Tagged!

I hate my fucking POS computer. Let's start with that. I have been tagged by You*Name*It (BASTARD) to do the following survey (which I almost had finished before my incredibly stupid POS computer decided to lock up on me. "Laugh it up, Fuzzball." Goddamn PCs!!!!

Ten years ago:

*sigh* Deja vu...1995? I was working at the U, going to the bar and dancing four nights a week (Tuesdays - super busy, no cover, dollar drinks, video appreciation night; Wednesdays - my therapist appt was on that side of town, so I'd go to my appt., then dinner with my friend Ken and then back to the bar for a night of dancing with nearly nobody on the dance floor - HEAVEN; Fridays and Saturdays - Basic bar night), unless that's the year I worked Friday nights at the bar. I was the cover girl. I took your $3 and occasionally played tough bouncer and checked IDs.
That's also the year the U got the Internet for all employees and I found the Auto Racing Chat (ARC) at espn.com and met people who are still some of my best friends today. I also worked for the TV crew that year at the Detroit Grand Prix (thanks to the ARC) as a spotter for the television broadcast. I was literally the width of a concrete barrier from the race cars going full speed. That's totally orgasmic to a race geek such as myself.

Five years ago:

I had just moved back from SF (May), started working for my present company, and almost to the day (of today) I woke up with pain in my neck, going down my right arm through my elbow and into my hand and thumb. For a month, while my brand-new doctor worked to find the problem, I sat at my desk at my new job and cried. She finally got me an MRI which showed that I had a herniated disc in my neck. My doctor said, "It's touching your spinal cord." Yup, I freaked out on that one. I kept my cool with the doctor and took down the phone number of the neurosurgeon she wanted me to call the next day to get an appt. "ASAP." This was 9:30 p.m. on a Thursday. I called my dear friend Paula in a complete panic and since she's so sensible, she calmed me down so that I was able to talk to my Mom when she called from CA to see how the MRI had gone, otherwise Mom would have freaked. It was Labor Day weekend, but I was able to get an appt. to see the neurosurgeon on Tuesday. I had a pain management appt. Wednesday morning which I cried through, saw my doctor Wednesday afternoon where she agreed that surgery, not "pain management" (aka needles injected into your spine) was the way to go. I scheduled my surgery for the next available date - my mother's birthday. I woke up in post-op sans pain for the first time in damn near two months.

One year ago:

I started my on-line diary because I had just found out that a dear friend had been given a week to live. I need somewhere to vent. The next day another friend and I drove to his town with plans to see him first thing in the morning. That morning as we got ready to drive the 5 minutes to his house we got a phone call from Paula to tell us that my dear Jess had left us. It still breaks my heart that I was five minutes from him and he couldn't wait for me to tell him I loved him and good-bye. YS thinks he didn't want me to see him in that condition. The friend and I made the trip anyway to see his wife (also our friend) and to offer our support. We went on to the race, but stopped back on our way home to attend his funeral and represent all of our friends who could not be there. To this day, I miss him and the homemade computer cards he'd send me. When I had my neck surgery, Jess and Wife sent me cards damn near every day.

Yesterday:

Went to work, put make-up on at work because it was too bloody hot to do it at home, worked out (one hour on the treadmill, one hour on the elliptical), finally finished watching the Tour de France tape from Sunday, wrote two long-ass e-mails, and posted boring crap at my blog/diary.

Today:

Went to work, wrote another long-ass e-mail, went to workout but couldn't because my asthma was totally acting up and I couldn't breathe at all. Went to Target to find the special DVD I've been looking for, went to Merchants to see if they had a Norwegian beer that You*Name*It had recommended (they hadn't), bought a single bottle of an IPA (yummy) and a twelve pack of Guinness in cans (even with the new bottles with widget, I prefer the cans).

Tomorrow:

Work, write yet another long-ass e-mail (at least I better! *threat*), workout (will take inhaler with me tomorrow, just in case), go to dinner with a dear friend whom I know from SF but does work in Detroit. We were supposed to go tonight (Wednesday) but he couldn't get a flight out. I will be meeting him at my favorite restaurant at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow, unless he gets shanghaied by the Hip-Hop Mayor. I already don't like the mayor, so he shouldn't push his luck.

Five snacks I enjoy:

1) Grape tomatoes
2) Guernsey's Mother Lode and Creme de Novi Ice Creams
3) Cheetoh's Crunchy (Salsa or Jalapeno - a type you can only get in Mexico - bastards)
4) Guinness (I'm pretty sure this is considered a snack).
5) Caramel Corn

Five bands where I know the lyrics to most of their songs:

1. The Smiths
2. Joy Division
3. The The
4. Jeff Buckley
5. Barenaked Ladies

Five things I would do with $100,000,000.00:

1) Buy my Mom a house/condo that is not a complete POS like her present condo. I'd make sure it had a garage, too. More family stuff: Pay off OB's house and set up college funds for his kids. Pay off YS's student loans and her beloved truck, Babe. Buy LB a house and since he lives in CA that would cost more than the previous three items. Help out OS somehow and set up college funds for her two kids (but my niece's would be contingent on me seeing her in clothes where I don't have to see her stomach).
2) Buy myself a Mini Cooper S with all the fixin's.
3) Travel to every race on the Champ Car circuit for one year, and take my racing friend with me.
4) Support all of my favorite charities.
5) Establish/endow a scholarship in Social Sciences (Econ, Hist, PolSci) at the University from whence I graduated and where I worked for ten years.

Five locations I'd like to run away to:

1. Spain
2. Sweden
3. France (in July during the Tour de France)
4. Grand Cayman where I could swim with the Sting Rays whenever I wanted!
5. Mexico!

Five things I like doing:

1. Reading
2. Lying (laying?) on a beach in Mexico in the middle of March while Michigan is gripped in the grasp a shitty-ass winter
3. Traveling to Champ Car races
4. Going for drinks on Thursday nights with my friend Martha!
5. Going to Tigers and Red Wings games with my friend, Glen

Five things I'd never wear:

Clarity said she'd never wear bright orange. And up until last year I would have totally agreed with her. But then Champ Car had to go and change their colors from red/white/blue *gag* to orange and black. I have never seen so much orange in a wardrobe before and now mine has tons of orange in it. I'm such a racing geek!

1. Capris - they look so cute on other people, but I feel completely ridiculous in them.
2. Khakis (see above)
3. Your basic strand of strung pearls
4. Pink
Shit, I totally can't remember what I put down the first time around....
5. A wig.

Five TV shows I like: If these were supposed to be current shows, well, tough shit, they're not since I don't watch anything current, at least not on Network TV.

1. M*A*S*H
2. The Pretender
3. Highlander: The Series (*sigh* Peter Wingfield *double sigh*)
4. MacGyver
5. Cold Case Files on A&E (Woohoo! A current show!)

Five famous people I'd really like to meet: Do they have to be alive?

1. Ayrton Senna
2. Ian Curtis I have the pic on the right painted on to my jean jacket. Or at least something very close.
3. Kevin Kalkhoven to thank him for saving Champ Car.
4. My Igor

Five biggest joys at the moment:

1. Boris and Igor
2. The temperature being tolerable enough that I was able to sleep last night (and can sit in my computer room today).
3. My friends
4. Guinness
5. Reading

Five favorite 'toys': Toys? I don't really have toys anymore, not even really the electronic kind.

1. Books
2. My German made markers
3. Boris and Igor
4. My yarn and knitting needles
5. My CDs and DVDs

Bloody hell...that was bad enough the first time, but to have to re-create it??? EXCRUCIATING!!!!