Reflections

25 years ago:
* I was devestated to learn that I could not, under any circumstances, enter Kindergarten, even if I did know how to read.

* Summers were spent at grandma and grandpa's. Dad was building a new house - and I spent evenings at the new house with him while he worked. I drew pictures. One of them is actually still hanging in the basement - behind the drywall. Don't ask me how that happened.

20 years ago:
* I was getting ready to have my largest birthday party on record - both Garfield and I were celebrating our 10th birthdays, and so I carefully half-drew, half-traced my invitations with Garfield on them. My mother lovingly put up with thirty kids at our house for that one.

* I had entered the fifth grade - my teacher was the "scary" one, but I grew to have incredibly fond memories of the fifth grade. As the upperclassmen, we were feeling very old - if only we knew!

15 years ago:
* I entered my sophomore year of high school. Then I was really grown up. If only I knew!

* I had recovered from my first surgery - and, as it turns out, the only one without complications.

* I met three of my four high school best friends. Kari Ann and I shared a locker, which meant I became intimately familiar with "Birth Control Salad" (a salad so smelly no one would want to get close to you after consuming it). She can attest to me having a penchant for odd foods from the start ... as I liked her parents' cooking better than she did.

* I took my first trip to the Pacific Northwest. Little did I realize I'd return there on a semi-regular basis as an adult to visit in-laws. That is when I realized how much of great summer fun we missed out on by living in a land-locked state.

* I won my first debate tournament - completely, I'm convinced, by accident.

10 years ago:
* I had moved to DC and was embarking on the best year of my life - living with 5-22 other college-aged youth, making new friends and absorbing every odd-ball fact about DC.

5 years ago:
* I was travelling cross-country several times a month to talk about Internet advertising with motorcycle and ATV dealers and manufacturers.

* I was married and living in my spacious 1-bedroom apartment 9 miles from the beach.

* We made frequent trips up the Eastern Shore to get Grover. I have seen every square inch of Delaware. I made frequent use of the 24-hour round-trip toll discount on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. I never got over my fear of driving/riding on/in the bay bridge tunnel.

1 year ago:
* I was *thisclose* go giving birth to Woodstock - or so I thought. It would actually be another three weeks.

* I loved my new job at The Factory, after two layoffs.

* We had just moved back to The Frontier from DC.

This year:
* I am planning Woodstock's first birthday party. No Garfield this year, it's Dr. Seuss instead.

* Himself and I have different jobs than we did this time last year.

* We moved. Again. Fifth address in 5 1/2 years.

* I have a guest bedroom for the first time in my adult life - and right now all it has in it is boxes and board games.

Yesterday:
* Woodstock and I shared a dinner of fresh tomatoes, basil and mozarella on whole wheat bread, sprinkled with balsamic vinegar.

* I took Woodstock to Coscto to buy some of the items for her birthday celebration.

* I watched Olympic beach volleyball and some of the women's trampoline event. People jumping up and down just don't thrill me.

Today:
* I cleaned the Master Bathroom

* I took the trash out the curb - narrowly making it before the trash truck came.

* I made blueberry pancakes for Woodstock and I (Himself is out of town until Thursday night for work).

* I wrote a progress brief on our New Orleans campaign for work, sat through a web development progress meeting and started writing scripts for the annual gala.