Meme me

Ms. M at New York Teacher and Julie at Mildly Melancholy have tagged me for a meme...so here goes nothing!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Oh boy, I'm about to reveal my age here. Ten years ago, I was in my freshman year of high school. I went to a nerd-tastic public high school in New York, and my freshman year exists in my memory as a blur of Julius Caesar, Things Fall Apart, my evil math teacher, and our ridiculously strenuous gym class (the only class in my life I have ever been in danger of failing) to which I owe my running to this day. In May, right around this time of year, one of my classmates took his life. I've always thought that our school administration handled it badly -- they announced it over the loudspeaker and I watched my classmates break down around me -- and I always think of him in May.

2. What are 5 things on my To Do list for today?
(1) Check the public library website to see if my copy of Mary Roach's Bonk has come in yet; (2) Charge my iPod so it will be ready to play the audio version of Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge tomorrow; (3) Hit the ATM (oh, let's face it, that's on my To Do list every day); (4) Pick up my allergy medication at Duane Reade; (5) Find an Amelia Bedelia book to read to my second graders.

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Carrots and ranch dip; chips and salsa; bagel chips and hummus; Cheez Doodles (actually, I enjoy Cheez Doodles so much that I can't keep them in the house); and many, many others.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Buy my parents a really nice house. Buy myself a really nice palatial apartment in the city, and maybe a SmartCar. Travel a lot and take my friends with me. Donate a nice chunk of change to my favorite charities.

5. Three of my bad habits:
Picking at my cuticles, snacking excessively between meals and failure to organize my personal things as well as I would like to in an ideal world.

6. Five places I have lived:
OK, really? Five is a stretch for me. (1) Waltham, Massachusetts -- where I went to college. I lived in various dorms all four years, but I feel like I absorbed the culture of the town because I know it's pronounced Wal-THAM, not WAL-thum. (2) Medford, Massachusetts -- graduate school. (Medford? Is pronounced "Meffuh," by the way, at least if you were born and raised there and you speak with the famed "Medford Mumble." (3) Somerville, Massachusetts -- also graduate school. It is marginally nicer than Medford, as evidenced by the fact that it has a Starbucks instead of a Dunkin' Donuts, but I lived there with acquaintances rather than my best friend as I did in Medford so it was also exponentially less fun. (4) and (5) Two different apartments in my current neighborhood, one where I lived with my parents from birth until college and the one I live in now.

As you can see, I don't get around much, but the truth is I have always adored New York and felt like I was destined to come back here to stay after my college/grad school stints in Boston (which I adore) and its environs.

7. Five jobs I have had:
(1) Phonathon caller at my college -- basically, we cold-called alumni and asked them to donate money to the university (as you can imagine, I got chewed out a lot by miffed alumni); (2) Coach at a branch of SCORE! (a tutoring company for upscale elementary-age children) (3) Researcher at a company that produces popular children's television shows; (4) Teaching assistant for an undergraduate class in mass media (I minored in journalism in college); (5) Campus tour guide for my university's Admissions office.