Firsts

Today being 12-12-12, it must be pretty cool to be turning 12 years old today.  If you are a Green Bay Packer fan, then you may know that today is Aaron Rodgers Day.

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I read this post on Katie’s blog and thought it would be fun to do.

1.  First thing you do when you wake up in the AM
Turn off my alarm (it’s usually set for 5am), head to the coffee pot to hit “Start” (I put everything together the night before), quickly look at my iPhone, and then wait for hot coffee.  Some mornings I write my blog post and get caught up on blogs and other mornings I’ll go to the gym, do an at-home workout, or hit the trail for a walk.

2.  First thing you reach for when you open the fridge.
Easy–an apple.  That, or fixings for a breakfast smoothie (milk, Greek yogurt), maybe a jar of peanut butter, or a bottle of Ice Mountain sparkling water.  I pretty much stick to coffee in the AM, a hot tea first thing at work, then H20 for the rest of the day.  This H20 has become a new favorite – one a day to add a little variety.

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3.  First thing you do when you go to the gym.
Put everything in a locker, fill my H20 bottle, then either head to a class or find a treadmill.

4.  First thing you do when you get home from work.
Go through the mail and then pay attention to the jumping Labrador who is ready to eat!

Then starts the dog program and then it’s usually a quick change of clothes and then workout if I didn’t do it in the AM.

5 and 6.  First car and first car accident/traffic violation.
These go hand-in-hand.  I learned how to drive a conversion van.  That’s right, I might as well have gotten my bus driver license at 16 because the van was huge!  It had captain chairs, a couch that pulled into a bed, a game table, carpeting, and a tape deck!  Pretty styling.  My patient father taught me how to drive and it was either the van or the stick-shift Dodge Sundance.  After less than 5 minutes in the Sundance, and 1 cup of coffee in my dad’s lap, we switched to the van.  I did not pass parallel parking during my test but almost 10 years of living in Chicago gave me some mad parking skills 🙂
First accident – driving that van in a mall parking lot.  (I know my mom is reading this and knows where this is going…)
Long story short – I wanted a job at the mall, my mom wanted me to be a lifeguard.  I’ll put it out there – Mom was right.
My mom made me go to the mall and tell the store manager I wasn’t going to accept the job.  I was really frustrated, there were a lot of people in the lot, so I decided to pull through the parking spot.  Funny thing–the van didn’t fit through the spot.  I ripped off a running board and the mirror on the car next to the van.  To this day, I still won’t pull through a parking spot.

7.  First thing you wanted to be when you grew up.
A teacher!  I used to play school in the basement for hours.  I had chalkboards, a bulletin board, a desk, books, lesson plans, etc.
My mother was a Spanish teacher and I was able to follow in her footsteps by teaching in an MBA program.  I also went through a phase where I wanted to be a hotel manager and then in high school I considered being a coroner.  And this was before all of the CSI shows.  I’m really not sure where that all came from.

Getting ready to celebrate retirement in June.

8.  First choice beverage.
See #2.

9.  First choice breakfast.
Lately it has been smoothies.  Other times it’s an english muffin with pb and an apple on the side, or a bowl of oat bran accessorized with cinnamon, raisins, and a scoop of Garden of Life Super Seed.

10.  First choice dessert.
Fruit.  I know, I know…you may be thinking that fruit doesn’t count as dessert.  But I got in the habit of a piece of fruit after dinner during my semester abroad in Spain.  It was the custom and I think it’s a good one.  I’ve said this before, but I just don’t have a sweet tooth.  Love to bake, but love to give the sweets to others.

11.  First song that comes to mind.
Bruno Mars Locked out of Heaven.  I’ve seen more Bruno in the last 72 hours…he was on CBS Sunday Morning, The Today Show, NPR.  He released a new album yesterday.  He’s got a cool story, but I was so disappointed to hear about his cocaine bust.

12.  First major purchase.
Condo…1 BDR, 1 Bath in Chicago – and it had a lovely view of the back alley.  I got in and out of the market at the right time.

13.  First job.
Babysitting.  But then it was waitress, lifeguard, and then my “real world” jobs.

14.  First time you flew on a plane.
It was probably a family trip to Florida to go and visit Mickey and Minnie.  The van mentioned in #5-6 was also a family travel machine.  We’d load up and drive to Boston to visit relatives.

Did you make it through the entire list?!  Your turn…would love to hear comments about one of your firsts or read your entire list on your blog.