February 28, 2005

Liveblogging my last day in my 20s

9:00 a.m. -- Today, Feb. 28, 2005, marks my last day as a young man in his 20s. I'll be liveblogging this event as it unfolds, so be sure to check back regularly.

9:09 a.m. -- I shave my head because I'd be bald anyways. It's taken me until just about now to not care about that any more.

9:30 a.m. -- When I was 20 years old, I worked in the meat department of my hometown grocery store during the weekends. I made $5 an hour. I make a lot more than that now.

10 a.m. -- On my 21st birthday, I went bar-hopping around Winona, Minnesota. I got a birthday glass from Brothers Bar and Grill. I still have the glass. . . somewhere.

10:35 a.m. -- When I was 22, I had the longest relationship (one year) with a girl up until my current girlfriend. My 22nd was probably one of the most enjoyable summers of my college years. Her name was Jerusha, and I broke up with her the following summer, in a move I regretted on and off for a few years afterwards. I hope she's doing well and is insanely happy.

11:20 a.m. -- Also when I was 22, in December, I quit my job as a meat department worker at a Winona grocery store I was hired at the Winona Daily News at $5.50 an hour. I worked Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., writing obituaries, rewriting police and fire department reports, flowing stock market results into a Quark XPress file, and boiling down press releases. Once a month, I think, I also had to write out court rulings, which was a fascinating window into the lives of local citizens; I learned a lot about who got nailed for speeding, DUI, NSF checks and on and on and on. It was always great to find someone I knew in those reports, and then I'd call them and mercilessly taunt them. Good times. Good times. Except for the pay. That sucked.

1 p.m. -- I graduated from college at 23, following five years of higher eduction, referred to by me and my friends as my "Five Year Plan." I graduated with a mass communications/journalism major and a history minor. I have since been working in some capacity or another in print-related fields, what some people would refer to as my "phony baloney street cred," or, alternately, my "folksy wisdom."

1:22 p.m. -- If I get married in my 30s, it's my sincerest hope that my bride will decide to wear something sensible and fashionable. You know, something like this:

wed1.jpg

wed3.jpg

How was the wedding? Tramp-tacular!

2:10 p.m. -- I worked the summer after my graduation at the Winona Daily News as a full-fledged reporter, making a whopping $6 an hour. That was the summer of, like, three huge thunderstorms that absolutely destroyed areas of southeastern Minnesota. That meant grueling, long hours, follow-up stories and all sorts of other reporting that just about put me on the breaking point. After August, the woman I was covering for, who was on maternity leave, returned to the paper, so I was out of a job. I was then unemployed for four months, searching for journalism-related jobs. I spent many consecutive evenings sipping Bacardi and Coke while playing Caesar III. I also read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and 1984, as well as others I can't remember right now.

3 p.m. -- Come January of 1999, I finally landed a job at a weekly newspaper called The Stewartville Star. The owners smoked. I mean, they SMOKED. One cigarette after another after another. Which, you know, come ON people, this is a newspaper. Lots of flammable materials all over the place. At that job, I was responsible for EVERYTHING, from school board meetings, to city council meetings, to soft news features to photography. I did it all. I do miss the darkroom photo development hours. I enjoyed that. I still write a humor column for the Star, and I've won a first place award and a runner-up award for my work in that area. Didn't win anything this year though, dammit.

4:30 p.m. -- I'm really glad Million Dollar Baby won Best Picture. Totally deserved it.

Posted by Ryan at February 28, 2005 09:00 AM
Comments

Much happiness and hot dirty mushroom spanking on this day where you officially join Those-That-Cannot-Be-Trusted.

Happy Birthday to Ryan Rhodes, my best friend that I've never met.

Posted by: Johnny Huh? at February 28, 2005 10:08 AM

Happy almost birthday!

Posted by: Jim at February 28, 2005 10:51 AM

Well heck ... Happy birthday!

I'll have to buy you a beer at CUDS :)

Posted by: david at February 28, 2005 10:58 AM

Hey, thanks all.

David, the iSeries blogger article is back on, with a looming deadline. You'll be hearing from me shortly.

Posted by: Ryan at February 28, 2005 11:06 AM

Any special plans for the big day?

Posted by: Mandy at February 28, 2005 11:20 AM

No big plans yet. The girl is coming down from the Cities tomorrow, and she's going to buy me dinner, which is a big plan for me, at any rate.

Posted by: Ryan at February 28, 2005 11:35 AM

Now that is one cheesy and embarrassing wedding dress. Unless she's a Vegas showgirl on a break and decided to get married.

Ryan, let me know if I can help you out with the article. My data repository is freakin' HUGE, baby! And what we don't know, we make up!

Posted by: Johnny Huh? at February 28, 2005 02:18 PM

Happy Birthday you stud.

Posted by: Lily at February 28, 2005 03:43 PM

Happy second 29th birthday! We should hurry up and have lunch sometime before you keel over and die, old man.

Posted by: Rick at February 28, 2005 06:47 PM

So it's official now. Welcome to the No Longer Twenty-something Club. Here's your dinosaur and your platinum Visa. Leave your hunkitude at the door.

Happy Birthday, Ryan. :-D

Posted by: Jim at March 1, 2005 05:14 AM

Happy Belated, Ryan, and welcome to the club!

Posted by: Gudy at March 1, 2005 06:47 AM

Happy Birthday! Didn't think you'd survive to see this day didja? None of us did! And then it's your 40th, and you still don't know what you want to be when you grow up. Birthdays are a hell of a thing. You've come a long way baby!

Posted by: Donna at March 1, 2005 08:08 AM

The day you decide what you want to be when you "Grow up" is the day you start to die (such a cheery thought on Ryans birthday).

david
(who spent his 40th birthday at Disney World)

Posted by: david at March 1, 2005 02:21 PM

who wants to place bets on how long that wedding lasts? i give it 9 months at best.

best wishes for this year; it's going to be good. "30s are the new 20s", whatever the hell that means. to me it means 10 more years of drinking without guilt.

Posted by: leblanc at March 2, 2005 02:36 PM

Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday dear Ryan...
And did anyone else notice the look on the face of what surely must be the mother-in-law of that beautiful bride? hahaha too funny!

Posted by: ItsElorac at March 3, 2005 11:45 AM
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