The Meme of a Lifetime -- Half, Anyway

Mon., July 25, 10:44 AM

For two weeks or more, I’ve been writing out my grumbles and systematically deleting them. This stuff is so dull it bores even me, even though it distracts me from doing anything else. I need a jump start, and sometimes a meme will do the trick.

This set of questions has surfaced on several journals, and it intrigues me partly because I used to do this on my own years ago – before I had a life. Ahem.

Everyone else’s begins with twenty years ago, but I’m including thirty years ago because it was, in its way, significant.

30 years ago I...

  1. had been married for a little more than six years.
  2. had a five-year-old, a four-year-old, and a two-and-a-half-year-old
  3. wondered if I would every get out of this rut.

20 years ago I…

  1. had left my long-term job at Red Cross Blood Services.
  2. had begun working for the people who would provide me with the most satisfying decade in terms of my career.
  3. had regained my confidence.

10 years ago I...

  1. redefined myself as the wife of a retiree (or was that a sixty-seven-year-old child?)
  2. discovered the truth about job-hunting when you’re “a certain age.”
  3. started working for the agency that still pays me today.

5 years ago I...

  1. traveled to California with my Son, who shepherded me all over, saw that I got to see my aged aunts, and paid for everything.
  2. was learning to live with diabetes.
  3. had a title that was the closest I ever got to being a librarian – I was administrator of the Contracts Library.

3 years ago I...

  1. was once again working with Bosslawyer.
  2. was writing as I hadn’t written in years. (I went back to find out just what I was doing then.)
  3. traveled to Florida – my last real trip anywhere – in the company of an enfeebled Husband and my Son, without whom we couldn’t have done it.

1 year ago I...

  1. had a lumpectomy, five-plus months of chemotherapy, and seven weeks of radiation.
  2. dealt with Husband’s neglect of himself until he needed emergency medical service, intensive care, and six weeks of hospitalization.
  3. moved my journal off D’land.

So far this year I...

  1. took care of a cranky old man who says he’s not sick, doesn’t need meds, etc., etc., etc.
  2. turned sixty-five myself and went on Medicare.
  3. began trying to talk Bosslawyer into looking for a new secretary.

Yesterday I…

  1. sent some items to Miss Neighbor at the convalescent home. (U.D. has been bringing her mail.)
  2. took a hot shower and some Tylenol, trying to soothe these aching muscles.
  3. managed to get to the halfway point of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Today I will...

  1. go to the bank.
  2. take out the trash.
  3. determine whether I can walk in the store a little.

Tomorrow I will...

  1. go into the office while Bosslawyer is on vacation and check the mail, the phones, and the e-mail. Stay there awhile and wait for him to call in.
  2. finish up with the guy who is fixing my roof.
  3. pick up my prescriptions from the pharmacy.

In the next year I will...

  1. have a realtor look at my house.
  2. investigate the senior citizens housing here, with an intent of accompanying Husband into a facility that will take some of the heavier tasks off me.
  3. RETIRE, dammit!

Oh, yeah, somewhere in there I acquired a Son-in-Law and interest in a condo; I think it happened while I wasn’t paying attention. This may be the least exciting response, but remember, there’s always something to look forward to.



<< Previous | comments (7) | Next >>