Thursday Thirteen (Vol. 85)

Thirteen Firsts

1. First Job - McDonald's in New Hartford, NY at age 16. $2.65 per hour. My parents still say no one at that McDonald's has done a better job at keeping the drive-thru moving!

2. First Blog Post -I started my blog on August 14, 2006. It was originally called Di's Book Blog, etc. I thought it would be all about books and that most of my posts would be book reviews. The first one was a review of A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity by Kathleen Gilles Seidel.

3. First Blog Read - I never even read a blog until I read Maternally Challenged by Tracy Thompson, the wonderful author of The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children and Struggling with Depression (reviewed here in my second blog post). It was this blog that inspired me to start mine.

4. First Love - His name was John. He was in ninth grade and was a JV football player. I was in 7th grade. He rode my bus home from school. One day a girl on my bus said, "My cousin thinks you're cute." I asked who her cousin was and it was John. The next day he asked me to sit with him. It was unrequited...we flirted for several years including a moment emblazoned on my brain when I was wearing my cheerleading uniform and he was wearing his football uniform. After a big win one Friday night, he came up to the cheerleading bus, picked me up and spun me around in celebration. I thought I was in heaven!

5. First Anne Lamott Book - Everyone who knows me knows that I worship Anne Lamott. Her books speak a truth to me that resonates in my soul. Hyperbole? Maybe...maybe not. The first book I read was Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year. It was recommended by my friend Barb who wasn't even a Mom at the time. Once I read it, I was hooked!

6. First Trip to Europe - In early November, 2000, right around election day, my husband said, "Hey, want to go to Paris for Thanksgiving?" My high school 25th reunion was coming up that weekend and I had been toying with the idea of going. Then I thought, "Hmmm...a beautiful weekend in Paris with my husband or hanging out with a bunch of people I didn't like that much back in high school." Easy decision. It was the first of many wonderful travel experiences with my husband.

7. First House - Hurley and I took $800 from the money we received as wedding gifts and bought a king-sized bed. The rest we stashed away, saving for our first house. We saved for over a year and in the meantime were displaced from our rental house by Hurricane Andrew. Almost a year and a half after our wedding, with me a couple months pregnant, we bought our first house. 1,800 sq. ft. Three bedrooms. Two bathrooms. We thought it was so enormous that we would get lost in it. When we called out to one another from the various rooms, the sound would echo off the walls.

8. First Pet - Soon after we bought our first house, I came home from work and found my husband on the patio, snuggling an adorable brown bundle. He was Doberman. We named him Garth (after Garth Brooks...my husband had just discovered country music). He was with us for 13 wonderful years. We still miss him!

9. First Time Skiing - I grew up in central New York, where winter wasn't so much a season as a way of life. But somehow I made it through without ever trying downhill skiing. So, at the ripe old age of 36, my husband convinced me that I should actually ski on our trip to Crested Butte, Colorado rather than lounging by a fire reading a book (which was my vision). I did it. I even occasionally managed to get off the chair lift WITHOUT falling down! It was fun. But all in all, I'd rather go to Paris!

10. First Real Friend - My Mom often told me that if you could count your friends on the fingers of one hand, you should count yourself as lucky. I had a lot of friends in high school and college, but it wasn't until my friendship with Amy, who I met in college, solidified over years that I truly knew what friendship was. She is my soulmate. There is nothing that I can't talk to her about. She defines the word friend.

11. First Broken Bone - I've broken the occasional toe over the years, but I'll never forget breaking my ankle in 6th grade. I was in a track meet doing the high jump. Somehow when I cleared the bar, I slipped off the mat and broke my ankle. I had to walk for 6th grade graduation wearing a walking cast that really did not match my cute new dress!

12. First Hospital Stay - Believe it or not, I was never in the hospital until I gave birth to my daughter at the age of 31. I've made up for it since then.

13. First Time on an Airplane - My family took the occasional vacation, but always in a car. When I was 16, I babysat for the Costellos. Mr. Costello owned a car dealership, so they had a huge, cool van, back in the days before pimped-out minivans. They asked me to accompany them to their vacation home by a lake in Michigan. We set out from New Hartford, NY and drove up through Canada, stopping at a hotel for the night. The next day we made the rest of the trip. I slept a lot in the van. When we got to the house, I went upstairs to put my stuff down and fell asleep. When I awoke, I came downstairs and by the time I got to the couch, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep again. It turned out that I had Mono! So they had to put me on a plane, BY MYSELF, to fly home. I was more excited than scared and really too sick to care much about anything. My Mom and my Grandma picked me up at the airport, standing at the gate wondering if I would be brought out in a wheelchair.

So many more firsts come to mind that I may have to do a follow-up...

Di

Comments

[Nina]

Great list of FIRSTS! I have to try that next week.

Have a great T13.

[Baby Mama]

A great idea for a list!

[Kara]

Great idea for a Thursday Thirteen. And I definitely agree with your mom for #10. :)

#6 sounds wonderful, too.

[JoAnn]

Great post! Fun. You got me to thinking about "firsts".

[Jennifer]

You always have the most creative lists. I LOVE this list! Your dog was beautiful. My first job was a cashier at Kmart!

[SandyCarlson]

I love the first-love story.

[amy]

How about...
first new food i've tried since i turned 40?

first book i ever read that i hated?

first crush on a tv character?

first fight with my husband?

first alcoholic beverage consumed (illegal and then legal)?

first place i'd travel to if i had unlimited money?

first time i felt like a mom?

first time i felt like a grownup?

[Nicholas]

I did a firsts TT a year ago but yours, with details, is so much better. I may steal the idea for a future week.

Please do another list. Di, sweetheart, there is a very obvious first I'm sure we are all interested in hearing about!

[Alice Audrey]

You've got me thinking about a lot of things in my life, not just first.

Good TT.

[Shirley]

Really enjoyed your list. Great pic of Garth.