March 08, 2006
Meme
1. Who was your first prom date?
Sadly, I didn’t go to prom. No one asked me and I was brought up believing girls didn’t ask out boys, even though there were probably a least a few Klein Oak guys I worked with at Randall’s who would’ve gone with me. Instead Teri and I drove to downtown Houston and acted-to-cool-for-prom at a little coffee shop called Brazil. Then, on the way home, her Ford Festiva broke down on I-45 and we had to wait at a Whataburger for our friend Bobby* to come get us. (*Bobby wasn’t at prom because he’d transferred to the “Fame” high school, which paid off as he’s now on staff with a little Christian rock band that rhymes with Nars of May.)
2. Who was your first roommate?
Cyndi, who was from St. Joe, MI, home of maligned author James Frey. Sadly, she transferred after one semester to be closer to her high school boyfriend and instead I got this loon who was so drunk one night she peed on the carpet.
3. What was your first alcoholic beverage?
I can’t really talk about it without feeling sick, but Zima. Two other girls, Teri and I decided that we were going to go out and get some booze and so we drove to a gas station in the “country” (just outside of our subdivision) and Teri, who was dressed up in some crazy ‘70s outfit that belonged to someone’s mother, went in and pretended like she forgot her i.d. The clerk said he would sell it to her if she showed him her “American breasts.” We quickly got out of there and went to another gas station where some 20something guy bought us a 6-pack. We each had 1.5 and it actually made me buzzed.
4. What was your first job?
I started babysitting when I was 10 or 11. (My dad told me a few months ago that he actually went and spoke with Teri’s parents about leaving us alone with her five younger siblings. Teri’s response was “Well, together we were like 22!” Ha.) My first fill-this-form-out and here’s-how-you-clock-in job was as a cashier at the grocery chain Randall’s, which in the ‘90s was still independently owned and awesome. It was the cool job to have. Now Randall’s is owned by Safeway and it’s kind of skeezy. Although, they all now have Starbucks in them, so there’s that.
5. What was your first car?
A 1986 Acura Integra – it was awesome and I loved it, even though I had to MANUALLY remove the sunroof. I had that car till I graduated from college and in the six years I owned it I only put 30,000 miles on it. I still see one every once in awhile and I get a little pang of regret for getting rid of it.
6. When did you go to your first funeral?
I can’t remember exactly, but the first one that stands out was the funeral for a girl who lived down the street from me. She was a few years ahead of me in school and one of her younger brothers was in my grade and her youngest brother was a friend of a boy I babysat. She was 15 or 16 and shot herself one night in her bedroom. Her youngest brother and the boy I babysat for were the ones who found her. It was awful and I’ll never forget it.
7. How old were you when you first moved away from your hometown?
18 when my mom and I moved to Ohio.
8. Who was your first grade teacher?
Mrs. Steind0rf – she was a little scary. She switched to third grade when I was in third grade and there were rumors that she once stapled Sc0t Brewer to the wall.
9. Where did you go on your first airplane ride?
When I was less than two months old and my dad flew all of us to Ohio to visit family. My eldest aunt likes to talk about that trip, because they made a “crib” for me out of a dresser drawer.
10. When you snuck out of your house for the first time, who was it with?
I never snuck out of my house – not once.
11. Who was your first Best Friend and are you still friends with them?
Julie N3tzel, who lived across the street from me and became my friend when we were two and three years old. It’s only just now that I know more two year olds that I realize how remarkable that is. When we first met she couldn’t say my name so she just called me He-He. We send Christmas cards and sporadically keep in touch, but I was in her wedding in 1999 and I hope she will be at mine and there are few people in the world who have a piece of my heart like Julie does.
12. Where did you live the first time you moved out of your parents’ house?
When I went to college in 1994 – aside from summers and breaks, I never lived at home again. I think that should be the way of things, but it seems to be an anomaly in our generation to not have lived at home for at least a patch post-college.
13. Who is the first person you call when you have a bad day?
I’m lucky in that I have an entire roster of people I can call. I guess it just depends on what happened!
14. Whose wedding were you in the first time you were a bridesmaid or a groomsman?
I’ve only been a bridesmaid three times (though I’ve been a reader several), and the first was for Teri in 2002. They got married at the gorgeous Holy Name of Jesus at Loyola in New Orleans and it was such an amazing weekend. I wrote about it here and here
15. What is the first thing you do in the morning?
Cry a little because my house is so cold. Shower. Take the dog out. Open the blinds. Bring the dog in. Leave.
16. What was the first concert you attended?
I think it was actually Amy Grant, but it’s so much more hilarious if I say New Kids on the Block – February 1990.
17. First tattoo or piercing!
Only tattoo – thank goodness. A stupid flower that I doodle all the time on the inside of my left ankle that I got in April 1995, so I guess I’m coming up on my 11th tattooaversary.
18. First celebrity crush?
Oh, who knows. Most of my adolescence was filled with crushes but probably Joey McIntyre. I still sort of have a crush on him, actually.
19. First crush?
I am not kidding how early this started for me! In Kindergarten I had a crush on this guy – James. But everyone had a crush on James, so it wasn’t really unusual.
20. First real love?
My college boyfriend – we dated most of my junior year, his sophomore year. One of the greatest women I’ve met since moving to Atlanta is, coincidentally enough, married to one of said boyfriend’s fraternity brothers and he is constantly teasing me about it. They didn’t exactly run in the same circles and I will never live it down. But I did love him, in our own very dysfunctional immature way. I’ve written some about him over the past 5+ years of writing online and falling for him stands out as one of the greatest experiences of my life. It was pure joy and elation figuring out our crushes on each other were reciprocated!
Posted by hannah at 03:53 PM
