Out damn meme! Out I say!

[annissamazing]

Yet here's a meme:

This is the problem with LJ: we all think we are so close, and we know nothing about each other. I'm going to rectify it. I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Feel free to ask tough questions. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Comments

[nixxignatius.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think LJ is a way to get to know people a little bit better.

[annissamazing]

That's not a question. :P

Seriously, I use LJ as a way to keep in touch with my friends that I don't get to see very often. There's not a single person on my friends list that I see every day or even every month.

[sorrowballad.livejournal.com]

How did you end up in Ohio?

I hear about your job but i dont really know what you do and what the company you work for does.

Oh yes, where did you go to college and what [if one was achieved] degree did you get [i am remembering the blurb about having to read a horrible text by john ashcroft]

sorry these arent "tough questions" i am sure you will survive ;)

[annissamazing]

Well, the first one is tough. Not because it's hard to answer, but because it's embarrassing. This is probably a longer answer than you're looking for, but I think it does me good to reflect on it every once in a while.

When I was still living in Clarkston, I met a guy named Tom on an internet chatroom. He lived on Long Island. We were "together" for a year and a half and I flew over to visit him a few times. Lisa was dating someone from Ohio from that same internet chatroom. He came to visit her in Clarkston and invited both of us to move back to Ohio with him. It would work for Lisa since they could be together and it would work for me because I could use Ohio as a stepping stone to move on to New York in about a year. Wellllll Lisa's relationship didn't work out and she flew home, but I was still "seeing" Tom so I stayed behind and got myself an apartment in the slums of Akron. It was a three room apartment on the second floor of an enormous old house. The attic and basement of the house had been condemned. My apartment had a living room that was, and I'm not kidding, the size of a king-size comforter. The bedroom was slightly larger. The kitchen was the biggest room, but felt smaller because that's where the bathtub was located. There was a toilet and sink in a closet. My neighbor was a pot-dealing ex-prostitute named Angie. Her boyfriend, Shofawnn (we called him "Chipper") was a crack dealer. Miss Rose lived in one of the downstairs apartments and would occasionally bring me potato salad. I never had the heart to tell her that I hate potato salad. She spent most of her day sitting by her front window watching people come and go through the neighborhood. She would question anybody who came to the door to see if they should be allowed in. Every once in a while, she would stop me on my way out and ask me for bus fare. I always gave it to her. She often cooked chitterlings (chit'lins) for dinner. There was an abandoned house between me and my closest neighbor outside the house. After Justin moved in with me, we would park his car in the driveway of the abandoned house and our neighbor would watch it for us. He barbecued ribs on his porch every night regardless of the weather. We would give his "old lady" a ride to work occasionally and he would give us ribs. Best. Ribs. Ever. Turns out that his Old Lady is the ex-sister-in-law of a current co-worker of mine. Small world.

Eventually the whole house was condemned and we had to move somewhere else. We found a nice apartment building in Cuyahoga Falls.

I had gotten a job at a jewelry manufacturer on the other side of town and that's where I met Justin. I worked in quality control and eventually moved up to purchasing. Justin was the loose goods worker (he sorted the gems). Think of every nasty, horrible, jewish stereotype and you have the owner of that company. I stayed for 14 months before I finally had had enough and looked for another job. I eventually found the one I'm at now.

I currently work for an international environmental consulting firm. We specialize in urban and utility forestry, arborist training, and environmental services including indoor mold and asbestos testing and wetland delineations. I'm the assistant to the vice president of Natural Resource Sciences (aka urban forestry), Information Technology, and Environmental Services. My job is to make sure things don't fall through the cracks. I am also in charge of the design and content of the company website. In addition to my normal job, I'm chairman of the ESOP Communications Committee. ESOP stands for Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Back in 1999, the owner of our company decided to give the company to the employees as a means of succession. ESOPs bring with them many benefits. It's my job to communicate those benefits to our employee-owners so they can make the wisest decisions possible in regards to performing their jobs.

I took a few classes through Ashworth College (I see they're sending spam out advertising their services now), but I never earned a degree. I was studying law.

[sorrowballad.livejournal.com]

thanks for the info, annissa. its an adventure to get us where we are!

[sorrowballad.livejournal.com]

I was also wondering about a couple people i was find of in high school.

What do you know if the whereabouts and such of Stacey Stearn and Seth Truscott?

they are the only ones i can think of right now that i think acout periodically. People i'd love to see again.

[annissamazing]

Yes! Stacey lives in Ireland now and is married to a man named Diarmaid. I hear from her occasionally through email, but she doesn't check it very often. She also has a livejournal that she has never written in. I'm trying to get her to start. :)

Seth is in Yelm (I think) and is dating Anna Harlow. I also have his email address. If your email address in your profile is correct, I'd be happy to pass it on to them.

[sorrowballad.livejournal.com]

yes, i would like that. thank you.