Today Sarah and I are listing things we remember from each year of our lives. This one should be fun :). For the first years, I have to rely on my mother (via my baby book - see photos!) but after that, I think I can do it on my own.
1970 - I liked to eat right from the beginning! By 3 months I loved cereal, fruit, and yellow vegetables. Apparently I also enjoyed playing with my toes (July 31st) and I'm sure my mother appreciated that I could pull off my booties (October, 1970).
1971 - Apparently I wasn't a racewalking prodigy from the start :). I took my first step on February 18th, 1971, but I didn't walk alone until May 5, at almost 14 months of age.
1972 - at age 2 1/2 (sometime in the fall) I could put on my pants & underwear by myself (I was already potty trained! I guess I need to get cracking on Michelle's training.), take off my undershirt and coat, put on mittens, and take off boots, shoes, and socks. Also, this may be farfetched, but I think I remember my parents bringing my brother home from the hospital in March 1972 when he was born. I remember my dad lifting me up over his bassinet so that I could see him. My parents tell me I was NOT happy about him and insisted to my grandma "I don't like him. Take him back!", and "Tammy want tension" (attention).
1973 - for my third birthday, my mom had a birthday tea party for me. The invitation is pretty cute!
1974 - this is among my first real memories: I was at my grandma & grandpa's home in Keokuk Iowa. They always had Boston Terriers, who were excitable and irritating little creatures (I like dogs, but prefer big dogs). Anyway, I was teasing my grandparents' dog, Dandy, and I remember my mom telling me not to do it. Well, I didn't listen, and the dog got ticked off and bit me in the face. I had to go get stitches (I actually only remember teasing the dog, not getting the stitches, mercifully), and I still have the scar today (though admittedly it is pretty faint).
1975 - these memories may or may not be from exactly 1975, but they are from when we lived in the house on Hope Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We moved from there in 1976, so I think they are probably from 1974 or 1975. I remember our back yard had beautiful morning glory flowers on the chain link fence. I remember the fish tank in the living room with the heater lamp that glowed orange. I remember my dad playing "This Little Piggy" with me and pulling on my little toes SO hard. I remember my brother getting his fingers smashed in the door. I remember in the dead of winter how it was DARK forever - even when it was time to wake up, it was still dark outside. I remember going to kindergarten not very far from our home.
1976 - I remember the mock election that we had in our class, choosing between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter for president. I voted for Ford because my parents liked him. I also remember the bicentennial celebration on July 4, 1976. I was pleased that I learned such a big word.
1977 - I finished first grade and when I got my report card, it said I was going to be in third grade the next year. My parents had arranged for me to skip second grade (I was working above grade level and they thought I'd be bored), and I remember that I found out from my report card. Maybe this is not true, but it's how I remember it. I remember running home to ask my mom why they made that mistake. Again, this seems too bizarre to be true, so maybe it's not, but it's what I remember. I do still have the report card, though.
1978 - I remember learning my times tables, and I enjoyed it a lot. Our family took a trip to Southern California in the middle of the winter, and it was awesome. I remember how WARM and GREEN it was when we got off the plane (and how exciting it was to ride on the plane!), and how much fun it was to go to Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, the La Brea Tar pits, etc.
1979 - I believe it was in the summer of '79 that my family traveled to Colorado for a vacation with my mom's family. We rented a house, and the kids got the upstairs. There was a pool to swim in, and lots of hiking, which I disdained. I did hike Twin Sisters, but I remember how thin the air was at the top and how I breathed so hard with every step. I know I complained a lot on the hikes (sorry, mom and dad) and in general probably made a stench of myself.
1980 - In May 1980 we moved to Pennsylvania from Wisconsin. This was particularly traumatic for me, for some reason. I missed my friend Cindy, from Wisconsin (hey, maybe I can find her on Facebook?), and I really hated Pennsylvania for the first six months. It was a really tough time. Eventually, I met my friend Laurie (who remained a good friend in high school, and who was the maid of honor at our wedding), and I adjusted OK. In other news from this year, I remember working on the Mozart Clarinet Concerto for the first time (I started playing the clarinet in 1978 or so, because my mom had played it). I wish now that I had had a really good clarinet teacher and some really good piano teachers when I was growing up; I didn't have a really good piano teacher until 1985 or so). Other random stuff - I remember the hostage crisis in Iran quite vividly, as I delivered the Trenton Times in our neighborhood (yes, we lived in PA but Trenton was right across the river) and it was on the front page almost every day.
1981 - Speaking of current events, I remember the assassination attempt on President Reagan quite vividly. I was leaving school for the day when I found out about it getting on the bus. Not sure if the bus driver told us or if it was another student, but I remember feeling very sad that someone would want to shoot the president. Other randomness - I remember playground fights with my sometimes friend sometimes enemy, Krista. Yes, I actually got into fisticuffs on more than one occasion and had to go to the principal's office. I remember that she provoked me, but maybe I am just remembering the way I want to remember it. I also remember rumors that a boy named John in our 6th grade class was caught smoking pot (knowing him, I believe it).
1982 - I was in junior high at Pennwood Junior High, and I liked circulating from class to class. I did not, however, like junior high. The education was fine, but I was not popular (probably because I was smart and NOT athletic at ALL), and was teased a lot. I prefer not to think about junior high if I can avoid it. One positive thing I remember was being in the jazz band (even though the director was HORRIBLE!), because it helped me to develop my sense of rhythm.
1983 - I began high school in the fall of 1983, and things were a lot better for me in high school. Probably the best part of high school was being in the marching band. Yes, band people were thought of as being nerdy, but we were all nerdy together, and I had lots of friends in band. Awesome. I was a good clarinetist, and I enjoyed playing in concert band as well. I continued to play the piano in the jazz band, too.
1984 - I went to my first dance with my first boyfriend. I remember being so excited about the dance! My mom is a talented seamstress and made a beautiful pink dress for me to wear. It was off the shoulder, and I remember feeling very elegant. By the way, I have found my first boyfriend on Facebook and it turns out he is gay, interestingly enough.
1985 - The marching band took a trip to Washington, D.C. to play in a performance there. Road trips were always an awesome thing. My sophomore English teacher told me that I was the most nervous A+ student she had ever had. Truer words were never spoken - that was me; great student, and overly anxious about everything. It's still a bit true (the anxiety part).
1986 - January 1st, our band marched in the Tournament of Roses Parade. That was one of life's more amazing experiences. The size of the parade was awe-inspiring, and we had been in some big parades (the Philly T-giving parade every year, for one). The floats were fabulous. The crowds were very supportive, except for the one drunk guy that kicked the back of my knee while we were at parade rest. All in all, a fabulous trip with great memories and good friends. I participated in county band and district band (3 counties or so).
1987 - I graduated from high school as one of 5 tied for valedictorian. I did not, however, have to give a speech (nor did I want to). The top 20 in the class could try out to give the commencement address, and they chose two. In band, I participated in county, district, regional, and state band (yeah, I was a 3rd clarinet, but I was still in the state band!). That summer I enjoyed a trip to Taiwan with the Pennsylvania Lions All-State Band, and stayed when everyone else left, because my family went to Taiwan for 3 weeks. My dad had been working in Taiwan on and off for 2 years (one month there, one month home) and in the fall, the rest of my family (mom, dad, brother) moved there while I went on to college at UC San Diego, with a National Merit Scholarship and a Regents' Scholarship. On the second day of freshman chemistry class, I met Loren quite by chance when he happened to sit next to me in the back (he had arrived 1 hr early by mistake and sat in the front, but then had to leave, tripping over people, when he discovered it was a Third World Studies class... so when he came back, he sat next to me!). We started dating at the end of the quarter (UCSD is on the 3 quarter system).
1988 - College agreed pretty well with me; I met a lot of great friends and loved living in San Diego. The weather was wonderful and I never got tired of it. As a sophomore, I scored a single room on the 9th floor of Tioga Hall, with an ocean view. That is probably the only time I'll ever be able to afford that :)! I continued my most-nervous-A+ student ways, getting great grades but being stressed out a lot in general. I played the clarinet in the pep band, and visited my family in Taiwan on spring break and during the summer.
1989 - Loren visited Taiwan with me in the summer. This is how my family decided that he was quite serious about me. When I returned to San Diego, I bought a freeway-legal scooter (a 1983 Yamaha Riva) and lived off-campus in an apartment for the first time.
1990 - I got my first lab job, in Ken Chien's lab. I did primary tissue culture from neonatal rat hearts, and it was great experience for my future career (I also met a graduate student there, Sutip, who I was to run into much later in an interesting turn of events). In the fall of 1990 I started a senior research project in Bob Schmidt's lab, studying maize transposons. I learned a ton about cloning and screening libraries.
1991 - I got a flat tire on my scooter and wiped out on the shoulder of the freeway, going about 30 mph, and ended up in the hospital with road rash. I still have the scars on my knee. I was petrified to drive my scooter after that, but couldn't afford a car, so until I graduated in June, I kept driving it. Actually, it got stolen the day of my last final, and I got a loan from my dad to buy my first car, a 1988 Ford Festiva, which served me well until I gave it away in 1996. I started my first "real" job on July 10th, working in custom services for Invitrogen Corporation, as employee #77 or something like that (now they have thousands of employees). I made cDNA libraries for customers at first, and later did baculovirus expression and custom subcloning and sequencing projects.
1992 - Loren got accepted to UC Davis School of Medicine in March, and we got engaged a few weeks later. He left for school in the fall of 1992, and we had 9 months of a long-distance relationship. That was hard, and I hope I never have to do it again.
1993 - We got married in June, and I left my family and a job I loved to move to Davis to be with Loren. My brother lived in Davis, though, so that was a plus. However, the first 6 months of my life in Davis were really tough. I was NOT a happy camper, and it was one of the more miserable times I remember. It took me a while to make friends (though when I did make them they were good ones that I still keep in touch with), and it also took a while for me to get used to my job.
1994 - On my birthday, some of my new friends "kidnapped" me and took me to play mini-golf and have dinner with them and their husbands (and Loren of course). I remember feeling like I was finally comfortable living there. I loved the beautiful almond blossoms that came out about the time of my birthday.
1995 - I learned how to play the organ this year, because the church we attended needed an organist badly enough that they paid for me to take lessons. It was a busy time, because I practiced the organ for an hour before I went to work in the mornings and also practiced the piano for an hour in the evenings. I did a recital on the piano in the summer, and sent a recording to Loren's grandpa as well as to my grandparents and our parents. This proved to be a good thing to do, as I will explain later.
1996 - Loren graduated from medical school and matched in family practice residency in Modesto, CA, his first choice. Match Day is a very weird experience - you open a letter and find out where you're going - bizarre. Anyway, we moved to Modesto in June, and I decided to do a piano performance major at California State Stanislaus. Music and science have both been important to me for a long time, and it was time to do a little music! In October, after I'd been in school for a month, Loren's grandfather passed away, and left us his Steinway piano! He had been wondering who to give it to when he died, and when he got the recording I sent him, he decided that we needed to have it. It's still one of my most treasured possessions, even though I don't get to practice as much as I'd like.
1997 - This was a hard year. Residency was not agreeing with Loren, and school was quite challenging for me - not so much academically as musically. Practicing 4 hours a day was a constant challenge, but it was also fun in a weird sort of way. I loved learning the new repertoire. I also played my clarinet a lot more, in the wind ensemble there. In the summer, I ended up working in a molecular biology lab again (this time a lab that was associated with a nursery for fruit and nut trees) to help pay the bills.
1998 - Loren left the residency program, in probably one of the lowest points in our married life. He did some temp jobs for a while and finally landed a job in an urgent care, which paid quite well, but was a miserable experience. He needed OUT of clinical medicine. I continued working in the molecular biology lab, and played a not-so-great junior recital. I was prepared, but I was very nervous and didn't handle the nerves very well. I vowed it would be different the next year.
1999 - I did my senior recital, and it was a very good performance. Loren landed a spot in the medical informatics program at the University of Utah, and we moved to Utah for what we thought would be a 2 year stint here. Guess what? 10 years later, we're still here!
2000 - I met my friend Sarah at our friend Valerie's wedding reception. Sarah's friend Jill introduced us and said we were each others' "twin couple" because of our interests in medicine, science, and music. How true that was! I taught a bunch of piano students, worked part time at Salt Lake Theological Seminary (SLTS) in the library, and took some classes there.
2001 - I completed a Certificate in Christian Studies from SLTS. Loren finished his classes in medical informatics, but didn't get a job in informatics for a few years for a variety of reasons. This was also a very rough year for us as a couple, but we came out stronger on the other end.
2002 - Loren was only working part-time, as a database administrator, so I decided to work full-time in molecular biology again. That was a great decision, and things got a lot better once we had a little better income stream. Remember Sutip, the graduate student in Ken Chien's lab? He comes back into the story here, because my new boss at the U knew Sutip and worked with him, and Sutip moved to Utah shortly thereafter and I reconnected with him - funny how life is like that! In other news, we bought a house in Salt Lake City and settled down, which suited me well because I was tired of moving so often (I had moved in 1993, 1996, and 1999). One of the highlights of 2002 was when I volunteered for the Winter Olympics here, working at the ice hockey venue. We also attended 6 Olympic events, and it was extremely memorable.
2003 - I continued to enjoy my job in the lab, and we added a second bathroom to our house. That was fortuitous considering what was ahead in 2004. It was very good to have a bathroom on the same level as our bedroom.
2004 - we found out in January that we were expecting our first baby at the end of September (hence, the bathroom was a very good thing). Calvin arrived 6 days late, in October.
2005 - about 90+ lbs overweight, I joined Weight Watchers on Super Bowl weekend in February 2005, and it changed my life for the better. I lost 77 lb before I found out in November 2005 that I was pregnant with our second child. I began walking fast in August 2005, and that changed my life as well, which you know if you read this blog regularly. Loren got his current job in April, and I went part-time in the lab in June.
2006 - Michelle was born at the end of June, and I lost the rest of the weight and reached my goal in October. I continued to walk really fast but had rotten technique.
2007 - I did my first half marathon, took a racewalking clinic, fixed my technique, and got a lot faster. I did a lot of races in 2007, including a second half marathon in the fall.
2008 - I continued racewalking a lot, doing a half marathon, a marathon, lots of 5Ks, and a few 10Ks. I competed in the National Masters' Championships (USATF) in August in Spokane, winning my age group. I was awarded racewalker of the year for my age group by the Masters' Racewalking committee. I continued to maintain my weight, reaching my 2nd year at Lifetime status for Weight Watchers. I was laid off from my lab job at the end of August, but I started coaching for Team in Training shortly thereafter, which I am really enjoying.
2009 - It's only been a month so not too much has happened, except that I continue to nurse a nagging IT band injury. I'm hoping to get in superb shape for the Portland Marathon in the fall :). Oh, and I'm turning 39 in 29 more days, and enjoying the celebrations with my friend Sarah!
3 comments:
Hey Tammy, how fun it was to read this! Some of my reactions were:
1. it was obvious from your baby book that you were a first child! (I have no such documentation, being the 5th). Cute!
2. I tied for valedictorian of our high school class, too, with one other girl. Neither of us gave a speech. Lucky for me, I would have died of embarrassment! Oh yeah, I had a National Merit Scholarship too. :-)
3. How odd that we both did rat-heart research in college!
4. I never knew how you got your Steinway. That's cool!
This is fun - thanks for doing it with me.
Tammy, I read this with great interest to see what events in your life you thought were important enough to write about. Your take on skipping second grade was different, though, from what actually happened. We didn't arrange for you to skip second grade. The school recommended that you skip second grade, and we gave our consent to that. I believe we told you, though, before it appeared on your report card.
I was surprised about your first boyfriend being gay now. Was that Jesse?
Mom
Thanks for the great trip down memory lane.
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