Category Archives: memories

light the corners of my mind

family, in memoriam, memories

Happy Birthday, Tom (1948-1995)

My mom got married for the first time when I was 12 years old. Tom, my stepdad, was the only real father figure I’d ever had, and I continued to spend time with him after he and Mom separated after just two years. Tom and I had a good relationship through my high school years, barring some weirdness here and there. He was an audiophile and an early adopter of technology—he had a CD player in 1987, and both a VHS and Betamax VCR, and jury-rigged surround-sound stereo. He had a distinctive sense of humor and an infectious, deep laugh.

The semester I was off of school, in Fall 1995, I don’t recall getting to see him much. I spent most of my time either depressed at home or hanging out with my friend Mel. That October, Tom died.

Tonight, I spent some time going through my journal, hoping that (for once) I would have written something relevant. As it turns out, I did:
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memories

Random Memory Catalyst

I was over by the filing cabinets today, filing away some returned mail, when I heard an oddly familiar sound: a triple beep. I couldn?t think of where I?d heard it before, or what it was, until I saw one of the IT guys walk behind me. He was carrying a black UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply), almost identical to the one we used in the RCC server room back in the day (except ours was beige. Beige was all the rage back in 1997).

Funny how a simple thing like hearing a UPS beep can make me reminiscent of my college days… back when I was a true computer geek.

memories 4 Comments

That Down-Home Dialect

Growing up, I never really thought about the weird amalgam of southern accents in my home. My Memaw, my Mom, my Aunt Sammie and I all lived together in the same household for some time: from as early as I can remember (age 3 or 4) up until my Mom got married (the summer after my 6th grade year). Anyway, my Memaw grew up in Florida, as did my Aunt, and my Mom spent her formative youth moving between Florida and southern Ohio. That made for some interesting pronunciations and vocabulary, not to mention the bizarre superstitions that Memaw had learned from Granny (but that’s another post entirely).

For instance, the knives in the silverware drawer that one used either for buttering bread or for screwing the tinfoil to the antenna contacts on the TV were called “case knives.” [I now know that most of the rest of the Western world calls these implements “butter knives.”]

I could have sworn that the piece of furniture in which my socks and underwear lived was called a “chester drawers.”

For years, I didn’t realize that the room in which the TV and couches resided was not, in fact, the “lithing room” (with a TH like THis or THese), and was actually the room in which one lived, or the “living room.”

I was also pretty sure that the outdoor faucet we used to fill up the kiddie pool was a “spicket” instead of a “spigot.”

I’m sure there were countless other bizarre words I heard growing up, but those are the ones that come to mind. Also: the couch was always the couch, never the sofa; we drank pop, not soda; we usually cleaned with a sweeper, rather than a vacuum; and we peed in the commode, not so much the toilet.

Funny, isn’t it, how things that seem perfectly normal when you’re a kid can seem totally fucked up once you grow up and step back.

year in review 2 Comments

2004: Year In Review

This year has been one of a few large upgrades for myself and Aaron. Not a whole lot happened, but what did was pretty major.

In March, we bought our house. This necessitated a move from Bowling Green (where I worked at the time) to Toledo (much closer to where Aaron works).

In May, we adopted Mei. May was also our one-year wedding anniversary.

In June, I took a new job within Sky Bank, closer to home. In fact, it’s practically across the street from where Aaron works. I didn’t get a raise or anything, but working ten minutes from home instead of 35 was enough of an upgrade for me. That extra 20 minutes of Aaron-time made things so much better, as did the drastic reduction in petrol usage.

The summer of 2004 was the first time I’d performed with a drum & bugle corps since 1997, when I “aged out” of Junior corps. I joined up with the LakeShoremen Senior Drum & Bugle Corps, and drove my ass up to Michigan every other weekend to march in various parades. It had its good points and its bad points, but I still plan to march again in 2005.

On September 1st, I officially launched dianaschnuth.net, complete with Movable Type and CSS layout. September was also our one-year anniversary of being on Atkins.

Sometime in the Fall—September or October, I forget which—Mom and Gary bought a house and moved down to Fort Worth TX. Before they managed to actually close on the house, and while they were living with Gary’s folks, Gary’s German Shorthair Pointer, Joshua, died. The dog going didn’t really affect me, but it really affected Gary, of course. Their moving affected me a bit, though, as it isn’t quite as simple and straightforward to go and visit my family now.

Apart from that… I can’t really think of any other life-shaping events that happened during 2004. No new cars (that was December 2002), no new kids (that’s not until… well, whenever it happens), no deaths (that was 2003). I’m sure someone will remind me of something, though.

college, video 4 Comments

Merry Christmas 2001

As I was digging through old VHS tapes, I found a tape of this-n-that from my Media 100® workshops and video classes. I watched through it, just for shits and giggles… and then I found a video I’d forgotten I’d made.

Back in 2001, I was about to graduate college, living in an apartment on my own, and I was really broke. That Christmas was a creative one, mainly making gifts for my family and friends instead of buying them. And, for Amy, I made a video of our four-year Reign of Terror at BGSU. I didn’t have time to copy it for her; I barely managed to squeak enough lab time to create the video and drop it to tape in the first place. But, when she came to visit and exchange presents, I showed it to her.

Then, tonight, I found it again.

So, now that we have a capture card, I am encoding it and posting it here for your viewing pleasure. Amy, of course, will enjoy it the most… but I think most of you will certainly appreciate it.

small version (10.2MB) | large version (33.5MB)