1998 was a good year. I turned twenty-three.
I had graduated from TCU the previous year and was still living with my college roommate, Leanne. We shared an apartment behind Hulen Mall for the first half of the year (this was long before mass retail overtook Overton Ridge Blvd); then she ran off and left me for a husband. My other roommate was a satan-filled cat, Moses. Knowing that future roommates would not appreciate possessed animals, I had to part ways with him. (I assure you he went on to live a full and happy life in a wide-open space, free from unsuspecting children and full of small prey.)
I temporarily moved into Whitney's apartment for a few months. Sometime later that year I randomly ended up house-hunting with two new potential roommates I'd met at church, Mary and Carrie. We moved into a duplex in Benbrook with another lady named Mary. Two Mary's, two Carrie's.
Job:
I don't remember the precise sequence, but I know I had I started doing freelance web design after graduating college the previous summer. The name of my business was ImaginationSites. I made a business card and everything.Somewhere along the way I picked up a freelance gig for KLTY.com that turned into my first full-time position with a sister company called GoGlobal.net (which morphed into EquityMedia.com which sprouted off into Popmail.com which eventually was sold and then who knows what.) Needless to say, it was the day of dotCOMS and there was money to be made. It still shocks me that someone paid me $20/hr to work from home in my pajamas to create poorly-designed banner ads for a major radio station. I was young and blissfully ignorant of my ignorance. I had a blast.
My employment with EquityMedia didn't last out the year, however. For reasons that I can't recall, I became restless and decided to pick up my roots and scoot on. I think the company shed most of their web design team a short-time later; I should have stuck around for severance. All said and done, I had the opportunity to work with some very talented designers, Keleigh and Sharlotte, who were the very first ones to teach me: 1) shortcuts in Photoshop, 2) HTML sans Front Page, and 3) how to properly wield a spork.
Random points of disinterest:
- I bought my first cell-phone. (I had previously carried a bag phone in my car throughout college that was for emergencies only, according to my parents. I never even knew the phone number).
- I purchased my first domain name: www.thebiscuit.net
- I was enamored with sporks (spoon/forks commonly found at Taco Bell) and debated on whether to purchase www.sporkitover.com.
- I was listening to a lot of Jennifer Knapp, Burlap to Cashmere, Gipsy Kings, and Caedmon's Call.
- I spent a good deal of my expendible cash on Slurpees. I also lived in apartment # 711.
3 comments:
got the slurpee craving after reading your blog and made a trip to the ole trusty 7-11. slurpin' a slurpee jog's the memory to high school days when i use to get these every single day after high school with the boyfriend. still love the sulrpee. the boyfriend...not so much.
Yeah, 1998--that was a good year! I still miss living with you in that apartment and you playing the guitar for me at midnight! I had forgotten about you working for KLTY! At the time I was amazed that you were creating those ads thinking you were so creative! (You were, of course!) Too bad I ran off with that husband or else I'd still have someone to hang out in the office supply section of Wal-mart with at 2:00 a.m. Oh well, he's a good roommate, too!
1998 - the year of the hunt for the "perfect" Slurpee (which could never be found @ one 7-11 2 consecutive trips . . . wny is that?), wondering if I would, in fact, lose a limb to Moses, nachos flambay, 4-tracks and "Luke in My Closet." I had a lot of fun with you in 1998, my friend.
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