoslavia, Paris, England, or a tropical island (doesn't really matter which one).

5 things I like doing... I love to read. I love to write. I love to listen to music. I love to dance. I love to spend time with my friends...There's not enough space on this list for the things I love to do!

5 things I would never wear... Legwarmers. Plaid pants. A kangol hat (that was for you, Alex!). Flat shoes (I suppose it's a stretch to say "never," because one cannot work out in high heels, but I will say that any time I am not working out, I am wearing high heels, and I see no end in sight to my long-standing love affair with stilettos). A sweater/sweatshirt with a puffy-painted/embroidered holiday scene or animal on the front.

5 recently seen movies I like... Like Kate, all of these became new to me recently: The Notebook. Finding Neverland. The Butterfly Effect. Napoleon Dynamite. And I think that's it. But I have a feeling that I'll like "Closer," too, just as soon as I can watch it all the way through.

5 famous people I'd like to meet... Dane Cook (because I think he's dreamy), Jonny Lang (because his music moves me), Tori Amos (because she's a goddess), Wally Lamb (because he's my favorite fiction writer), David Sedaris (because he's my favorite humorist).

5 biggest joys of the moment... I have to copy Kate for my first one: My newest pair of jeans. My new striped strapless dress. My Sirius Satellite Radio. The song "Touch," by Amerie. My Palm Pilot.

5 people to tag... Hmmmm....Pollo, Tumbleweed, The Zombieslayer, Jason, and Shawn.