rough wild vanilla

HI YOU. YOU CAN CAPSLOCK AT ME ANYTIME, LADY.

And I will attempt to do the answers here! Although I think the first thing I've learned from this is that I have a REALLY SHITTY MEMORY, which I knew. (If I write it down, I can remember it. If I don't, I won't. This is a big part of the reason for the earthling posts.)

Okay, so. 23. That was in - 1996 is when I turned 23, but actually 1997 is when I was mostly 23, on account of being born in November. This was a time of great upheaval in my life! Relatively speaking, given that I am a staid and placid person.

So.

I lived in:

Then: Well, SOMEWHERE in that time period I moved from Albuquerque, NM to Los Angeles, California. We moved from an apartment in the same zip code as our parents' houses to an apartment in West LA that seemed great but that I inexplicably hated, which would later shove our house-buying plans forward a couple of years. West LA itself was a great place to live, though. We recently celebrated our twentieth (oh god, yes really, TWENTY YEARS OF MARRIAGE) by returning to the Indian restaurant we loved so much and ate at ALL THE TIME while we lived in West LA.

Now: A house in Long Beach, California.

I drove:

Then: Ummmm, this would have been - oh, right! This was also the year I bought a car for the first time! (I think.) My father had given me a car when I started college, but what with one thing and another - including the most amusing car accident of ALL TIME (no one was hurt and it was not my fault, or it wouldn't have been funny, but there was QUITE a lot of car damage) that car did not age well. So, because I would have to drive from ABQ to LA in the car, my father bought me ANOTHER car. (Yes, seriously. I was the most lucky and privileged of children.) But this time he couldn't buy it for me, since he was traveling extensively for work and was stuck in DC for the entire time I had left for car-buying. (I was moving for a job. Everything was rush rush.) So I had to buy it myself. It was awful. I learned a lot.

Which is to say, this is the first year I was driving the black Honda.

Now: And THIS is the first year I'm driving my silver Prius C.

I was in a relationship with:

Then: BB.

Now: BB.

Look, I never claimed to be interesting in the relationship department.

I feared:

Then: Oh, man, this is a really complicated question, and to be honest I don't think I can answer it for back then. My fears were mostly related to being me, I guess is the best way I can put it.

Now: Losing the people I love. Specifically the earthling, but also the other people I love. Losing what I have - like, I have so much, and my life is so good - surely I don't get to keep this? Surely now is when the universe notices how good I have it and takes it away? I also fear further disability, which is pretty realistic, given the state of my health and etc., but that's another part of fearing losing what I have.

I worked at:

Then: Well, I moved to take a job writing grants and doing development (read: begging) at an addiction non-profit in LA. What I learned is that I am very good at writing grants and just shit at doing in-person begging, which shouldn't have come as a surprise. (And didn't.)

Now: I do part-time editing of academic papers - dissertations and journal articles pre-submission, mostly. I also take care of the earthling.

I wanted to be:

Then: Happy. (And I was.)

Now: Happy. (And I am.)

Sorry. I don't have a lot of goals. BB is the goal-maker. I am not. I don't *want to be* things, pretty much.

And, hey! This gave me one of those moments of insight you sometimes get, lining stuff up, so this was WELL WORTH DOING. Thank you! Good age choice, you.