Tuesday, October 22, 2013

an exciting 90s flashback!

Do you remember the internet from back in the day, back when there really wasn't a whole lot ON the internet? I do. I remember back in the early 90s, when it was dial-up Prodigy and AOL and all there was to do on the internet was go to chat rooms and make up lies about who you were and then...yeah, that was pretty much it. You were limited to like two hours of internet a month, so you had to really ration out your chatroom-lying sessions to make it last all month. Then I remember when email got 'invented.' Or at least I remember when my friends and I started using it. It's not like we really had anything to say, but there was just something super awesome about tying up the phone line (so that your siblings couldn't talk on the phone) so that you could TYPE the stuff you wanted to say instead of just...saying it with your mouth. Good times, ye internet of olde. 
 
Anyway, I remember in the late 90s and early 2000s when email was pretty well established and I would guess that 90% of the reason was because people discovered the magic of filling out 'surveys.' Well, I call them surveys-- I guess that's not really accurate. LISTS OF QUESTIONS would be more accurate. It was like chain mail- someone would answer this loonnnnng list of questions about herself and then send it to all her friends, and then we would fill it out and forward it on to OUR friends and it was this amazing chain of self-discovery and teenage drama (OMG HE was her first kiss??!?!! AHHHH!!!! My life is ruined!!!). I always loved it. I couldn't WAIT to get another questionnaire email thingie. What probing questions will they think of next??! It was so exciting.
 
All that to say-- in 15 years, not much has changed. I still get excited when I see a bunch of random questions and people want to know my answers. So when Jessica and Caroline nominated me for "Sunshine Awards" and my task/reward is to answer a bunch of questions...well, I got pretty excited. So all that to say-- get ready to probe deep and learn a lot of useless information about yours truly. Here we go!
 
From Jessica
 
1. If you had one food to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Mexican food, of course. I will pretend it all counts as one food. My second choice would be pizza.
 
2. What is your greatest fear?  
Losing Matt. And birds touching me.
 
3. Favorite Bible verse/quote. 
For the last few years, I'd have to go with Lamentations 3:22-24: "The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!'"
 
4. What do you want to be when you grow up?
A mom. And an Office Girl. (This is loosely defined as a girl that works in some kind of office and wears cute clothes. I've always had such lofty goals...)
 
5. If you were an elephant, what color would you want to be?
Most likely gray, since that would probably help me to live longer and not be killed by poachers/predators. But if poaching and survival weren't an issue, then I think a turquoise elephant would be lovely.
 
6. You are an Olympian....what sport are you competing in? 
It's tough to say since I excel at sooooo many sports. Probably pairs figure skating, gymnastics, or synchronized diving.
 
7. If you have 5 minutes of free time at home, what do you find yourself doing? 
Checking blogs, of course.
 
8. Top item on your bucket list. 
Have a kid(s).
 
9. What one feature sets you apart from everyone else?
My freakishly long fingers.
 
10. Are you a crier, screamer or in-betweener? Describe how you most commonly express your emotions.
DEFINITELY not a screamer. I honestly don't think I've ever screamed at anyone (in anger or emotion, that is. I'll holler at you across the house if I can't find you, though. Or if I'm in the shower and I need you to fetch me some shampoo because I forgot and ran out...) I'm not as much of a crier by nature as a lot of girls that I know (and also my dad), but I do tend to cry when I'm angry, which is the lamest thing ever. Mostly I express my negative emotions by being silent and making mean faces. Obviously my emotional maturity level is sky-high.
 
From Caroline
 
1. Night Owl or Early Bird?
Uhhh...Middle of the Afternoon Puppy? First of all, why do we have to use birds as both of our descriptors? And second of all, neither of those times of day is really my forte. But I guess I'm better at night than morning. Maybe.
 
2. How many languages do you speak?
One SUPER WELL (I'll let you guess what that might be), one semi-crappy (Spanish). I do okay conversing with kids in Spanish. Kids that aren't sticklers for grammar and don't care if you conjugate verbs or not. I could also probably get by just fine with Spanish-speaking adult cavemen. I'm great at nouns and I can point, so...yeah. I studied Arabic for 2 years in college, which was approximately enough time to want to stab my brains out. I remember the alphabet still, though!
 
3. Where were you born?
In Ohio, actually. My parents lived there for a short stint and I happened to be born there, but we moved back to Georgia when I was 2 and I've never been back to Ohio. 
 
4. What are you most thankful for in 2013?
Well, if our adoption goes through, I'm guessing I'll be pretty thankful for Ellison.
 
5. What is something you have never done, but would love to try?
I would love to ride in a hot air balloon. I'm pretty sure it would be awesome.
 
6. Warm or cold weather?
Despite the excitement I have right now that the weather is cooling down, I really love warm weather the best. I will be over the cold in about 2 weeks. I enjoy the warm for at least 6 months.
 
7. Youngest, Middle, Oldest or Only child?
OLDEST, obviously. And I live up to pretty much every stereotype you've ever heard of about oldest kids. 
 
8. Do you have any nieces or nephews?
Of course! I have Baby Timmy and Carley. They are the best niece and nephew ever!
 
9. Music or TV/Movies?
I enjoy all of the above.
 
10. Beach or Mountains?
 Beach, hands down, any day. Please. There's not even a competition.

That was as fun as ever! Thanks for the questions, ladies! Now I am going to make some questions of my own so that we can spread the joy of question-answering even further! I'm not going to tag anyone because I have a deep fear of inadvertently leaving someone out and hurting their feelings (maybe I really haven't changed much since the 90s AT ALL), so therefore anyone who feels inspired and/or has writer's block and/or loves puppies should answer these questions on their own blogs. And tell me if you do (or plan to) so that I know to read your answers and become enlightened!

Here's the new questions:

1. If you had to be on a reality TV show, which one would you choose? 
2. If you had to be on a TV game show, which one would you choose?
3. If you could have a top-of-the-line, totally tricked out household appliance (just ONE!) for free, what appliance would you choose?
4. What company could you be the spokesperson for?
5. Why did you start blogging?
6. Would you rather have 10 cats living inside your house or 10 dogs (mixed breeds/sizes)?
7. Which Disney princess do you most identify with? Or prince. Or villain. Or goofy side-kick. 
8. What is your most hated food item?
9. Would you rather have a tame lion or a tame panda as a pet?
10. Did you make up fake identities to use in AOL/Prodigy/CompuServe chatrooms in the 90s? Did you ever meet a perpetually-sixteen-year-old girl named 'summergirl' who was a twin? If so, did you ever wonder what happened with her, since she was such a cool girl with such an amazing life, diverse experiences, and was also filthy rich? I bet her life is awesome now...

Next time I have writer's block, maybe I'll answer these questions myself. In the meantime, I gotta get back to my chatroom...TTYL! A/S/L? LYLAS!

22 comments:

  1. I remember getting my first e-mail address in 1998. I was a little behind the times! Because I loved answering all those forwards, I'll answer your new questions at some point. Maybe on Friday...???

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  2. Fun questions! I used to love doing these surveys back in the day. . .

    I have been on a hot air balloon ride once and it was pretty sweet, so you should totally do it if you get the chance! I did think we were all going to die as we were landing, but obviously I'm still here so I guess it turned out ok. :)

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  3. Agreed, these "surveys" were all the rage back in the day. I remember talking on the phone to a boyfriend one night and me forcing him to listen as I read him all my answers, and he actually fell asleep in the middle of it. BOYS.

    Just to clarify one thing... are you MORE afraid of losing Matt, or birds touching you?

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  4. OMG - I love that you want to be an Office Girl. Ha ha ha! And want to hear something weird? About hot air balloons? I have recurring nightmares about them... seriously!

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  5. I loved those surveys. i was definitely one of those people who posted them on myspace all of the time. these are some quality questions that i will probably try to answer later just for fun. :]

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  6. I used to fight with my grandma about using the internet! She was on an online dater and it was hard to get her off. I loved answering these surveys so a blog post is definitely coming :)

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    1. Becky, this made me laugh out loud! Battling it out with grandma because of her busy online love life--too funny!!

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  7. Birds are stupid so I'm a mid-day puppy all the way, which stinks for working nights! I refuse to be associated with a bird!!! Yup, at 42 I can totally remember first emails, dial up and tying up the phone line. Boy did that make my brothers angry.

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  8. Oh my, did this bring back memories! JB and I were just talking about the days of dial-up Internet last weekend and how frustrated we get if it takes more than 10 seconds for a webpage to load, when we used to wait HOURS for stuff to download back in the olden days. I'm embarrassed to think about how much time I spent in chatrooms and all of the lies I told... But boy did I love a good survey! (Still do for that matter.) Actually, now that I think about it, I'm a fan of anything that wastes time and gets me out of working. :-)

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  9. Your description of 'summergirl' is KILLING me! Brings me back to the days when HotBot was the premiere search engine (but I always chose Lycos because I liked the dog). Confession: When my husband and I first started dating, we filled out a couple of those surveys and emailed them back and forth. (That was in 2005....yikes.) I still have the emails, and every once in a while it's fun to go back and see what we wrote when we were just beginning.

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  10. Too funny my sisters and I had to share time on the computer when the internet first came out. We'd each get like 30 mins at a time, it was killer waiting! haha It is your lucky day because I also nominated you for the sunshine award but I guess I kinda forgot to tell ya SO you get more questions to answer, BINGO! http://isittimeforourfamily.blogspot.com/2013/10/sunshine-award.html

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  11. I love these and just posted my answers. I'm also a stereotypical oldest child. Callaway Gardens has a Hot Air Balloon Festival every September. We did a tethered ride, I know it's not the same but it was fun!

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  12. HAHA! This is AWESOME!!! The things I told people in chat rooms... ridiculous. And the fact that I had the patience to deal with dial up and AIM and all of that stuff is shocking... if the spinning wheel of death pops up for like two seconds I'm ready to FREAK OUT now! Good times!

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  13. also I answered your questions on my blog

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  14. Oh my gosh! I love your analogy. 90s internet rocked. AIM every night.

    Here are some of my answers to your questions...
    1. If you had to be on a reality TV show, which one would you choose? Amazing Race....not sure if this counts as a game show or reality TV but traveling and competing would be awesome!
    5. Why did you start blogging? To document our lives - so much easier than journaling and kind of combines scrapbooking.
    6. Would you rather have 10 cats living inside your house or 10 dogs (mixed breeds/sizes)? Ew, none. But dogs rule, cats drool.
    8. What is your most hated food item? Spam, not that I have ever tried it.
    9. Would you rather have a tame lion or a tame panda as a pet? Lion, Pandas kind of freak me out.
    10. Did you make up fake identities to use in AOL/Prodigy/CompuServe chatrooms in the 90s?.... Summergirl???? I was Sunshinegirl. LOL! I bet we would have been instant friends.

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  15. Omg. This takes me back to like 2007. When I first started in the corporate world and we used to group email these on Friday's to brighten up our gray corporate cubes. I wish we didn't have to pretend we were too old and busy for such nonsense now. Quizzes are the best!

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  16. Thanks for bringing back the glory days of AIM. I was addicted. Even in college. And xanga, oh my! loved stalking people on xanga. So glad you are a warm weather girl, I knew there was a special bond there for a reason ;)

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  17. I'm so totally going to do this! Also, you have too many friends/blog followers named Amanda. I am going to claim the spot as #1 Amanda and the rest of them will have to come up with nicknames.

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  18. You crack me up! And you totally brought back some memories. We have come a long way since dial up! :)

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  19. Oldest children REPRESENTIN'! I love 90s surveys. I think I will have to do one soon, they're a nice distraction from stress :)

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  20. Dial-up! Oh man! I had JUNO...crazy!! I can still hear the phone line trying to connect and remember being yelled at by my mom to get off because she needed the phone.

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  21. LYLAS!!! My bestie from middle school and I would always write LYLASIIHO (if I had one). Obv.

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