Time Travel Tuesday: First Job Experience

It's technically Wednesday here but it is still Tuesday in some parts of the country and the world, so I am going to go ahead and participate in Time Travel Tuesday.

My first "real" job experience was the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. I was a file clerk at a local construction company and while I worked with very nice people I was bored out of my mind most of the time and there isn't much to tell about that job.

But I'm not going to talk about that job experience. I want to talk about the job experience that I had the summer after my 7th grade year. I guess that would have made me 13 years old. A family from church that had moved to town about a year and a half before had a little girl named L. who was about two and a half years old. Her mom was working that summer for the company where my mom was working and so I had my first real babysitting job.

I can't remember how many days a week I babysat and I don't remember exactly how much money I made... but it seemed like a lot to a 13 year old. I remember that with the money I made I bought my first CD player and my first CD's. The first CD I bought was the Greatest Hits of the Righteous Brothers. I know... that's not what most 13 year olds would get but I have always loved Oldies.

I think I was a pretty competent babysitter but the summer did not go without incident. That summer I was also taking some enrichment classes at a local college. I don't remember exactly what I was taking... but it was probably something like etiquette or acting or something like that. Well on the mornings when I was taking those classes, my younger brother would watch after L. One day when my mom was bringing me back to the house, my brother came out the front door to meet us and shut the front door behind him... accidentally locking the door.

There was then a confused child inside the house and a freaked out babysitter and her brother outside the house. L. could not unlock their complicated front door lock and so my brother and I had to wait until her mom could get back to the house to unlock the door. Fortunately they had a window in their front door and we could see L. and she could see us. We kept her occupied and it all worked out just fine.... but it was pretty scary.

One way we kept her occupied was by singing the theme song to The Elephant Show. The lyrics were as follows:

Skinnamarinkydinkydink. Skinnamarinkydoo. I - Love - You!
Skinnamarinkydinkydink. Skinnamarinkydoo. I - Love - You!
I love you in the morning and in the afternoon.
I love you in the evening, underneath the moon.
Skinnamarinkydinkydink. Skinnamarinkydoo. I - Love - You!
Skinnamarinkydoo, I - Love - You -- Too!. (Boop, boop, ee-doo)

There were little hand motions to go along with it too. I don't know how many of you ever saw The Elephant Show... but think Barney only with a giant elephant instead of a purple dinosaur and you have the result of a somewhat less annoying tv show. We watched a lot of Elephant Show that summer.

I also got hooked on the soap opera All My Children that summer. I would spend the night with their family sometimes and L.'s mom watched All My Children. This was long after L. had gone to bed but I would watch it with her some nights. This was the days when the characters of Haley and Brian were on All My Children. Who knows what became of the actor who played Brian but Haley was played by Kelly Ripa.

I was also not the greatest cook at the time (who am I kidding I am still not the greatest cook). Anyways, L. and I ate a lot of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese that summer. This still constitutes a well balanced meal in my house and apparently it does for L. as well. She told my mom not long ago that when she got married she was going to have it at her rehearsal dinner. She's not getting married any time soon so she might change her mind between now and then... but I say go for it! :-)

I can't believe that L. is now a Senior in High School. Obviously we both survived the summer and lived to tell about it. It was a great experience for me and L. is still one of my favorite people in the world. I love her to death!

So depending on your definition of a job... that was my first job. For more Time Travel Tuesday participants, visit Annie at My Life as Annie.

Time Travel Tuesday: Vacation Memories

Over at Annie's site we are traveling back to our favorite vacation memories. A lot of others seem to be traveling back to several vacations so I thought I would do the same. Unfortunately I am traveling again this week and so I do not have access to any pictures from any of these vacations. So imagine with me if you can...

*When we were younger my family used to go camping at the beach over Columbus Day weekend. We didn't camp ON the beach but we would camp at the state park near the beach. I still love camping and so I remember that being a lot of fun. The weather in October was cool and I much prefer going to the beach that time of year. We didn't really "rough it" too much... I remember one time taking a lamp, TV and Nintendo. :-)

*When I was growing up my dad had a trip in Washington DC every January. My mom, brother and I went with him twice on these trips and to this day Washington DC is still one of my favorite cities to visit. There is so much to see with all of the museums and historical locations.

*My first plane trip was to New York City the summer of 1996 after my Junior year in high school. I went with a bunch of people from school to see plays and tour all the typical New York sites. We even went to appear on the Today Show. That year we got to see Beauty and the Beast and Moon Over Buffalo (with Carol Burnett). I went back to NYC the next year on the same trip. That year my whole family went and we saw my all time favorite musical Jekyll & Hyde. I know we saw two other shows but at the moment I can't remember what they were.

*Probably my most memorable and favorite vacation was our family trip to Australia in the Spring of 2005. We spent a week in Brisbane where my brother's girlfriend was studying abroad for the semester. During that week we toured a rain forest, visited the Steve Irwin zoo and snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef. During the second week of our trip we flew to Sydney. It is an amazing city with so much to see and do.

*Another favorite vacation is the yearly trip that my dad and I take to Road Atlanta for the American LeMans sports car race in September or October. We camp out for a week and have a great time. I usually come back more relaxed and rested after that trip than anything else I do all year. We started this in 2001 and we try to get over there every fall.

Well thanks for indulging in my trip down memory lane to some of my favorite vacation spots. There are so many more great trips that I could talk about but for now I will spare you. :-)

For more vacation memories, be sure to visit Annie's site.

Time Travel Tuesday: My First Blog Post

Well I did not participate in Time Travel Tuesday last week... I might have to revisit age 18 another day but for this week I am going to get my act together and participate. This week we are supposed to revisit our first blog post. Well for me that really wasn't that long ago... only March 22 of this year. But in case you missed it the first time or just want to read it again, here it is:

Welcome to my blog

Who needs a blog? Apparently I do. Seems like everyone I know has a blog so I figured I should have one too. I don't have any kids to blog about and my life is not all that interesting, but I do have a miniature labradoodle named Brun. He's a great dog who used to be brown... hence his name (which means brown in French). He is now more of a silver color but he won't answer to Stirling... so we still call him Brun.

Brun came from St. Louis and weighs about 45 pounds. Some would argue that 45 pounds is not miniature but he's just right for me. He is a little over a year old and he's a lot of fun. For those of you who don't know what a labradoodle is, it's a mix between a Labrador retriever and a poodle.

So sit back and enjoy this blog. There will be lots of tidbits and anecdotes about Brun and about my life in general. I can't say that it will be interesting or riveting but if you have read this far hopefully it will keep your interest for at least a little while.

So why did I start a blog? Well I had been reading Amberly and Lauren's blogs on a daily basis and I was talking to Leslie on the phone one day and we just decided we needed blogs. Some days I'm not sure that my life is interesting enough to blog about but I have enjoyed it so far... even in weeks like this past week when I have been pretty blog lazy. So given my enjoyment level so far, I hope I keep it up for a long time.

For other time travelers, visit Annie's site.

Time Travel Tuesday: 16

I am once again late in this post but I want to play anyways. :-) I was 16 in 1995. It was the second half of my sophomore year and the first half of my junior year of high school. I am out of town at the moment so I can't go flip through pictures or my yearbooks from 1995 to refresh my memory... so I may be a little short on details of that year.

Unlike most of you, I didn't want to drive when I turned 16 and I actually didn't get my driver's license until after I turned 17. This was not because my parents didn't want me to drive... but because I didn't want to drive. I had known of a couple of people killed in car crashes... and that scared me... but more than that, I really didn't mind having people drive me around. My parents lived about 30 minutes away from school (and everything else) so if I didn't have to drive myself to school I could get in a quick nap on the way. :-) Lazy I know but it worked out for me. I now drive all the time for my job and for my own personal travel so I don't regret the fact that I postponed it a year.

In 10th grade I was in the high school spring musical for the third year in a row. This year it was West Side Story. The guy who played Tony could not sing and it was not the best production ever done. We had a senior that showed up to play practice drunk... bad move on his part... he got kicked out of school just before graduation. I also had a solo in the play... which was exciting and terrifying all at the same time. We performed the play outside on the lawn of the school and the stage was only slightly higher than the ground. Well on the first night of the show a little kid took off across the stage in the middle of my solo. Everyone in the audience started laughing... fortunately I knew what was happening so I knew they weren't laughing at me but I had trouble not laughing myself. From what I remember I was pretty successful at that.

In 10th grade I took my first AP class... AP European History taught my Mr. Rudd. Not my favorite class in the world but I got college credit for it so I can't complain. I also had Biology with Miss McConnell who will always be one of my favorite teachers of all time. I did enjoy the dissecting part of this class however.

I think that 10th grade was my last year in Chorus... I know I was on the Science Olympiad team (one of my favorite activities) and several other things that escape me at the moment.

During the second half of 1995 I was in 11th grade. I was on the Newspaper staff and took classes like American history and Chemistry. I can sing but I cannot act... but they still gave me a part in the high school fall play that year.

I can't think of anything else too memorable about 1995 but here were some of the top movies:

Toy Story - As was (and still is) our family tradition we saw this on Thanksgiving night in the theatre. I still love this movie.
Batman Forever
GoldenEye
Jumanji - I hated this movie.
Crimson Tide

For more Time Travel Tuesday participants, visit Annie's site.

Time Travel Tuesday: 12

Annie is hosting a fun new meme called Time Travel Tuesday. I didn't get a chance to participate earlier in the day because I was having trouble remembering age 12. Once I was able to get home and flip through some old pictures it has all come flooding back. :-)

My birthday falls early in January so that makes it easy for me to associate my age with a particular year... it was 1991 for me. I was in 6th grade and 7th grade that year... which at my school meant the transition from elementary school to middle school. But let me start at the beginning of the year...

For my birthday that year I had a big party at Luigi's Pizzeria (I think it's a furniture store now) that was probably the predecessor to places like CiCi's. I didn't have big birthday parties every year but I think that my parents had a big one that year because they knew that the next year I would be at a new campus with different friends. Anyways... I remember this birthday because I wore a Hawaii Sweatshirt and a black dress hat... gotta love my fashion sense! I don't have a scanner handy or I would possibly share this embarrassment with the world. For the party, my dad went through the home movies of activities and parties that my elementary school class had participated in and put them all on a video that we played on a big screen tv during the birthday party. I would love to go back and find that video some day... I know it's still around.

For sixth grade I had Mrs. Harrison who wasn't my favorite teacher but she was a good teacher. The two sixth grade classes were in trailers that year which I actually liked for whatever reason. My acting career (yeah right!) got off the ground that year as I played the Nurse in our class production of Romeo and Juliet. For whatever reason I also vividly remember having to write my first essay on a test in 6th grade Social Studies. I was a good student but I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown when they told us we would have to write an essay on a test. :-) I was also the editor of our elementary school newspaper that year. That year was also the year that they built the high school I would eventually go to.

In our elementary school awards ceremony that year I remember getting called up for lots of awards. I felt so important because we were the oldest class at the school and I counted and I got as many (or more) awards than anyone else. I remembered looking up to sixth graders when I was in the lower grades so it felt so awesome to have all of them looking up at me. They probably just thought I was a geek... and they were probably right but I didn't care. :-) I loved elementary school... unfortunately that school was blown away in a tornado when I was a Jr. in high school. Fortunately it happened at night and no one was on campus.

1991 was also my first year of Summer Church camp. I had been to girl scout camp before but that was the first summer when I actually enjoyed camp. I was terribly terribly homesick (this was before the days of 6th graders having cell phones) but I really loved it. This was also the year that I fell through a window at camp. It's a long story but I was trying to make my bed (which was a mattress on the floor) and I fell rear end first through a plate glass window. I wasn't hurt at all but I was terribly embarrassed.

When school started back in the fall it was off to 7th grade in a new campus with a bunch of kids I didn't like. Our school had two elementary schools and when you got to 7th grade they were combined for the first time. The two groups didn't mesh all that well and there were lots of kids I didn't particularly care for. Middle School was probably my least favorite school years but I survived and I'm hopefully a better person for it. I think that 7th grade was the last year that I took piano lessons... I had Mrs. Hattaway for Life Science, Mrs. Newton for English, Mrs. Gilliland for Geography, a principal I couldn't stand and some other teachers that I don't remember... not the most stellar group of teachers I ever had. I don't have my year books here with me or I would share some of my activities for that year... but for now I will spare you.

Overall I would say 12 was a good year. The first half was better than the second but not too many complaints from me. Thanks Annie for allowing me this walk down memory lane!