Tagged

I think they call this a meme. When I first ventured into the world of blogs I thought it was called a Me-Me, like "it's all about me." Actually it's more of a thought chain-letter very popular in the blogosphere (a word I have a love-hate relationship with).

I was tagged by Jocelyn:

10 Years Ago Today:

I was living in an apartment two blocks from the duplex I live in now. My brother Jason was my roommate. My friend Lina saw an ad in the paper saying there were openings for police dispatchers. I was dubious about my qualifications, having worked at the hotel for 8 years as a telephone operator, but part of my job did include “dispatching” hotel security, engineers, janitors, and banquet equipment staff as well as monitoring fire alarms and responding to emergencies. I could type pretty fast. I was sure Lina would get the job and I would not. I turned out that I was exactly wrong.

Five Years Ago:

I was still living in my apartment, alone after Jason moved to Portland to find fortune and fame. Staffing at the police department had crested and was about to plummet. I was working a certain amount of overtime - some voluntary, some involuntary, but the worst was yet to come. We were still on eight hour shifts but soon I was to work three to four of those days as 12 hour days, mostly involuntary (or voluntary if you consider volunteering coming in early to work 11am to 11pm rather than surely being ordered to work 3pm to 3am if I did not). I had visited Terri in England the year before and was planning to be doing it again the next March to go to Ireland. I was listening to a lot of English Pop / Techno music, eating a lot of Malteasers, and drinking gallons of PG Tips and Typhoo tea.

1 Year Ago:

Sugar Baby was sick with HGE and we were shuttling her to and from the animal hospital hoping she did not die. She didn't.

Yesterday:

Saw “Must Love Dogs” with Kelli and we did our normal Wednesday “Eric and Kelli Day” errands. Wednesdays are the only day off we get together so we usually spend a lot of them in appointments but always together in some way.

Tomorrow:

Laundry, working on the dispatch newsletter (which must be done by Sunday), trying to clean up my computer room, finishing the unabridged audiobook “The Shining” by Stephen King. Steve-o is my favorite author. Underrated because of his genre and his enormous sales, he still writes the best characters out there. Yes, sometimes his endings are kind of deus ex machine, but I love the books still.

The numbered things are in no particular order --

5 Snacks I Enjoy:

1. Candy!
2. Pie!
3. pepperjack cheese
4. Baked Lays and clam dip
5. did I mention candy? How about dark chocolate!

5 Bands That I Know the Lyrics to Most of Their Songs:

1. Thin Lizzy
2. the Doors
3. Travis (well, that first albumum at least)
4. White Stripes
5. the Jimi Hendrix Experience


5 Things I Would Do with $100,000,000:

1. Pay off debt – credit card balances, Kelli’s Ford Ex-cape
2. Buy a house – I’d need every freakin’ dime of it these days
3. Save – Put a big bunch in a fund for our kids or dogs or just us someday
4. Travel – Ireland, Paris, Alabama and the surrounding states, Hawaii
5. Write – with $100M I could get some writing done. Maybe. Maybe not.

5 Locations I Would Like to Run Away to:

1. Ireland
2. Paris
3. Hawaii
4. Australia
5. My computer room

5 Bad Habits I Have:

1. Everything to do with food
2. Not paying small bills on time, even though I have the money
3. Speaking before thinking
4. Not keeping up with my friends
5. Procrastination.. it should have been first but I couldn’t get around to it.

5 Things I Like Doing:

1. Listening to Audiobooks
2. Blogging and reading Personal Diary-type blogs
3. Laying on the couch watching bad movies
4. Watching bad movies in the theater
5. Singing in the car (alone, very poorly)

5 Things I Would Never Wear:

This is a girl-type question, if I can be so piggy, and I don’t have an answer. Five years ago I might have said “anything with any color other than black, white, and gray.” Today all bets are off. Yet here we go:

1. Fur, not on principle just on sheer goofy factor
2. Spandex
3. A big clock worn as a necklace
4. Earrings / Nose rings / Non-naughty piercings
5. Naughty piercings

5 TV Shows I Like:

1. ER
2. The Sopranos
3. The Shield
4. The Daily Show
5. Grey’s Anatomy

5 Movies I Like:

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Fight Club
3. Documentaries (well, certain documentaries)
4. Memento
5. Movies which make me think for days about them

5 Famous People I Would Like to Meet (off the top of my head):

1. Jon Stewart
2. Keith Olbermann
3. Henry Rollins
4. Stephen King
5. Sarah Vowell

5 Biggest Joys at the Moment:

1. Kelli, Kelli, Kelli, Kelli, Kelli, K E L L I
2. Writing things people occasionally like
3. Music
4. Saying very inappropriate things without dire consequences
5. I like to, um, help people.

5 Favorite Toys:

1. My Brian Dube juggling clubs
2. Skeleton paraphernalia
3. My Creative MuVo (for audio books)
4. Midnight Club II and other silly computer racing games
5. My Dremel Tool (grrrrr, ruff ruff).

5 Favorite Toys I Want! (Jocelyn added this)

1. A Creative Zen 5Gig (in black)
2. A killer PDA – Tungsten E3 or some iPaq
3. A notebook computer
4. A good racing wheel for my computer (ha! I might as well wear a helmet too)
5. a Mini Cooper (if’n I’m gonna dream, dream big.. er, or small but expensive)

The point is for the tagged individual to post their answers on their blog and tag other people if they so choose, much like a very friendly chain-letter. Although Sally from Fargo, North Dakota, failed to post her meme after being tagged and she died. Poor Sally.

I'm tagging the following folks:

1. Pete
2. Lindsey
3. Rhoda (although she's probably already answered these questions before)

~~~
One more topic:

Things in New Orleans seem, from news accounts, to be as close to Hell as we'll hopefully ever see in the USA. I have no words that are adequate except these: If you have anything extra, give a little to help out. If we all give a little, together we can make a big difference. -- E