Meme 2002

Jan. 2nd, 2003 02:16 pm
kyburg: (Default)
[personal profile] kyburg
I'll cut this for brevity -



About 20 years ago, I was 22 and...

# Getting ready to do my internship with KNBC before getting my Bachelors of Science in Broadcasting.
# Driving a birdshit yellow Chevy Vega Stationwagon I dubbed the Yellow Submarine.
# Eating chicken enchiladas every night because I couldn't work and do an internship at the same time, and was totally broke. I had packed the chicken enchiladas in one marathon session one afternoon in preparation for this.
# Living with two other total strangers in San Dimas.


About 15 years ago, I was 27 and...

# was married to Cliff and struggling with it.
# Living in Montrose, and he was out of work. Matter of fact, we'd just done the one Christmas with out a tree and had to make everything with $40. All the gifts. ALL of them. Did it. Pissed as hell, but I did it. He was out of work. I wasn't.
# Just taken over the finances.
# Made some of most kick-ass porcelain dolls and gave one to Sis for Christmas.

About 10 years ago, I was 32 and...

# Was seeing the end of Quantum Leap and my last attempt to break into the business writing.
# Forgot the promise I made to myself the year before when Cliff got hurt at work and needed care full-time.
# Discovered I was far more adaptable to change than Cliff.
# And much, much stronger.
# Began a period of getting and losing jobs that "just didn't work out" and knew they were related to having a diabetic husband.
# Tried to start a family. Failed.

About 5 years ago I was 37 and...

# Trying to cope with a husband who didn't love me anymore. Or he did. Or something. I couldn't tell anymore.
# Getting ready to be totally on my own.
# Spending a weekend a month in the bay area with [livejournal.com profile] silverkun and Celeste.
# Cursing the fates that made me unable to provide anything to someone who didn't even have a life to live anymore.
# Feeling totally abandoned by God. As in "this is it, cope. You've gotten everything you are going to get - you're on your own here."
# Rediscovering the kindness of strangers. A lot of kindness in a lot of strange places.


About 2 years ago I was 40 and...

# Had been working for Skechers for a year, and loving it.
# Had had Jim living with me for months and never so much as complained about a thing yet.
# Discovering how expensive real estate can REALLY get. Manhattan Beach is just nuts.
# Looking at moving - getting discouraged. On my paycheck alone, it was grim.
# Really grateful my mother had not died the previous winter when she'd had her heart attack. Worried about her now that she was in recovery and in a lot of pain (turned out to be a synovial cyst).
# Plotting and scheming to be married...not get married.
# Would meet Jim's father and decide he was not good enough for Jim. And damn dangerous in the bargain, forget the step-mother.


Now I am 42 and...

# Preparing to move away from the condo in Ontario Cliff and I bought in 1989.
# Married for just over a year to Jim.
# Working as an EDI Administrator and finding the hardest part of my job is explaining it.
# Looking forward to having more time for art. Writing. Exercise.
# Planning on starting a family - either by me or by adoption.
# Have not killed any of my siblings. Yet.
# Have more video games than I did when I was in my twenties.
# Looking forward to adopting another dog, cat and perhaps a lizard once we've moved.

Hmm. I'll have to come back and revisit this again.

Date: 2003-01-02 03:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] oblomova.livejournal.com
This was heartening to read, Donna. You've been down a hard road, but I think your account shows me that things do improve with age. At least, it becomes easier to know what we really want and don't want out of life anymore. And that can be the biggest blessing of all.

Date: 2003-01-02 03:49 pm (UTC)
ext_20420: (Default)
From: [identity profile] kyburg.livejournal.com
Anyone who tells you their forties suck got everything handed to them early. As bad as the thirties were with Cliff dying and all, they were better than anytime before in my life, and my forties so far have been the best of times yet.

And it's equally hard to fathom why at the same time. I'm not done yet; the goals I had in my twenties still exist (make enough to pay the bills, build a family, keep a stable homelife) but somehow, it's much easier now. And I have more fun.

Who'd have thunk it?

Date: 2003-01-02 10:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bellacrow.livejournal.com
thank you for the perspective

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