Anniversaries

Tomorrow is our 5th wedding anniversary, and it feels like a bit of a milestone. This morning, the blog of Niffgurd got “tagged” and his recounting of past events inspired me. Here’s what’s happened to me so far.

20 Years Ago:
1. I was in the 5th grade at Tilman Elementary School in Kirkwood, MO. I had already been to four different elementary schools and lived in 6 different towns.
2. My two best friends at the time, Katie Unland and Beth Brown, have both since passed away.
3. I danced ballet, tap and jazz three times a week, and I knew I was going to grow up to be a famous ballerina in New York.
4. I’m pretty sure it was almost exactly 20 years ago this week that my Mom came into my bedroom one night before bed and told me I was likely to have another little brother next summer. My first thought at the time was “Oh my God! My parents had sex!”

10 Years Ago:
1. I was starting my sophomore year at Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. in Terre Haute, Indiana.
2. I was learning to program in Java and C++.
3. I knew I was going to grow up to be a famous dot-com entrepreneur and CEO.
4. I went rockclimbing for the first time ever as part of a Pike rush event at a gym in Indianapolis that fall.

5 Years Ago:
1. I was on the Outer Banks with my closest friends and family as I prepared to marry Mark Calder.
2. A week before the wedding, our beach had been hit by Hurricane Isabel.
3. On the morning of our wedding we went boogie boarding in 6 foot waves, and I got a little beaten up.
4. It started raining about an hour before the ceremony, but we had it outside anyway. Everybody had umbrellas except Mark and I, who stood out in the rain and pledged to spend the rest of our lives together. As soon as the Rev. said “I now pronounce you Man and Wife,” it stopped raining.

There’s quite a few fun pictures of our two-week long wedding odyssey on my old Pbase site.

3 Years Ago:
1. Mark and I were living in Fort Collins, Colorado, as I started my second year of grad school.
2. Mark’s contracting job with our old company in Indianapolis was drying up and he was beginning life among the unemployed.
3. I knew I was going to grow up to be a famous climatologist and save the planet. I was hoping to have a weather phenomenon named after me.
4. After three solid years of rockclimbing, I was starting to have anxiety issues and was not climbing as much. Mark and Tom were climbing together constantly, and it was about this time of year, three years ago, that Mark and Tom climbed the 5.10 variation of Yellow Spur, with Mark leading the technical cruxes.

1 Year Ago:
1. I had recently started on medication for my anxiety, and was sleeping through the night for the first time in 9 months.
2. I was working hard on my Master’s Thesis.
3. Liv was in a cast after slicing clean through two tendons on her back left leg.
4. We had just spent a great day climbing Baobob Tree in Vedauwoo with Dylan, Ann, Sean, Doug and Liz.

So Far This Year:
1. I’ve received a Master’s Degree in Atmospheric Science and I’ve been accepted into the Phd program at CSU.
2. I taught a college-level class on Global Climate Change at Colorado College.
3. I managed to keep a consistent yoga practice throughout the year.
4. Mark and I took our trad climbing to new heights by pulling off clean ascents of 5.9 crack climbs at Lumpy Ridge and Vedauwoo.

Yesterday:
1. I finished my half of a presentation of my work for several famous climate and atmospheric scientists (to be presented on Monday).
2. I received notice that I am accepted into the Workshop on Reducing the Uncertainty in the Prediction of Global Warming in Jerusalem next January!
3. I scheduled an interview for a part time job doing photography for a local rafting company.
4. Mark and I made a tasty pasta sauce from the tomatoes that are just ripening in our garden.

Today:
1. I put a whole bunch of cool songs on the green iPod Shuffle that Mark got for me as an anniversary gift.
2. Jim sent me his half of the presentation and I’ve put them together and delivered them to the meeting organizer.
3. I went to my interview and told them I couldn’t work for them until next March. They kicked me out and said “Then contact us next March!”
4. I went through all of the old photos of our wedding for this post.

In the next year …
1. I’ll submit my first paper to a scientific journal.
2. I’ll have presentations and conferences in San Francisco, New York, and Jerusalem all before the end of January.
3. I’ll take the prelims – a whole week of rigorous testing – and be started on my Phd work officially.
4. Mark and I will start trying to make a baby.