My belated Friday Five:

1. What was your first job? Well, if you don't count babysitting, it was working for a place called Lenders Document Service the summer I turned 16. I can't describe in one paragraph the horrors of working there. Documents were faxed to us, from which we entered data into old terminals, and then printed out various mortgage-related forms. We put the forms into dot-matrix printers, and we had to tweak the printer knobs for each one in different places so the data appeared on the correct lines. Mess up? Do it again! Plus, one of the computers was shock-sensitive, so if you touched it and got zapped, it would shut off. The only redeeming part of that summer was meeting my friend Ryan.

Man, I just did a web search and they are still around. Oh God! The memories! Reg-Z forms! I see in 1989 they finally moved to using laser printers. I wonder if they also hired someone over 18 who they couldn't underpay and overwork. At least my old boss is no longer president.

2. How old were you when you had your first kiss? 13. By someone who I believe is reading this very blog...

3. What was your first car? What happened to it? I got to drive the family Honda 1980 station wagon, which was fine. Occasionally I also drove my dad's '79 Alfa Romeo sedan, which was difficult to shift into first gear. I got to take the car with me to San Diego when I was a junior in college, and drove it until I left for graduate school, when it had 180,000 miles. Good car. Same car we drove every summer up to Washington in to see the grandparents.

4. What was your first concert? First one not with parents was Steve Winwood with my friend Jon. I think I was 14 or 15. I lost one of my sister's earrings there... err, did I ever tell you that Cindy? Sorry.

5. How do you plan to spend your weekend? Well, the plan was to see Gosford Park on Friday, but we didn't make it, so we saw it Sunday instead (thought it was quite good--not the murder mystery part, but the social dyanmics). Saturday I spent most of the day pottering around doing apartment-related stuff. And I managed to get outside a couple of times...it was nice and sunny