40 burning questions

1. Did you cry today?
No.

2. What were you doing at 8:00 this morning?
I was checking my email, having gotten to work later than usual due to traffic. At 8:28 a.m. I finally opened my calendar and had a huge “oh SHIT” moment; in 2 minutes I was due a meeting at a facility 10 minutes away. I grabbed my stuff and took off. And I still wasn’t the last to arrive, so whew.

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
Working.

4. What did you do in 1992?
I was a freshman in high school. Those legging tights with the lace around the ankle were hot. I was all rah-rah when our soccer team made it to the state finals. I was just about to discover grunge.

5. What song do you love right now?
All the songs on Rilo Kiley’s new album.

6. Three words to explain why you last threw up.
Work cafeteria shrimp.

7. What color is your hairbrush?
Depends. I use a forgiving pink one to brushing out my nasty snarls in the morning, a wooden one to dry my bangs, and a purple one to style after blow-drying.

8. What was the last thing you bought?
A banana.

9. Where do you keep your money?
In a checking account, a savings account, and some CDs.

10. What was the weather like today?
It’s unseasonably warm. Feels like August.

11. What's the best part about winter?
Scarves and Starbucks holiday lattes. That’s about it, though.

12. When is your birthday?
December 27.

13. Are you over the age of 25?
Yes.

14. What were you doing last night?
Picking up Ziploc sandwich bags that Olivia scattered all over the floor like a freaking flower girl, cooking spaghetti, watching the awesome season premiere of How I Met Your Mother, folding laundry.

15. Do you sing?
In the car, yes.

16. Does your screen name have an "x" in it?
No.

17. Do you know anyone named Daisy?
No. It’s a good name for a yellow lab puppy though.

18. Do you make up your own words?
Not as well as Don Vito.

19. Are you ticklish?
Yes.

20. Would you say you're feisty?
When provoked.

21. Favorite animal?
Other people’s dogs.

22. Name someone whose name starts with the letter "B"?
Ben Affleck.

23. Who's the last person to call you?
A work person.

24. At what age do you want to have kids?
Der. How about 28?

25. What is your favorite candy?
Peanut butter M&Ms.

26. What is the next concert you're going to?
Henry Rollins spoken word.

27. Where did you go today?
Work, over to other work building, back to work.

28. What is something you say a lot?
UN-believable.

29. You're at a friend's house in the bathroom and realize there is no toilet paper. Do you ask them or look yourself?
I’d look. Or use Kleenex.

30. Do you have to work tomorrow?
Yes.

31. Who was the last person you said "I love you" to?
Either Joe or Olivia.

32. Soup...out of a can, packet, or homemade?
Homemade is pretty much out of the question. Restaurant-made is preferred. Box soup (Lipton’s chicken noodle in the packet) is good in a pinch on a cold night.

33. Do you have a nickname?
Not really. I’ve been called various derivations of my various names, but nothing that sticks for life, like Murph or Sully.

34. Are you a heavy sleeper?
I’m a decent sleeper. I wake up during the night but not for any good reason.

35. What are you listening to?
Pandora radio.

36. What is the best movie you've seen in the past two weeks?
I haven’t seen any in the past two weeks… Superbad was the last great movie I saw.

37. When was the last time you did the dishes?
I haven’t full-on done dishes since we lived in Somerville. Love you, dishwasher.

38. Name someone who made you laugh today?
Joan, on Little People, Big World: “I couldn’t be married to the husband. He doesn’t work; he’s always out building pirate ships and pumpkin catapults. I’d be smacking his ass all over the pumpkin field. GET A JOB!”

39. What's your favorite quote?
“You might as well do something while you’re doing nothing."

40. Guiltiest pleasure?
Rock of Love. Who’s it going to be, Heather or Jess???

Damn I wish I still had those college entries!

But I don't, so this survey will have to suffice:

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT YOUR FIRST YEAR IN COLLEGE

Where did you go?
University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

Where did you live?
Scott Hall, room 301

Who was your roommate?
A horse-obsessed little person who wore puppy sweatshirts with Peter Pan collars and went home every weekend. Really.

Do you still talk to your roommate?
What do you think?

Songs that remind you of the first year?
So many! “Dancing Nancies” by Dave Matthews Band, “Hook” by Blues Traveler, “One of Us” by Joan Osborne, “Pillars of Davidson” by Live, "Spiderwebs" by No Doubt, “Ready or Not" by the Fugees, “Mona Lisa” by Guster, “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette.

Did you drink?
Yes.

Favorite alcoholic beverage?
Freshman year we were just learning how to drink. We drank Mad Dog 2020 with Sprite, Woodchuck cider, and too much Natty Light.

Ever get in trouble in the dorms?
Not freshman year, but I did get busted for alcohol the day we came back for sophomore year.

What's something you remember when you first lived on campus?
My first few hours on campus, I was completely freaked out about not knowing anybody. Before my parents left, a guy I had met at orientation came by and asked if I wanted to go downtown for dinner. I ended up missing my very first hall meeting and my floormates thought I was a rebel. I met two girls that night who would both become really good friends. That was a gift.

Your campus phone number?
603-862-5825 I think. I remember it was all in one row.

First party attended?
Some party in the Gables, a typical UNH fiesta: keg in the shower, beer pong and quarters in the living room. Some guy gave shared his 12-pack of Keystone Light with me.

Favorite Pizza Place?
Durham House of Pizza. DHOP!

Favorite place to go out to eat
Young's, J.P.’s, Campus Convenience, the Icehouse.

Did you go to the library?
A couple times. This was when the Internet was still a novelty and we would crowd into someone’s room to watch their Netscape freeze ten times trying to download a single page.

What was your favorite floor you'd always be on?
3rd

Club, Athletics, Frat or Sororities, you joined?
I did water aerobics. Hey, it was fun!

Where did you buy your books?
Durham Book Exchange

Attend any concerts?
I saw Alanis Morrisette, Live, the Fugees (with Coolio!), and Guster.

Favorite night to go out on, and where did you go?
Saturday night, and wherever we ended up – Young Drive, the Coops, the Gables, old KD, Skullhouse.

Where did you get coffee?
The MUB or the Bagelry

Go see a play or been in one?
I saw Fiddler on the Roof with my parents on Parents’ Weekend.

What do you hate about your college?
Greek life

What did you love most about it?
The friendships I made.

Ever leave to go on a road trip, where?
We weren’t allowed to have cars freshman year, so a road trip meant taking the bus to the Fox Run Mall.

Where would you believe is the best location to live in?
Area 1, baby! I wanted to live in Congreve sophomore year. Then my roommate-to-be got knocked up and wanted to stay in Scott because it was quieter and all girls.

Will you go back?
I go back periodically. College nostalgia is fun. I like to see how the campus has changed, poke around in the Out Back, visit new Libby’s, blather on about things that nobody else can remember, like Vietnam Video and that junky store down by the DuMP where we bought our rug.

Senior Year of High School

1. Who was your best friend?
I didn’t have one. Senior year my cliquey friends and I parted ways, and I hung out with individuals and work friends.

2. What sports did you play?
Tennis

3. What kind of car did you drive?
A white Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais.

4. On a Friday night what where you doing?
Playing pool at Classics, working, or hanging out at someone’s house.

5. Were you a party animal?
No

6. Were you considered a flirt?
No

7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
No

8. Were you a nerd?
I was an artist.

9. Did you ever get suspended or expelled?
No, just a couple detentions.

10. Can you still sing the fight song?
We didn’t have one. If we did, it probably went something like, “Please try not to suck, football team. Everyone is defecting to soccer.”

11. Who were your favorite teachers?
Mr. Landry.

12. Where did you sit during lunch?
With my clique. We seemed to sit in order of status, because I recall getting bumped down. After the schism, I hung out in the courtyard, the stone wall in the lobby or my friend’s car.

14. School mascot?
The Hornets

15. School colors?
Green and gold

16. Rival high school?
Lynnfield

17. Did you go to Prom?
Yes, junior and senior.

18. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
Jesus, no.

19. What do you remember most about graduation?
Feeling anticlimactic relief that it was over.

20. Where did you go senior skip day?
Did we have a skip day? My class always got the shaft. We didn’t get an eighth grade dinner dance because they changed the junior high into a middle school and sent two classes up to high school at once, we didn’t get our fundraising shit together for a senior trip, and so I’m assuming we didn’t have a skip day either. If we did, I probably spent it at someone’s house.

21. Favorite memory?
Random nights driving around with friends, listening to this god-awful mix with Bryan Adams and Brown Eyed Girl and December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) and the Gin Blossoms on it. I also loved driving up old Route 1 by myself, listening to Nevermind and Hole and Weezer’s blue album.

22. Were you in any clubs?
Yes, I was involved in a bunch of college-application-friendly activities: drama, school paper, yearbook, outdoors club, academic decathlon, Massachusetts Alliance Against Racism and Violence.

23. Where did you go most often for lunch?
The cafeteria. My class lost off-campus privileges.

24. Have you gained some weight since then?
Yup

25. Who was your Senior prom date?
This guy Adam. He was in a band.

26. Are you planning on going to your 10-year reunion?
No, I don’t think we even had one. My class really seemed to hate each other, huh?

27. Who was your home room teacher?
Mr. “I Kiss My Cat on the Lips” Ward.

28. Who will respond to this?
Do it!

29. Who was your high school sweetheart?
Jeff of the obsessive time-stamping.

30. Do you still talk to people from high school?
A couple.

31. Did you win prom queen or king?
No

32. Where did you work at in high school?
Bob’s in Middleton

33. What were your grades?
Mostly As and Bs, Cs in math and chemistry… not quite good enough for National Honor Society, but then again I never tried.

No recess

I've just been preoccupied. I've been reading this, 656 dense, indulgent pages detailing the history of Nirvana, staying up too late, covering 200 pages a night. And when I haven't been reading, I've been listening to Bleach, or Nevermind, or the box set rarities (Beans, seriously, what the fuck?) and basically "About a Girl," "Sappy" and "Lounge Act" on loop. It's like 1991 all over again. Sometimes this happens, the old obsession, the old longing for a scene that never existed the way we were spoon-fed, that was more commodity then camaraderie. What prompted an introverted junkie to become so many people's hero? What made a bunch of loud, buzzy, pop-punk songs anthemic for so many kids? What was it to me, to any of us, outside of MTV and art class and the mall? What made that time, those people, those ideals so important, any more so than us, our friends, our creations?