Getting to know me.......

My friend Franna has tagged me for a “getting to know you” meme – “Please won’t you come out to play?” she implored. Since I haven’t done one of these for a while, I thought it would be fun to do, so here goes -

The rules: Posted here at the beginning. The player answers all questions. The player then chooses six people you want to know more about and tags those people by listing their names at the end of the post and going to their blog and leaving a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Also, you let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago, 1998. Wow, what WAS I doing? I was selling Pampered Chef products but other than that, I can’t really remember anything specific. I’m working the same job, married to the same man, have the same cats and am living in the same house today as I was in 1998. (see question 4)

So, I started by “Google-ing” 1998 - I looked up the top 30 movies – I think we saw two of them in the theater (“You’ve Got Mail” and “Star Trek, Insurrection” ) and I’ve only seen about 6 of the rest on TV. (sort of sad isn’t it) – But not as sad as the music of 1998 - - N*Sync, Celine Dion and the Backstreet Boys all seemed to be popular – but with the exception of a couple of Shania Twain songs and Fleetwood Mac re-recording “Landslide”, there wasn’t a darn song OUT OF the TOP 75 that I recognized! – Scary for someone who made a second living by singing and playing guitar for 21 years of her life.

Maybe seeing what was on TV that year would jog my mind – Charmed (did watch) and Sex in the City (didn’t have HBO) were both on the hot list. It was the last year for Seinfeld (not a big loss in my opinion) – You might have found me watching the X-Files or Law and Order, but more than likely re-runs of M*A*S*H or something on Food Network. Still there didn’t seem to be any defining “moment” for me – so I checked out Wikepedia –
* Bill had his “improper physical relationship” with Monica;
* The movie “Titanic” (still haven’t seen that one all the way thru either) won 11 Oscars;
* Apple unveiled the “iMac”;
* Viagra was approved by the FDA;
* GOOGLE was founded!; (and it took less than 10 years for “googling” to become a commonly used verb ie: “he googled her before they went out for drinks”
* The US & British forces invaded Iraq;
* and at 77 years old, and 38 years after he was the first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn went into space on the Shuttle Discovery – making him the 2nd oldest person to go into space. Way to go J.G.!


2. What were five things on my to-do list today (not in any particular order)? Laundry; shop for groceries; get cat food; clean the cat box; go work on the church plant sale. (I did four of them…)

3. What snacks do I enjoy?
Hmm – snacks? Popcorn, although I don’t have it much; mandarin oranges (canned), really good chocolates, cheese & crackers (wheat thins), ice cream, Milky Way Midnight Bar,

4. Where are some places I've lived?
I have lived in two places, Mansfield, WA and Bellingham, WA - not very adventuresome, I’m afraid.

5. What things would I do if I were a billionaire?

Ah, the American Dream - to be able to buy gasoline when ever you want it.

“How much is a billion?”, I thought to myself (and promptly went to Google for the answer).

A billion, in America, is a thousand million. That would be written like this:

1,000,000,000

A billion is a very difficult number for me to comprehend, but one advertising agency put that figure into perspective in this press release:
* A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
* A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
* A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
* A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.

So what would I do with that Billion Dollars?

First, I’d pay off our mortgage and buy out the guy next door to get rid of him and his 24/7 noise. I'd move out the house and turn the whole place into another pasture! Remember the old TV show “The Millionaire”? This guy went around and gave away $1 Million to people who soon found that they were better off before. To heck with that, I’d pay off the mortgages of all my family and close friends, maybe even some not so close friends –

Second, Of course, The Shepherd could quit his day job and I’d start looking for a very responsible and honest person to replace me at work and bid my job adieu.

Third – I’d put the ’91 Ford Festiva out to pasture and find a Really comfortable new car.

Fourth - I’d probably give a big chunk of it to ”The Hutch” (The Fred Hutchinson/University of Washington Cancer Consortium). They do an awful lot of good for a lot of people, myself included.

And Franna’s idea of an electric gate – That is not a bad one either…

Hope you enjoyed getting to know me – More than you wanted to know? Probably – And part of the problem with getting in on the end of a meme is that everyone I know has done it already – so, if you are a random visitor and you’d like to participate – Go for it!