’something fishy’

Yesterday marked the 13th anniversary of my first day at Microsoft. When I mentioned this to my dad, he responded, “Lot of water under the bridge, some good, some not so. Life goes on.” Good point. Over the past 13 years of my life, I:

• Had 16 offices or cubicles, and 14 bosses
• Purchased 12 cars, trucks, motorcycles, and watercraft
• Drove my favorite car on a racetrack, and wrecked it the following week
• Had 5 car insurance policies, 1 insurance claim (see above)
• Had 5 flat tires
• Purchased or built 9 PC’s or laptops. Accidentally shot 1 of them, intentionally shot 2 others
• Purchased 2 homes; gave one away, lost the other
• Had 9 “permanent” addresses
• Had 13 email addresses, 10 phone numbers, and 12 cell phones. Shot one of those too
• Had 2 hairstyles and 2 last names, both of which changed at the same time
• Purchased 5 TiVo’s, 4 receivers, 4 subwoofers, 4 sets of speakers, and 4 TV’s
• Had 1 pair of sunglasses
• Dated 7 women, lived with 3, proposed to 1
• Tried playing step-dad to 2 children, failed miserably
• Saw 4 weddings and 5 divorces
• Became an uncle twice, and learned that the third installment is on his way
• Saw friends and family become parents roughly 20 times
• Saw friends and family miscarry 4 children, and bury 1
• Said goodbye to 6 friends or coworkers
• Took off, flew, and landed an airplane 3 times
• Flew a helicopter twice
• Went skydiving twice
• Tried snowboarding once (not successful) and wakeboarding twice (somewhat successful)
• Was shot in the chest with 1 roman candle, and narrowly avoided many others
• Kept a plant alive for 9 years (and counting)
• Graduated from high school with a long-delayed GED
• Attended 2 quarters of college
• Visited Idaho ~10 times, the San Juan Islands ~7 times, Oregon 5 times, Canada 3 times, Nevada 3 times, California twice, New York twice, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, Georgia, and Utah
• Saw Les Miserables 4 times, Cirque du Soleil 4 times, Phantom of the Opera 3 times, the Blue Man Group twice, the Vagina Monologues, the Magic Flute, Dialogues des Carmelites, Jonathan Coulton 3 times, Def Leppard, Billy Joel, the Dixie Chicks, Counting Crows, Steven Wright, and Rodney Carrington
• Had 4 cats and 2 dogs
• Broke no bones, lost very little blood, never landed in the hospital, and heard the phrase, “Dude, you are so lucky” about 132 times

I’m sure there are more noteworthy events, and I’m sure some of these numbers are low, but it’s all I can think of right now. The list as it is reminds me of one my favorite quotes;

You know what a learning experience is?
A learning experience is one of those things that says,
“You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.”
– Douglas Adams

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.