One of my favorite movies is Gross Pointe Blank, and my favorite scene from the movie is when John Cusack’s character comes across his old best friend from high school while he’s stealthing around his old hometown deciding whether or not to go to his ten-year reunion. (Oh, and he’s a trained killer, in case you need a reason to go rent it. Go rent it.) His old best friend is Jeremy Piven, before he overdid it on the sushi and schmuckism, who can’t believe it’s been ten years. “Ten! Ten years! TEN YEARS.” Typing it out does not do it justice.

So it’s been TEN YEARS. I have apparently not been awake this last month, because it only just occurred to me that we are turning over the odometer tonight. A decade of the…oughties, is it? Oughtie we get a better name for them? Ah, well. Too late now.

We enter the tens! The…teens? The pre-teens? We’re in the tweeners!

Someone other than me will come up with this, I hope.

A friend of mine did a little roundup of where she stood ten years ago versus now. That sounds like an exercise that might get me ready for a beer.

On this night in 1999, I was…
…26. (Oh, shit. This is going to be bad.)
…thin and fit. (Did you blink? You missed my fit years. But in 1999, I could have kicked your ass.)
…working at Ball State University.
…taking a couple of master’s level classes in journalism.
…dating a cute, long-haired boy named Greg.
…out on the town with my friend Kristi and her boyfriend for NYE.

Tonight, I’m…
…36. (Oh, hell.)
…back to my sack-of-potatoes physique.
…working at Major U. (Parallel much?)
…in possession of a master’s in journalism and (oh, wait, what’s this? Good news?) a master’s in creative writing.
…married to my cute, no-longer long-haired boy named Greg for going-on seven years.
…home, where I most like to be, but am thinking of all the people I wouldn’t mind hanging out with. Kristi and her husband (a different, but much cooler guy than the NYE of 1999). Kim and her family. My sister and her family. Lots of friends I’m grateful for having found over the last ten years and beyond.
…

What’s that for?

…

There’s more?

…a dog owner.
…a homeowner.
…a financially stable person.
…a published writer with a novel draft in the works.

Ah, yeah. That’s what we like to call progress.

Here’s to another great decade for all of us.