A decade of me

I got this idea from Brazen's blog and thought it looked fun:

A Decade Of Me:

1998: January I moved from Massachusetts to Oregon. My first straight-through solo cross country drive. I had accepted a job at the hostpital where my friend Diva worked, and would be living with her. Oh what fun! Only, after the 3000 mile drive, I showed up for what I thought was my first day of work for...another interview? Anyway, they kept calling me back for more and more interviews until I just sent out my resume and accepted a position with a per diem company. PT jobs were few and far between that year, so I did a lot of snowboarding and hiking, camping and slumming on friends' sofas. I finally got a 3 month stint in Washington at the end of the summer. I accepted a full time position and moved from Oregon to Washington.

1999: Good job, lots of friends, excellent gym, outdoor activities galore. I dated K, whom I had met in 1998. He dumped me after 4 months for a STRIPPER he met at a wet T shirt contest! Who the hell does that? (his loss) Later that year, I got together with PhysicsGeek and actually managed to drag him out into the sunshine every so often.

2000: Had a small melt-down from the whole 'turning 30' thing. This was the year I ran a marathon, went to Hawaii, learned Spanish, and got my advanced diving certification. It had gotten harder and harder to pull PhysicsGeek outside, so I had to let him go. I had a nice, casual, thing with 80'sHairGuy.

2001: With more jobs in my field opening up, I decided to start traveling again. I liked Washington, but had gotten too comfortable. I could see myself waking up 10 years later with no idea where the time went. So I took off for California. I was in the San Francisco Bay area and I met M. In the late spring, my contract ended and I ended up in Bakersfield, CA. M and I spent every weekend driving to see one another. I went back to Massachusetts for the summer (solo cross country trip southern route).I missed M like crazy. 6 weeks after 9/11, I was on a cross country flight back to California while my jeep was shipped.

2002: Spent half the year in San Fran, the other half north of Napa in Clearlake. My life revolved around working, seeing M, and planning trips back east to see the family. Went to the winter olympics in Salt Lake City. It was awesome.

2003: Still in Clearlake. M had bought me a guitar for Christmas and I was learning to play it. We spent weekends hiking, camping, watching movies, and playing guitars together. Climbed Mt. Shasta. In the fall, I moved closer to M, back to the Bay Area, in South San Francisco.

2004: Good job, lots of friends, close to M, close to the city. I took a permanent job with the company I was contracting for. I had to get my own place (rather than company housing I had been living in). M and I went apartment hunting and he helped me to furnish the place. Life is good.

2005: My company lost the contract at the facility I was working at, so I moved to another closer to my apartment. M was working nights, I was working days, and every weekend was some new adventure. My life was filled with work, guitar lessons, fitness boot camp after work, friends, and of course, M.

2006: I loved my life, but I was homesick. I had a neice who didn't know who I was. She was afraid of me. M and I had talked about moving back east for some time. He missed the east coast, too. In August, I made the move back home, the same week as 7 other of my California friends (including Nerd). (Solo cross country drive middle route) M was supposed to follow, we just didn't have a set timeline. He came to see me in September. I went to see him in December. I moved into my loft apartment at J and K's.

2007: Troubled times with me and M. He cancelled out on planned trips. He didn't go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans with me, and was upset that I still went with me friends. Went to San Fran in May for Bay to Breakers and reconciled things with M. He started a job search for Massachusetts. June: M called off the job search and broke up with me over the phone. Haven't spoken to him since. The summer sucked. Saw Van Halen live for the 16th time (with Nerd). Started training for a marathon.

2008: Started blogging with monthly goals. Ran a marathon in February. Went to the Caribbean in April. Did Bay to Breakers in May. Started doing triathlons in June. Hooked up with Nerd in July. Got nominated for a work award in August. No longer feel like 10 years could go by without knowing where it went. No longer pining away for M. Took me a long time to get back to being the person I was back in 1998.

Thanks to the blogging community who have helped me in that journey back to myself.