So, I’m turning 30 29 again on Friday. As many of you know, Back to the Future has been my favorite movie since forever so I’ used to think a lot about what my life would be like in 2015. 30 seemed so so so far away. I don’t think life is too far off from where I thought I would be. I certainly don’t look or feel as old as I thought I would, yay.
My 20s started out pretty terrible. I had an awful stomach thing, looking back it was probably an ulcer. I really should have gone to the doctor. I had just finished a very lonely semester at school because Rachelle transferred, and I was dealing with that stalker guy who did turn out to be harmless, but I really shouldn’t have talked to him in the first place :-/
I briefly dated Adi and then I was back to being alone again, though at least Carolyn was at Rutgers, which helped. One night, I was feeling particularly depressed and couldn’t sleep. I logged into Facebook and saw this:
I work at the Busch Convenience Store, and the other night I was in charge of the store for the night and I happened to be on register when you checked out. I know I’ve seen you in there a lot, and every time I see you I think you’re really really really attractive. As soon as I was done with that transaction I went to have my dinner, and we have a computer in the back. So I just thought I’d look you up on facebook, since I couldn’t help but remember your name flashing up as “Elissa”… It’s a really cool name, and not that common so it stuck in my head.
Though getting him to ask me out was pretty difficult, so I finally asked him over t watch Rent and we’ve been together ever since.
Senior year of college was better socially with Bryan, Emily and Helen around, but my classes were really tough and I nearly had a nervous breakdown a few times. I had planned to go to graduate school, but I couldn’t take anymore, so I shifted my focus and looked for a job instead of a summer internship.
I had two offers in March. One place up by my parents and AT&T down here. It wasn’t a hard decision. Even at the interview I felt like I fit in there. I manged to make it out of school alive and with straight As, CS degree, highest honors. I also stopped wearing my retainer apparently. I still have nightmares about that thing.
I moved into the apartment with Bryan and started working. Our first project at att was DBOR test support which pretty much involved us getting yelled at on conference calls for things we had no control over. Then I started doing real development on NCD and finally RUBY. I started really getting into fitness and exercising every day due to my desk job and the cake that came with it.
Bryan and I went on our first trip to Disney together where he proposed on the balcony of our hotel room. On my first real project on RUBY, NFM, I remember meeting with Roy and he wanted me to look at the code while I was on vacation. I told him I’d be busy looking at wedding dresses. I looked at a lot of dresses.
2009 was mostly spent wedding planning. We also went for our first round of CP training in CT and TX. In January 2010, Bryan and I got married and of course went to Disney on our honeymoon. We actually went twice that year. We also couldn’t take the tiny apartment anymore and bought a house. We probably could have gotten a better deal if we waited a year, but this place has worked out nicely. Once we fixed the deadly bathtub and other DIY improvements the previous owners made.
I finally made my community theater debut as Little Miss Muffet in Babes in Toyland. I think I was shaking the first ten minutes of every show. Despite performing and joining Toast Masters, my social anxiety still gets the best of me most of the time.
At work I took over as the lead of the One Team, our social planning committee and held that position for over 2 years before passing it off. That was a lot of work, but at least I got a nice bonus that first year.
I went to Rome with my parents and ate a lot of gelato, got lost frequently, took a cooking class. Our tour of the Vatican was pretty incredible and it was nice to see Melanie in Naples.
2012 I traveled to Florida twice for CP training and once for Disney. That was also the year of Hurricane Sandy where we lost power for nine days and lived like Nomads. Carolyn and Rachelle both got married that fall. Helen and Darian’s wedding was the following year along with our trip to San Fransisco to visit Chris and Rae.
Of course the best year of my twenties was this past year. Lyra was born early, but strong. Being pregnant with Owen was quite an experience and giving birth of course, life with a newborn. Those first few months were rough, but things are pretty great now. I hope life continues it’s upwards trend.
Over the next decade, I hope to have another baby, you know, once this one is potty trained. I had wanted a girl, but I can see us with another boy too, plus I actually have another boy name I like and I’m no longer crazy about our girl name. I also want to finally get a dog, but don’t know if it’ll be between kids or after the second one.
I don’t plan to ever leave att. It’s so nice being able to work from home and play with Owen during breaks. Plus it’s close by, not too stressful, interesting projects. I don’t know how I feel about this SDN stuff yet, but there are always other projects.
I’d like to do another show at some point, probably not at least until Owen’s old enough to be in one. And by then we’ll have another one, so who knows.
I don’t have too many goals left to fulfill. Just to spend as much time with family as possible. Can’t wait to take that first trip with Owen to Disney.