The #1 show on TV in 1999 was Who Wants to be a Millionaire...sadly, I am still not. The #1 show right now is NCIS. The highest grossing movie on the 2nd of October 1999 was Remember the Titans...my guess is that it will be Zombieland this weekend. The #1 song was Unpretty by TLC and is I Got a Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas (Mazel Tov!!).
In the last 10 years I have attended four different colleges. I have dropped out of two, transferred from one and graduated from the other (though not with a degree, but rather a certificate). I have had my ten year reunion. I wrote a paper on the dangers inherent to the electoral college, and then watched as everything I wrote about happened in the 2000 election. We have a black president, and Bob Barker is our Vice President.
I worked full-time at three different Outback Steakhouses. I moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta, Atlanta to Chattanooga, and Chattanooga back to Atlanta.
I watched the Braves lose the World Series, the NLCS, the NLDS, and the regular season (every year it was harder to watch them lose). I saw the Falcons make the NFC Championship, and then a few short years later, I saw them at the bottom of the league, only the see them fly high again towards the end of my 20s. I discovered College Football and saw my first game in Athens on my 24th birthday (Dawgs beat Bama, but the alcohol got me that night)...I would travel to Athens for two more games on my birthday weekends. I got laid off for the first time. I was unemployed for four months. I found the best job I have ever had, and have been promoted four times. I stopped reading comic books...I realized that, screw it, I love reading comic books, and I read them again. I started attending concerts...the best one was still probably Journey last year, but Barenaked Ladies is pretty darn close.
I went to New York for the first time during my 20s...I have been back again, and again, and again...I can't wait to go back again!!
I have fallen in love three times in the last ten years...only once was I actually in a relationship with that person...once they were married...once they were getting married...none of them live in the same state.
My grandmother died when I was 20 (three days before I turned 21). My uncle died when i was 26. I discovered that I hate death...more than anything except flying. To counter the sadness of loss, I was blessed with an Isabelle, an Ethan, a Paige, a Jacob, a Joey, and Joshua...all of the children more beautiful than you could possibly imagine.
I moved in with a friend when I turned 25, and we became brothers by the time I moved out at 28 (and he ended up giving me another sister when he got married). I moved in with my actual brother when I was 28, and we became best friends.
My relationships with my parents, my brother and my sister all evolved into something that I can only wish that everyone who reads this gets to experience. Nothing in the world can compare to a healthy relationship with that part of your life, and I am who I am because of it. My father had a neck surgery when I was 20, heart surgery when I was 25, and traveled to Thailand when I was 29. My sister found a boyfriend when I was 25...I have an email that I wrote to a friend of mine when they started dating...I wrote that I thought they were going to end up marrying each other...they will be married in February of 2010 (I can't write about it yet though, because it will be when I am 30).
I don't know what the future holds for me (though I hope that I have my own family in there somewhere), but I can say that I am approaching 30 with excitement, optimism, and the knowledge that the next 10 years will be even better than the last 10 years.
Happy Birthday to Me!
