10 years ago

I look less pained now, I think

Sent out my passport to get renewed yesterday. Looks like my old one was issued in July of 2000.

Back then I was gearing up for a vacation to Europe with an unknown destination. A friend from high school and I met in Heidelberg, flipped a coin, and ended up in Greece for a week.

It was awesome. We took a boat out to Skiathos (to give you a visual - parts of Mamma Mia were filmed there). We ate excellent food, drank like fish, hit the tiny discos at night and spent the days on the beach where I finished reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

So what else was going on a decade ago? Let's see...

I was twenty-eight years old and working (probably too much) with a web design company I had started with friends in Cincinnati.

This was our heyday and super enjoyable even with the extended hours. I'm pretty sure all said and done there were 10 of us working together—a close knit group of friends from high school, college and beyond.

We had a warehouse studio on the edge of downtown, afternoon breaks with fresh fruit prepared by our office manager (my mom) and sometimes we'd even take to the windows and let off steam by blowing bubbles down to the sidewalk three stories below.

It wasn't all lollipops and rainbows. As work was going great, I was closeted and pretty disgruntled by the challenge of opening that particular door. (Fret not, the following year would see everything change for the better on that front.)

Other tidbits from the year 2000:

• Rung in the new year in Salida Colorado with good friends, thinking it would be a fine way to ride out any glitches from Y2K bugs.
• Shot photos with questionable skill using a little APS film camera and a Sony Mavica that stored photos on a 3.5" diskette.
• Listenined to Grandaddy's "The Sophtware Slump" on repeat.
• Also enjoyed David Gray, Crowded House, Coldplay, Adrian Belew, Guided by Voices, Moby and Travis.
• Cried at Erin Brockovich in the theater and caught other flicks including Cast Away, Gladiator, Chocolat, High Fidelity, Godzilla 2000 and Requiem for a Dream.
• Drove a VW Passat.
• It was an election year, so you can imagine it was crazy (I went with Gore and felt good about that).
• Didn't have a beard, just a goatee. Couldn't grow one proper for the life of me.

And now here I am sporadically posting in my journal. Hi!

Comments

[Rachel]

hi!

[kate]

I miss your journal writing! Fond memories of 2000 indeed. I really need someone to orchestrate fruit and nut breaks for me now. And, I clearly remember that David Gray cd on heavy rotation.

[Glass]

@Austin, your log book is the perfect companion of brevity and simplicity. Love it.

@Drew, it was indeed! Man. 10 years flies by!

[D R E W]

that was around the time we met!!

[Austin Kleon]

See, this is why I have to keep a logbook. I'd never remember all that!

PS. I loved the SOPHTWARE SLUMP. A great (forgotten?) album.