MEMEMEMEME

Kate over at The Big Piece of Cake tagged me a few weeks ago for the WORLD'S LONGEST MEME!!! I've never seen such a long one before. It's been like a final project or something, and I started it last year so the dates are all off now. I'm not doing it over, so here's what I've got:


ALL ABOUT ME
10 years ago: This is hard - so much has happened since then! In 1998 I was in my second year of officially being just a bass player and not a piano teacher. I played in a bunch of local big bands and orchestras and with a jazz septet up in Baltimore. I played a bunch of shows and other miscellaneous gigs. I did a show called "Swingtime Canteen" for six weeks in North Carolina, and forced my husband to become more organized in the way he ran his business. What did I do for fun? Most of my fun involved playing the bass!

8 years ago: In 2000, I was playing in a popular local swing quintet, I had my first steady restaurant gig with a jazz trio - 2 nights a week for four years, I played for a big band theme cruise on the QE2, followed by a fabulous vacation in France and the Netherlands, and I ended the year at Bluesville in Tunica MS playing with the Artie Shaw band for New Year's Eve. I continued to work on the side as Doug's "office manager."

6 years ago: In 2002 I got my thyroid taken out and, like magic, I was no longer depressed for no apparent reason. I had started working on my M.M. in jazz studies but that was interrupted by a touring opportunity in the fall which lasted for four years. At the end of the year I ended up being car number 3 in a four car pileup and my bass was completely demolished. The repairs took 8 months but when I got my bass back it was better than ever.


2 years ago: 2006 was easily the crappiest year of my life. Although the fire happened in 2005, it wasn't until 2006 that I finally began to realize what we were in for. We were still dealing with all kinds of fire-related issues, both emotional and financial in nature, and I was not at all happy that I would have to stop touring and doing cruise gigs in order to deal with everything. We tried to plan our house while we were on the road but it was impossible. We were on tour for the first half of the year and had loads of fun in Albuquerque and Hawaii and other places too, but there was also a huge shadow hanging over us. When we got back home we emptied out the charred remains of our house into four huge dumpsters, sawed through the connection between our old house and the addition and watched the 1870s part, which we had lived in for our entire married life, get torn down and carried away. And then basically nothing else happened for the rest of the year. Except I took jazz theory at UMD to keep my mind off of all of the things that weren't happening. I told you it was a crappy year!

Five yummy things:
1. Peppermint ice cream from Gifford's.
2. Mexican chocolate - the kind that has cinnamon in it.
3. Smoked trout - I've only ever had it on cruise ships but it is definitely very very yummy.
4. Sauted spinach - see, I like nutritious food too.
5. Grilled cheese sandwiches made by Doug

That's not all, of course! And since it didn't say favorite yummy things, I just listed the first five things that popped into my head.

Five songs I know by heart:
I know a lot of different kinds of songs, and it's harder to think of the songs than it is to remember the words. This is a completely random list.

1. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
2. Deep Purple (When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls, etc...)
3. My Girl
4. Natural Woman
5. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)

Five places I would like to escape to:
1. Italy
2. Spain
3. Greece
4. New Zealand
5. Hawaii


Five things I would never wear:
1. Hats - I hate wearing hats!
2. Shoes that are too tight
3. Christmas sweaters
4. Orange
5. Chunky jewelry


Five favorite TV shows:
I haven't had a TV since 2005 and I've only watched TV in hotels since then so this list is kind of random and old.

1. Law and Order - all versions of it.
2. ER - is it still on?
3. Weeds - I rented it and watched it on my computer. I thought Season One was better than Season Two.
4. Friends - I only ever saw reruns. It reconfirmed my secret desire to live in NYC.
5. Days of Our Lives - but I haven't seen it in years.

Five things I enjoy doing:
1. Playing music
2. Traveling
3. Going to movies
4. Going to jazz clubs
5. Imagining my house being finished so I can get on with my life

Five Favorite toys: (in no particular order)
1. My Laptop, although I liked my last one better
2. My "Thumper"
3. Blanche (my CRV)
4. My instruments - although I don't really regard them as toys
5. My new sewing machine, although I haven't had much time to use it yet.

I'm sure this list will be completely different in another few months. It will hopefully contain exciting things like dishwasher, garbage disposal, TV, etc.
Five people who I am tagging to fill this out:
I don't like to bug people, but I guess tagging is part of the whole meme process, so here are the lucky recipients:

1. Sing Like Sassy - to get back at her for tagging me for my first and hopefully next to last meme.
2. Bozoette - because the last time I tagged her she said she actually enjoyed doing memes.
3. Livit, Luvit - because she might enjoy doing this and I think people would enjoy reading it.
4. Looking2Live - because it's her fault I even got into blogging!
5. The Gilahi Blog - this is kind of a random choice because I mostly just lurk around his blog - he's probably going to wonder "what the hell?" if he ever even happens to stumble upon this.

Whew, done!!! Enough about me already!