twenty

20 Years Ago, I…

…was a freshman at Rosemount High School in lovely Rosemount, Minnesota. I had friends with much the same sense of humor and dedication to bad ideas as I do now, just without the benefit of money, alcohol, or transportation. I was a language nerd. I was hating my job as a cashier at Hardware Hank in Eagan, because girls weren’t allowed to leave the counter and enter into the Man Zone. I had already lived in Minnesota for 3.5 years. Holy crap.

15 years ago, I…

…was a sophomore at the University of Minnesota. Heather and I were dating, and lived in a shitty apartment building in Stevens Square that later burned down twice. We had roaches and a rat in the kitchen, and a dude trying to break in all the damn time. I worked at Ticketmaster, in the printing department. I was having panic attacks regularly. We were broke most of the time, so we managed to rack up an impressive amount of credit card debt. We had some pretty entertaining parties, though.

10 years ago, I…

…wish I could remember, but it all kind of blends together. I was working at the Historic Theatre Group, i.e. the State and Orpheum Theatres. I was probably their network administrator by then, but I started as the assistant to the director of sales, who holds the honor of the craziest fucker I’ve ever worked for. We hung out with work people, and it had kind of a dysfunctional-family feel. I think at that point we were probably living in an apartment on Oak Grove in Loring, but I’m not positive. Chloe was living with us.

5 years ago, I…

…have slightly more of an inkling about, because my calendar goes back that far. Heather and I owned a house in Richfield, Minnesota. I was driving Chico, my Saab. There were two more cats: Cocoa and Chiva. I was webmaster for a company that was called Orion Consulting at the beginning of the year, and SSI Technologies at the end of it, by which time the layoffs had begun. We took roadtrips all over the country.

I was angry a lot.

2 years ago, I…

…lived in my current apartment near Uptown. Heather and I had broken up the previous year, and I moved out in December 2004. We sold the house in May. I was contracting full-time at the current job. I took trips to Washington DC, Winnipeg, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Eastern Europe. I dated a few different boys, none of whom were all that great. I went out almost every single night. I studied Iaido and Arabic and went to a lot of hockey games. I got at least three tattoos. I went to about a million parties and shows. I met many of my current friends.

This was the year that my life achieved its current level of awesome, and every day since has been the best day ever.

1 year ago, I …

…went to the Bahamas, Washington DC, Orlando, Alaska, Chicago, New Mexico, and Denver. I jumped out of an airplane, saw the Dalai Lama in person, had the greatest 5-day birthday party ever, did my second 3 day, went to even more parties and shows, hung out inside a log, saw even more hockey, bought Miguel, and fell completely and madly in love.

So far this year, I’ve…

…been to Las Vegas (with some of my favorite people in the world), on a cruise to Puerto Rico, St Thomas, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas, to Seattle to visit Colleen and Steve, and all over the midwest for shows, festivals, and general ruckus. I got a couple more tattoos, organized what felt like a billion fundraisers, went to more parties, shows, and hockey games, played broomball, took a photography class, organized fightknitting club, camped, participated in my third 3day, and spent a hell of a lot of time being awesome.

Yesterday I…

…slept til 10, ate toast and watched football/soccer, [censored] on the living room floor, showered, went to my apartment to feed the cats and bake a pumpkin cheesecake, went to Michelle and Dustin’s for a BBQ with Cindi’s parents et al, played bocce, had dinner on the patio, sat around laughing til 10pm, watched the Rock of Love reunion (oh my god), watched some dudes getting arrested on Lyndale Avenue, then curled up in bed with the boy I love.

Today I…

…did some real work, played Scrabble with Matt, and went to lunch with Mary and Mary at Kieran’s. After work, I get to go have another ultrasound at Fairview University. Very exciting. I hope to spend the rest of the evening on the couch.

Tomorrow I’ll…

…do some real work, play Scrabble with Matt, go to lunch with my parents at Matty B’s, then there may be a party, but I’m not positive about that yet. Rest assured, however, that I will continue to be awesome.

This was a lot of work! Your turn.

Jenni