Time Capsule: 2005

I turned 13, and all I gave myself was this time capsule.

Jan 14, 2025

I’m unpacking manila envelopes I stuffed with memorabilia in end-of-year rituals from 2003 through 2007. This is the third entry in my Time Capsule series. Read 2003 and 2004 here.

We packed as though the city was burning, because it was. It is. On Tuesday night, the closest evacuation zone was just a few miles away, and the winds were viciously tearing apart our neighbor’s roof and depositing shingles into our yard. Someone, somewhere, on social media or the news, told me to pack a go bag, so I did. I always keep an earthquake survival backpack under the bed, along with an old pair of Nikes and socks. According to its marketing materials, the backpack contains everything necessary to keep two people alive for three days. Except water, but for that, I have two 7-gallon containers filled and ready.

I packed our go bag(s) with a couple changes of clothes for each of us, plus toiletries and medicine. In our backpacks, we put electronics and important documents and my gold jewelry and a unicorn necklace my dad gave my mom 40-something years ago. I packed a bag of cat food and supplies for Kimchi. I grabbed a cardboard box from my office closet labeled “Savannah’s Cards *Nostalgia*” and our wedding book.

On Wednesday, we woke up to smoky air in our bedroom, and alerts we’d missed during the night. Zero percent containment. Some of our favorite places, on fire. People were losing everything they had, their homes, their possessions, their memories. Going, gone. We thought about what they’d lost, and what we stood to. As we waited for evacuation notices, we packed more. A big suitcase with more clothes (favorites only) and all my journals, photos, and some snacks.

We packed the car, and we thought about leaving. I was so sure we would that I gave Kimchi the medicine we give her when we take her to the vet. As she got drowsy, we mapped routes out of the city. My family lives north, but there were fires to our north. There were fires on all sides. But no fires in our neighborhood. So we’re still here. We haven’t unpacked.

I put such a premium on remembering, honoring the past, saving evidence of what I’ve seen and who I’ve been. As I scanned my possessions, deciding what I really didn’t want to lose, I chose not to pack my time capsules. But I still have them, because I’m lucky — currently, anyway. So, let’s travel for a moment to a simpler time: the year 2005. And then, if someday this manila envelope burns into nothing, you can help me remember.

The summer of 2005, I turned 13. When my older sister turned 13 four years earlier, she said gleefully, “Now when I’m moody, I have an excuse!” “Not a good one,” I said. I had a bit of an anti-teen attitude at the time and infamously called my sister a parasite. My mom laughed and insisted, “Allison is not a parasite.” I said, “Well, she’s annoying and she eats our food.” Our food — see how I made it three against one? Me plus the parents against the moody teenager. And then I was one. Sorry, Allison!

Unlike the ’03 and’04 capsules, ’05 doesn’t have a table of contents written on Tinkerbell notepaper. Perhaps more helpfully, I summarized the year in a letter that begins, “This has been an eventful year, I suppose.” I listed the trips we took, the jobs my parents and sister held, the colleges we toured for my sister and the ones she applied to, some friendship clique updates, my extracurriculars, my favorite book and show that year, and a state of the nation update about Hurricane Katrina’s deadly toll. “Horrible jerk Bush was still President,” I wrote calmly. I also listed the day of my first ever slow-dance with a boy (December 9th). I didn’t list the song we danced to, but I remember.

“Time Capsule - 2005!” - Annotated 19 years later

TRAVEL AND EVENTS

Newspaper clipping of Emmy Rossum at the Golden Globes

She wore a timeless strapless gown.

Map for Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, OR

We “got lost in the city of books,” as the map recommends, while on a trip to Oregon to tour colleges for my sister. I read a problematic historical novel during all the college info sessions, but I was very alert for the walking tours led by charismatic and cute college students who were strangely adept at walking backwards.

Borders receipt for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, at 12:24 AM on July 16th, and a midnight sale ticket

With my friends Clair and Isabel and all three of our fathers, we waited at Borders for the midnight release of the sixth book. My lottery ticket was number 96. According to my smug summary of the year, I finished the book at 10:00 AM the very next day, my birthday.

Ballot from the 77th Academy Awards

This ballot is printed on the back of a letter my mom wrote to her mother in 2000. Isabel and her little sister came over to watch, and we marked our guesses. We didn’t see Million Dollar Baby’s win coming.

Church-y papers

I got confirmed at our Methodist church that year, so I was going to church multiple times a week, acquiring several churchy papers for my time capsule.

Southwest Airlines napkin

Vintage napkin with a map on the back marking every place Southwest flew.

Transportation tickets

From British Columbia, San Francisco, Syracuse. Ferries, metros, and planes.

Tickets from museums and performances

Another culturally privileged year in the books.

FRIENDS

A ribbon from Tahoe Meadows

My friend Clair and I rode in a bike parade on July fourth, sharing an undersized bike and earning a “Double the Fun!” blue ribbon.

The business card of my family’s Japanese exchange student

Yuko was a police officer in the Aomori Prefecture in eastern Japan, in Davis for a few weeks for unclear reasons. She practiced her English with us and made some viscous curries to share.

Rachel’s drawing of my future prom dress

My friend Rachel apparently wanted me to wear a cape. She’s been consistent in this and in fact encouraged me to wear one to my winter wedding in 2023. (I did not.)

Valentine’s Day cards from Clair, Isabel, and Rachel

Every other sentence must mention an inside joke — or else, are you even friends?

A locker note from Isabel and Clair

While I was in Syracuse, New York for my grandparents’ 50th anniversary, my friends stuck this note in my locker.

“Right now you’re probably in an airplane, kicking back in those comfy chairs they have and watching Shrek 2 or something,” Isabel wrote. Were the chairs more comfortable back then? Or were we just smaller?

She also asked me if my sister had seen the movie Babette’s Feast. I don’t remember my sister having a phase of watching 1980s Danish films, but I’m not saying it didn’t happen.

Clair updated me on her progress with reading and watching Jane Austen’s oeuvre.

Birthday party gift list

My mom wrote the list as I opened the presents. I still have two of the presents listed - silver earrings and a striped beach towel. I didn’t pack either for evacuation, but I did use the towel to help block smoke from getting in under the back door.

Birthday party trivia game

I wrote this game on index cards. Each person would read out a movie quote and others would guess the movie. Or they’d read out an extremely nice description of one of the guests, and others would guess who it was about.

A watercolor of purple flowers

Nothing priceless ended up in this manila envelope, because the time capsules were hidden away for posterity. As such, this painting is fine. It’s just fine.

SCHOOL

“The Ballet Slipper”

For a class assignment, I made a children’s picture book about a ballet slipper who loves to dance. Also just fine. This is my author page, where I give away very little except my apparent distaste for the Oxford comma. Some things have changed!

“Les Vetements pour les quatre saisons” by Amélie Kopp

Amélie was my French name; amazing that I got dibs on that. This assignment was to collage outfits for each season and describe their color, type, price, and size en français, bien sûr.

Essay & notes for presentation on Les Mis

For an English presentation in French class, Amélie chose the musical she’d been obsessed with since first grade. She wore her dad’s Les Mis T-shirt, played music while setting up (surely “Can You Hear the People Sing”), and used puppets to illustrate the story.

7th Grade Awards of Excellence in every class except PE and French

Love to get awards! Hate to not get awards! PE? Fine, but French?! I put my heart into that Les Mis project.

Geometry Readiness Test

Hate to brag, but I was 100% ready.

Courthouse Rededication Ceremony program

This must’ve been a field trip.

8th Grade class schedule

We had to show up in person on a late summer day to get a printout of our new schedule. To a modern crowd, this event may invoke the meme: “This meeting could’ve been an email.” But it was a reunion and much better irl.

Savannah Kopp

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