FIRSTS

1. Who was your FIRST prom date?
I never went. This, sadly, is probably the biggest thing I regret about high school. Other than hooking up with Shawn Rairigh, that is.

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?
Uh, no. Not since ... 2000?

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?
According to my mother, beer. As a toddler, I'd follow people around at parties and finish their drinks. My parents, at the time, thought this was hilarious. (Which tells you a little something about my parents.)

4. What was your FIRST job?
Checkout girl at a grocery store. I got fired without even realizing it. When I was hired I told them I could only work two Sundays a month, because Sundays were the days I spent with my dad (typical child of divorce). They put me on for four Sundays in a row, and I complained. The next week, my name was on the schedule, but I didn't have any hours. I thought, "Whee, a vacation!" The next week, my name was gone. I never even had to turn in my smock.

5. What was your FIRST car?
A 1988 Subaru station wagon with power windows that didn't go down. Try explaining that to the guys in the inspection lanes at DMV.

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?
No one. I'm not a big texter. Sometimes I get ones from my aunt, Wendy, or Cindy. Every once in a while, I get a love text from Joe. But no. Not a texter. Or a tweeter.

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?
Joe, because his alarm is going to go off in about five minutes, and I still haven't been to bed. WORKING! (And playing a little HARVEST MOON.)

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?
Mrs. Whorl, at Brookside Elementary, but I'm betting I'm spelling her name wrong. Hell, I think I spelled my own name wrong back then.

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane?
Boston. My mom grew up in Belmont.

10. Who was your FIRST best friend & do you still talk?
I don't remember anyone from my PA kindergarten, except Nathan, with whom I got caught "making out" during a performance of PETER PAN. To us, making out meant holding hands and rubbing our noses on each other's necks. Cara Ward was my best friend from my DE kindergarten, as was Heather Hartrim. Found Cara on Facebook recently, but we haven't done more than exchange wall posts.

11. Where was your FIRST sleep over?
I don't remember. I do remember having an enormous one for my 10th birthday, and my mom rented a VCR for the event. We watched some movie with Rick Springfield, paused on the naked butt scene, and giggled forever. The pictures from this monumental event are priceless.

12. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?
Define "today." It's 6:29 a.m. and I'm still awake. After midnight, I talked to Joe and the dog. Right now, they're both still sleeping, though as I said, the alarm will be going off at any minute.

13. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?
My aunt Barbara and Uncle Jeffrey's. I was supposed to be the flower girl, but after they got engaged, they found out that my cousin Zach didn't feel like waiting to be conceived. So it was a small ceremony at a synagogue, and I wore a blue taffetta dress and white tights, but didn't have any flowers. This was so distressing to me, because not long before I'd attended my uncle Dick's second wedding, and my cousin Caroline was HIS flower girl, and at the time I thought she was the most worldly, beautiful, glamorous person on Earth. When they picked us up at the airport, she was wearing pink leather pants and already knew how to work them (she was, like, nine). We played DALLAS in the downtime, though I'd never watched the show, and oh, man. I have a short story I started years ago inspired by that trip, but I've never known how to finish it.

14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?
Now that the alarm's going off, I suppose the first thing I'll be doing is explaining to Joe why I never went to sleep, and then going to sleep.

15. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?
Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, somewhere in Philly.

16. FIRST broken bone?
None. I have freakishly strong bones.

17. FIRST piercing
Ears, age 6. Every girl in my class was wearing crosses and I wanted some and didn't understand why my Jewish parents wouldn't let me get them.

18. FIRST foreign country you visited?
London, when I was a junior in college. It was over a winter session. We took a weekend trip to Ireland. I made it to Canada years later, both coasts. And that's about it for me and foreign countries.

19. FIRST movie you remember seeing?
Drive-in double feature - STAR WARS and CLASH OF THE TITANS. I fell asleep during the second one. Just read in EW that they're doing a remake of it - weird.

20. When was your FIRST detention?
Sixth grade, I think. I got in a fight with Rhonda Lynam for stealing my chair, and somehow I got blamed for the ensuing scuffle. Rhonda was always getting me into trouble, even when she sicced her much older brother on me. Because he was a baseball star, and the principal was the coach, I was the one who ended up in detention.

22. Who was your FIRST roommate?
Jen Pennington (now McLaughlin). We were both nerds who attended UD's summer college program the summer before our senior year in high school. We also roomed together two years in college, and are still pretty good friends.

23. If you had one wish, what would it be?
Selfishly, that we had enough money that I could choose to work, instead of needing to work. My life would be so much less stressful if every decision I made was about choice and not necessity.

24. What is something you would learn if you had the chance?
I'd love to learn how to sing, but I have a crappy voice. This is one of the main reasons I was envious of my middle school best friend, Kim Walters (now Aziz), because she had the voice of an angel and I was tone deaf.

25. Did you marry the FIRST person to ask for your hand in marriage/you asked to marry?
Not yet, but I will - Feb. 27, 2010.

26. What was the first sport you were involved in?
Gymnastics. I rocked, too.

27. What were the first lessons you ever took?
Ballet and tap dancing, simultaneously. There's a picture from one of my recitals that my father dubbed "Tiny Dancer," after the Elton John song, that is still one of my favorite pictures ever. I just look so sad, but also weirdly beautiful. And I was, like, four.

28. What is the first thing you do when you get home?
Pee, take the dog out, or put on my PJs - whichever is the most pressing.

29. Who do you think will be the next person to post this?
I'd say my mom, but she's leaving for a 10-day road trip/family vacation tomorrow. So, I don't know. Maybe Kim?

BTW, the alarm has now been going off for 11 minutes. Funniest thing? In the summers I don't get up with Joe, and never even HEAR the alarm. I actually sleep through this? Then again, I slept through not one but two fire alarms during a winter session when I was living all by myself in the Towers at UD. So, you know. Heavy sleeper.

Hey, look! Scout's up! So I guess the first think I'll be doing this morning is taking him for a walk.