It's all about meme

Brought to you by a tired old meme that everyone else in the blogosphere finished with months ago.

According to Wikipedia, in casual use, the term meme often refers to any piece of information passed from one mind to another. In other words, this is one of those lists that gets e-mailed around for bloggers to fill out and send back to their friends. You can send me yours if you like.

10 years ago: I had been out of grad school and living in the Twin Cities for two years. I had just moved from a "garden level" apartment in an "up and coming" neighborhood (basement, dodgy part of town) to a nice flat with a balcony in a stable suburb. I had escaped the Slap Factory and was on my second job, the one with the screwy night and evening shifts. I was having my first few dates with a coworker, Paul, whom I would later marry.

5 years ago: I had just begun a job with a startup health magazine. My husband had been gone for three months and I have not seen him since. The divorce would be final at Thanksgiving. He never really told me why he left, but it had something to do with him needing to save someone and me neither needing nor wanting to be saved. I took up boxing.

I was in the midst of packing and selling the house we'd bought together. I made a deal with him, by which I mean to say that I issued this edict: "I will keep all profits from the sale of the house, and in return, I will never ask you for alimony or financial help of any kind." It seemed like a reasonable arrangement at the time. The Internet bubble had not quite burst yet and Paul, an web site design consultant, was making more than twice what I did. He took the deal. I bought my own house, Sensational Acres, with the money. I heard he had a breakdown of sorts and lived in his pickup for a while.

I amused my coworkers by posting a silly band name on my office wall each day. When people began to ask where the names came from, I started writing down the situations that had inspired them.

1 year ago: I visited Sister-san in Phoenix in August to spend a few last sisterly hours together before she gave birth to the Cutest Niece Ever six weeks later. My head swam with the notion that my baby sister was becoming a mother, a far more grown-up thing than I had ever done.

I was restless in my prestigious editorial job at the health magazine, reminding myself hourly that every other English major on earth would kill to be in my position while realizing that that position was unlikely to evolve. I was making enough money to get by, not enough to save for emergencies or a rainy day.

The long commute from home to work to T'ai Chi studio to home was driving me nuts, so I played my imported, out-of-print Rockapella albums to death for something to do. I spent a lot of time composing blog entries in my head. A lot of time.

yesterday: Bemoaning my travails as a single homeowner, yet still reveling in being one, I hired a guy to fix my cute white picket fence. He didn't, and I had to call to chew him out. He promised to do the work today instead. If he doesn't, he's fired.

Rather than drive, I rode the train and bus between home, my new office downtown, and the T'ai Chi studio. I love the guaranteed hour or more of reading time I get using public transportation.

I talked to Kelly, a much-missed college friend, about visiting him over Labor Day weekend for an enormous sci-fi convention. It's settled. I'm going. I'm excited!

I taught a first T'ai Chi lesson to a teenage boy who had passed out cold, crashing to the floor, during the meditation 20 minutes before.

I posted photos and text to my world-famous blog using a handheld wireless device that fits in my purse with room to spare.

today: On the train this morning I read If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor. I saw author Bruce Campbell at a screening of his newest B movie last week.

I have 3.5 hours' worth of meetings today. During my lunch break, I'll stroll across the street to the two-storey Target to get my cat Warren Peace a new collar. I love working downtown and being able to run errands on foot.

After work I should go to the T'ai Chi studio for my pushing-hands and two-person dance classes, but I might go straight home to inspect my fence instead. I'll buy my plane ticket to the con today, maybe during lunch.

tomorrow: I have only 1.5 hours' worth of meetings tomorrow — so far. One of them is the health and wellness committee, which is helping me launch a workplace T'ai Chi group in a few weeks. We'll discuss times, places, and publicity.

Wednesday is my first free evening of the week, as I get home late from classes on Monday and Tuesday. I might watch the Netflix movie waiting on my coffee table (Sophie's Choice, yet another classic I've never seen), or I might spend some time on the phone to tech support trying to resolve my Treo data backup problem, or both. If a certain a cappella DVD arrives from Japan, I'll watch that instead. I'll shop online for housewarming gifts for friends who have just moved.

Photos today? YES; yesterday's problem appears to have solved itself . . . for now

Today around the world: August 2 is St. Elias Day in Macedonia.