The 24 Hour Meme

If you haven't figured it out yet, I love memes. Not sure why; I just think they're fun. So, I decided to create one of my own and see how far it spreads.

Here's how it works: I'm going to list each hour of the day and then a reason why that hour (anytime in the 60 minute block) is significant. You can cut and paste the basic template and then fill in your own times. Then, comment here to let us know you've posted yours. Sound like fun? You know it! Challenging? Of course! Buckle up, here we go:

12:00 a.m. - Midnight is important for all the New Year's Eves - especially 1998, when I decided that, as of that moment, I was no longer waiting to meet a pastor to marry. Instead, I would just relax and have fun and date for the sake of dating, instead of finding a husband. I met Champs 31 days later.

1:00 a.m. - This hour is one of a fond memory. Our wedding reception ended at about 1:00 a.m. and our best man escorted us to our honeymoon suite (in the same hotel as the reception). He was there about 10 minutes, showing us the gift he'd prepared for us, taking pictures and reminiscing about the wedding. We finally, gently guided him to the door. It took us a few minutes to get him to understand that, now that we were married, we'd like to be alone, please!

2:00 a.m. - The first time I visited Champs in his hometown, I left the cities at 5:00 or so in the afternoon. I arrived in Hometown City, Another State at about 2:11 a.m. or so. Champs was waiting up for me. We got engaged two days later.

3:00 a.m. - This hour belongs to one of the saddest days of our marriage. Around 3:00 a.m. or so on 9/9/99, we got a call from Princssis, Champs' sister. Their father was dying and if Champs wanted to see him, he needed to get home. I had him on a plane by 6:00 a.m. or so and he was in Hometown City by 11:00 or so, but he was too late. He missed his dad by about an hour. That was the only other time I ever drove to Hometown City by myself.

4:00 a.m. - Once in a great while, by some miracle, Champs and I will both wake up sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. and we won't go back to sleep. We will lay there, in the quiet of the pre-dawn hour and enjoy one another's company. With a mom and a small daughter living here, those few quiet, private moments are precious and I cherish them.

5:00 a.m. - Sweet Girl was born at 5:55 in the morning, weighing in at 5 lbs, 15 oz. Now she's 5 years old. That number and Sweet Girl are pretty connected.

6:00 a.m. - I better darn well be out to the bus stop by 6:00 a.m., or I'm going to be late to work!

7:00 a.m. - This time is special each day because it's when Smoothie and I go down to the coffee shop to get our morning fruit smoothies with vitamins. This is our gab time and it always energizes me to get a lot of work done after.

8:00 a.m. - Every Saturday and Sunday morning, Sweet Girl comes running into our bedroom and we three spend a good 45 minutes in bed laughing, tickling and talking. This started when she was a baby and we'd go get her and bring her in with us. Some day she is going to decide she is too old for this ritual, and a part of my heart will die with the passing.

9:00 a.m. - On a Saturday morning, this is the significant hour of The Family Breakfast. Be it waffles (Champs makes the best waffles!) or pancakes or my special cinnamon french toast, we all get together around the table and enjoy time together before the business of the day begins. Sweet! And I'm not talking about the syrup!

10:00 a.m. - SHOPPING TIME! Just ask Geekwif and Curly Girl. By 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday, we can be hot on the trail of the best consignment shops in the city.

11:00 a.m. - October 19, 2002 at about 11:20, Champs and I went to the closing of our home. This is the first home we ever bought. Man, we signed a LOT of papers!

12:00 p.m. - On 9/27/2003 my father lost his battle with lung cancer sometime after noon. I was planning to go visit him that morning, but decided to wait until after Sweet Girl had her nap. So I missed him. It happened to both Champs and I.

1:00 p.m. - This is the last one I haven't filled in yet. I can't think of anything significant about 1:00 in the afternoon. Wait, yes I can! In our city, at 1:00 in the afternoon on the first Wednesday of the month, every city in the metropolitan area tests their civil service sirens. The Twin Cities is HUGE and it doesn't matter where you are; you will hear sirens the first Wednesday of the month at 1:00. I remember it freaked Champs out a bit at first. I'll miss it when we move to Another State.

2:00 p.m. - We have a family tradition on New Year's Day. We have a late lunch/early dinner of soup and sandwiches. Then we eat again later in the day. What a way to start the year :-)

3:00 p.m. - This hour belongs to Champs. He was born at 3:29 p.m. His mom likes to tell me that his father took one look at the head full of red curls and said, "oh no!" I, on the other hand, am delighted by each red curl.

4:00 p.m. - Sweet Girl time! I leave work every day by 3:30 to that I can be home to meet her bus at 4:20. That's why I leave so freakin' early in the morning!

5:00 p.m. - Daddy comes home! You haven't seen joy personified until you witness a 5 year-old girl who is so happy that her daddy is walking in the door. She screams, laughs and jumps up and down - kinda like Dino when Fred came home on "The Flintstones". I love it.

6:00 p.m. - Nothing really special about this hour. What is significant, however, is how many different ways you can find to feed your family at this time of night. Especially when you don't really feel like cooking. Thank goodness for frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts!

7:00 p.m. - Champs and I were married at 7:00 in the evening on 10/09/98 in a beautiful candlelight ceremony. It wa beautiful and I loved every minute of it.

8:00 p.m. - This one is mine; I was born at 8:42 p.m. My mom went through 36 hours of labor!

9:00 p.m. - This is the soaky bath hour. For the next 5 months, I am sure that I'll be freezing cold. If I want to sleep at night, my only defense is to get in a tub of the hottest water I can stand and thaw out. I don't know why I'm this way, but since I had the gastric bypass I've been a human iceberg.

10:00 p.m. - Time for the nightly news. I have a love/hate relationship with the news. I always watch the same channel and I like the anchors on the news. I need to hear the weather and I enjoy the "feel good" stories. But with gangs in our cities and my brother-in-law, Tank, in Iraq, I'm really not fond of listening to national and world news.

11:00 p.m. - In spite of how early I get up every day, it's usually sometime after 11:00 before I actually get to bed. I need more sleep!


And that's 24 hours - spanned through my life.