charlottezweb

(Note: today is 11 days before my birthday)

20 years ago, I was fighting with my mother about who to invite to my Sweet Sixteen party. She told me I couldn't invite someone I wanted to, so I canceled the party. I was a Junior in HighSchool and in love with someone who was about to realize I existed.

15 years ago, I was about to turn 21 and was deciding where I wanted to order alcohol on a bar for the first time. (I always looked super young, so I couldn't get into a bar, much less order a beer before my 21st BD.) I was engaged but it would be over in 5 more months. I was good MHC woman, protesting and studying, but losing my friends as our attitudes about sex and liberalism diverged.

10 years ago, I was in graduate school, studying English lit, working as a tour guide and living at home. I had broken up with a stalkery, slightly abusive boyfriend, and in the spring I would move out, get a dog, and fall in love, again. I would also meet the person I would eventually marry and borrow a book on PeeWee Gaskins from him.

5 years ago, I was just back from Italy and Paris, where I realized that someone I could have loved just wasn't that in to me, and was in San Diego, seeing my other sister and her family. The next day, I would head back to NYC, make sure all my stuff was packed and then drive down to Charleston to move in with my BFF. The person I'd met 10 years earlier and dated for a month or so unsuccessfully, would come to his senses the day I arrived and we would start dating again the next day.

2 years ago, I was holding a 4 month old son in Disney World where my partner and I celebrated our first anniversary. We went to the food and wine festival, ate and drank a lot, and dressed the baby up as superman for the halloween party.

1 year ago, I was about to turn 35, was living in Rome, GA near one of my best friends with my partner and son, was teaching at a junior college, and was missing home and NYC terribly. I had two friends at my birthday party and realized that we had to move. 6 months later we were home.

Yesterday, my partner and I left the baby with my mother and went to the Taste of Charleston, where we ate a ridiculous amount of tasty food and drank wine in souvenir wine glasses. Mmm, reisling.

Today, I'm happy there's a holiday and am trying to decide what to do with it. The baby is watching cartoons and eating a brownie for breakfast (hey, it's a holiday), and my husband is squirrel hunting. We may go to the children's museum or the aquarium in a little while.

Tomorrow, I go back to work and my partner goes to apply for a job where he used to work, since my hours ust got cut. We're also looking for a new apartment to move into after Xmas. I'm so much happier than I thought I'd be during most of the years above. :)