The Meme of Five

Librarian Mom tagged me with the meme of five, so here goes! Per instructions:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read the player's blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

What were you doing five years ago?
Let's see, that would be spring of 2003. I was on sabbatical, still getting to know the daughter I'd had in my arms for 4 months. I was going to feeding therapy with Curious Girl every week, having other Early Intervention folks in our home on a regular basis, and about a third of the way through the 43 visits to our pediatrician that would occur in that calendar year. I'd learned how to use a feeding tube, I'd played the cuckoo game with CG about a million times, and I'd spent a lot of time on the floor with her, making eye contact, talking with her, trying to figure her out. At work, I was talking with my chair, getting read to apply for promotion to full professor, and somehow, working on my sabbatical project on changes in writing program philosophy.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?
(It's 8:00 p.m. as I type this, so I'm going to think about my to-do list more generally)

1. Write an essay that I should have finished last November, the lateness of which is causing me much angst and indecision.
2. Organize receipts for some recent visits to German University so I can get reimbursed.
3. Start some laundry
4. Find things to recycle, freecycle, or donate.
5. Help CG write thank you notes from her birthday party (a fabulous event about which I really should post)

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1. Peaches in summer
2. Grapes. Really, lots of fruit, but never melon
3. Bread
4. Crackers and cheese
5. Nice cold milk. Or milkshakes.

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

1. Invest a bunch of it to ensure CG's future education/security and Politica's access to health care in retirement.
2. Give a bunch of it away--like Librarian Mom, I find it hard to say just what I'd give it to, but clean water, public health (malaria, AIDS, TB), education strike me as good places to start
3. Travel: there are really very few places you couldn't persuade me to visit. I love to travel.
4. Buy an electric car.
5. Hire a landscaper to develop the gardens around our house (and would I move to a better location in Germany? Maybe so; have to think on that one) and help maintain them.

What are five of your bad habits?

1. Staying up too late poking around the internet accomplishing nothing in particular and then being irritated at myself the next morning, doing it again, and then being doubly irritated the next day rather than just forming a new habit.
2. Letting the computer stay on a bit too often when I should be socializing with Politica/CG--I am getting better at the "just let me check my e-mail real fast before we...." but there's room for continued improvement.
3. Failing to focus my day so I get the big thing done first consistently.
4. Staying up too late when I'm alone at night (on the road or at home) because I'm afraid I'll be freaked out by house/neighborhood noises when I try to go to sleep, which only makes me more tired the next day.
5. Reading too quickly (which is sometimes an asset, but sometimes a problem).

What are five places where you have lived?

a small town in southern Ontario, a medium sized city in Michigan, a small city in west Texas, a small town on Long Island, a small town in Vermont

What are five jobs you've had?

1. phone surveyer for the phone company
2. camp counselor
3. library assistant
4. dishwasher
5. writing tutor

Tagging people: I hate tagging people, so if you're reading, and if you like five, have at it!