The Neon Nurse's Charting

Here's another thing worth reposting I found when going through my old stuff adding tags. It's a meme for snap-shotting your life in specific increments. So of course the one I posted on 12-10-2003 won't work -- I have to rewrite. It has taken a long time, too, because of being buried under cascades of memories every step!

50 (!) years ago -- For being only 4, I have a lot of memories of our house in Kansas City. It was a duplex and our neighbors were good friends with my parents. Their girl Kim, my age, was probably my first best friend. I remember the backyard as HUGE, and I remember how thrilling it was when Dad and Bud put together a swingset for us. At this early age I was already showing signs of a fannish personality, being totally in love with Zorro, Whizzo (local TV clown), and Popeye. Yes, all three at once.

45 years ago -- Kids my age worry about atomic bomb attacks. Last month was the Cuban Missile Crisis. I strongly remember thinking that if we all got killed, it wouldn't matter if I didn't get my stupid 4th grade math homework done.

My fifth and final sibling had been born in February. My family lived on Hoffman Way in Thornton. I walked to school with my friends and was in a Brownie Scout troop. Little did I know that the mostly normal part of my life was almost over.

40 years ago -- I attend Rishel Junior High, and write a little for the school paper, mostly humor filler things like "Did you know Mr. New is really second-hand?" My letter to the Rocky Mountain News TV section protesting the cancellation of Star Trek got published -- my first pro media appearance, I think. Or at least the first thing I wrote, because my picture was in the paper with my sister's cat Patches at the cat show some time before that....

35 years ago -- I'm a newlywed (since August), living in a teeny apartment in Springfield, Missouri, married to the PsychoEx, working at the drop-off desks at the photo processing plant. I spend $5 a week for groceries for the two of us, which includes a pound of hamburger for Hamburger Helper on Sundays.

30 years ago -- Damaris is 4, Sterling is 2. Star Wars came out this year. I liked it. A lot. At the beginning of the year I met the clone via snail mail (we didn't call it that then, of course), thanks to a listing in the Star Trek Welcomittee newsletter. We met in person that summer at the first StarCon in Denver. I had been living and working on a greyhound farm in Missouri, but I moved back to Denver at the end of the summer. So at this time the kids and I were either living with my folks or in our tiny wee apartment in Capitol Hill.

25 years ago -- The kids and I now live in Lamar (with the clone) in another teensy place, with a completely insane landlady. It's cheap, though. I work at NEOPLAN, the bus manufacturer, installing electrical lines, and also writing the company newsletter.

20 years ago -- Look, you can see our house from here! We bought it three years ago (in 1984) and we still live in it today. We have a third child now, Kenny, technically a permanent foster care placement, but in reality, a Fan/GamerBoy who found his peeps. (He's an engineer now!)

NextGen Trek debuted this year. I tried real hard to like it, but I just couldn't.

15 years ago -- That Mr. Mike guy I often write about is 9 months old. Things look sort of stalled out in the legal wrangling about his eventual placement, plus various agencies are testing him and shaking their heads dubiously. So I am looking into adopting him. How hard can it be, right?

This summer, at tae kwon do camp, I managed a rare and semi-spectacular dislocation of my collarbone, showing off with a running/jumping forward roll. This will mean another delay of my black belt testing. *sigh*

10 years ago -- I am now a grandma, thanks to favorite grandson Zach. Until last year I was a nurse at our local hospital, but I came down with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, so that was that. Sterling and his fiancee Beth are busy with wedding plans for New Years Eve.

Thanks to a good friend giving us her old computer, I have been using it (for about a year and a half) to connect to this cool place called Delphi, and also a thing called Usenet. It's amazing!

There's a new show on TV that the clone likes, something weird about a high school girl who kills vampires. She hasn't talked me into trying it yet. I'm sure it's not at all the kind of thing I would like.

5 years ago -- I will now admit I have been helping myself out a little on some of these entries by doing research online. There are some gaps, though, so I'm not doing too well for 2002. I did find out that this is my 5th anniversary for starting NeonHearts.com as my independent online bookshop!

Uh...Mike is 10, and I have four grandkids.

1 year ago -- Between the last yearmark and this one, I have gotten WAY into politics. Here in Colorado we are a mile (or more) high over the results of the 2006 elections, where the Dems now control the state House, Senate and governorship for the first time since JFK was in office.

I also started reposting a long fic I fully intended to re-commence writing. Which I will. Some day. RealSoonNow....

1 month ago -- It's almost my birthday. I got a new dog (Smiley McFriendlypants) and we are hoping the Rockies win the World Series. Oh, well, maybe the DOG will work out....

1 week ago -- Mike is home from school not feeling well. I decide to make hot and sour soup, which starts me on the search of my LJ archives, which leads to this thing I'm typing now!

Yesterday -- I post of my desire for Diamond Balloon Fire Clock Milk. Other than that, an ordinary day of computer time, packing and mailing books, and grocery shopping. Oh, and I got my flu shot and volunteer packet for the vaccination marathon exercise Saturday.

Today -- Puttering around the house, writing this, getting all covered in nostalgia.

Tomorrow -- Getting up at 6am (*snarl*) to go be a volunteer at the disaster practice vaccination exercise.

Five places I've lived -- Denver, Lamar, and Pueblo, Colorado; Kansas City (born) and Springfield, Missouri (this is the same as last time)

I am going to save the other two parts of the meme for later, but in case you want to do them, they are "My top five biggest worries at the moment" and "The top five things I am looking forward to in 2008"

You should try this, it's fun!