Megan Stielstra's Blog

Usually I really hate these quiz-things, but sometimes, like now, I really need a break from all the other stuff I’m supposed to be doing/finishing/thinking about. So, here goes, nabbed from Viki:

20 years ago (1987)

Age?
Twelve.

Were you in school? If so, where and for what?
7th grade at Beach Middle School in Chelsea, Michigan. My father was the principal. It was traumatizing (hi, Dad!)

Where did you work?
n/a

Where did you live?
Cedar Lake.

What were your regular haunts?
On the far end of Cedar Lake there’s a little secret lake—a little pond connects the two. You can’t see it unless you’re over there in the rowboat. I would go over there and float around and read books. Also, on Thursdays, on the way into school, my dad and I would stop at the Chelsea Bakery for donuts. Also I was gearing up for a long career as a band geek, so probably the band room. I played the saxophone (good Lord, a twelve-year-old with a saxophone).

Did you wear glasses?
Nope.

Who was your best friend?
Oh, man. Uhm … probably Becky?

How many tattoos did you have?
None. Yet.

How many piercings did you have?
None.

What did you drive?
n/a

Had you been to a real party yet?
Sleepovers at Becky’s or Christine’s where we’d coreograph dance routines to Cyndi Lauper or Boy George.

Heart broken yet?
Not really … I had an unrealized crush on the first chair saxophone player, but then I beat him and got first chair and it didn’t so much matter anymore.

Status on the market?
n/a

Ten years ago (1997)

Age?
Twenty-two.

Were you in school?
My first year of grad school at Columbia College.

Where did you work?
Tutto Bene on Van Buren and Racine—I also started at the Bongo Room at the end of that year.

Where did you live?
In a loft in Humboldt Park with Heather and Pete—Pete had a painting studio in the back and his band, Behold the Living Corpse, practiced there sometimes. It was kinda seedy and nobody ever did the dishes and I never slept for shit but in retrospect it was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

What were your regular haunts?
Subterranean—Heather worked there. And one a.m. sushi at Kamahachi with Sue after a shift.

Did you wear glasses?
Nope.

Who was your best friend?
Heather and Sue and Jeff (we’d just started our writer’s group and were hanging out all the time, being terribly literary and whathaveyou).

How many tattoos did you have?
None yet.

What did you drive?
A ’91 Isuzu Stylus that Pete sold me for the cost of his accumulated parking tickets.

Had you been to a real party yet?
Hell, yes. Heather WAS the party—it followed her wherever she went—and since I lived with her I got to come, too. I learned a great deal from her, about being independent and having fun and living in the moment.

Heart broken yet?
Yes. Bobby and Jason.

Status on the market?
On.

Five years ago (2002)

Age?
Twenty-seven.

Were you in school? If so, where and for what?
I teach, so I’m in school every day.

Where did you work?
Columbia and U of C. And also the Bongo Room for Sunday brunch, because I love the people who work there and the money’s damn good.

Where did you live?
In a one-bedroom in Humboldt Park, but my lease ran out three months before I moved to Prague for a year and the management company wouldn’t extend it, so I slept on Tracy’s couch for a couple months until Christopher and I got together and then I moved into his studio. Which was AWESOME. Not because the PLACE was awesome—the place was pretty schkeevy, actually—but because of those first few months of being in love, being sort of drunk all the time and late to everything and floating everywhere. And then we moved to Prague, where I spent my last few months of 27.

update: I’ve been thinking about it, and all of that actually happened when I was 28. Can you believe it? I’m getting old enough to forget entire YEARS. When my mom turned 50, she got a birthday card from an old friend saying, Happy 51st! and she was all, I’m 50! Not 51! Turns out she really WAS 50 and, somehow, she’d skipped a year. So now, not only am I getting senile but I’m also turning into my mother.

ANYHOW: when I was 27 I lived in that same one-bedroom in Humboldt. I did go to Prague, but only for a six-week stint during the summer (it was then that I decided I’d move there a year later).

What were your regular haunts?
Bongo Room, Danny’s, Flying Saucer, Bistro Campagne and Myopic Books; Blue Light, Cartouche and Meduza’s in Prague.

Did you wear glasses?
Reading glasses. After so many hours with my nose in books, the computer, or student work, I’d officially ruined my eyes.

Who were your best friends?
Jeff and Lott and Dia.

How many tattoos did you have?
I got my first that year—a Ouiji board across my lower back.

Update: I also got the one on my inner right arm that year.

How many piercings did you have?
None.

What did you drive?
Toyota Camry. The a/c didn’t work and the driver’s side window didn’t roll down—not a vehicle for summers in Chicago.

Had you been to a real party yet?
Yes—bachelorette parties at the Bongo Room.

Heart broken yet?
Yes, but it was distant and stung less.

Status on the market?
On the market, up until the last few months when I was off in a big way.

Update: On all year. I didn’t get together with Christopher until I was 28, so I stayed single and went out a lot and did many Fun at the Time yet Stupid in Retrospect things with many Fun at the Time yet Stupid in Retrospect boys.

As of today (2007)

Age?
I’ll be 32 in August.

Are you in school? If so, where and for what?
Still there every day.

Where do you work?
Columbia and U of C. I also do 2nd Story, which means either my house, Amanda’s house, Webster’s or Dollop.

Where do you live?
We just moved to Uptown.

What are your regular haunts?
Dollop, Magnolia, Café Too and Uncommon Ground, although mostly my house, because it’s new and I love it and also we have a mortgage so I can’t go galavanting around like I used to. And also Amanda’s house. Amanda? You should just give me keys.

Do you wear glasses?
For reading. When I remember. I really should remember—I’m not wearing them right now.

Who is your best friend?
Christopher.

Do you talk to your old friends?
Some. Mostly Jeff, Lott and Dia.

Do you have a crush?
Are you kidding? Have you SEEN my husband?

How many tattoos do you have?
Still two—but I have two new ones ready to go if I can just find the time to make the friggin’ appointment. I keep putting it off for silly things like dentist and doctor.

How many piercings do you have?
None. Never.

What do you drive?
Honda Civic 2003. I’d like a Hybrid but they’re still too expensive—plus, I park on the street in Chicago. It’s just not realistic to have a nice, new car. You need something small, with good gas mileage, and who cares if someone slams into your bumper?

Have you been to a real party yet?
These days, I like dinner parties. I like cleaning my house and getting it all nice and fancy and having interesting people over who make me A. laugh and B. think.

Status on the market?
Off.

Besides ones of the pet variety, any dependents?
I’m going to ignore the beginning of this question and leave you all with this:

I’m tagging Byron, Kim, Shiow and Mary (Don’t fight me on this, Mary Mac. I’ll come find you—I know where you live).