Snarkland

I’m born, and live in Baltimore.

I’m four or five, and we move to Florida. My parents get divorced.

I’m six, and living with my father and some family friends in Bayport. I get the chicken pox.

I’m nine, and read The Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time. I want to be Strider.

I’m eleven, and my father and I move briefly to Ormond Beach. I go running on the beach, barefoot, and step on a piece of driftwood. It goes almost half an inch into the bottom of my foot. Blood is everywhere.

I’m fourteen, and my father and his second wife buy a farm outside of town. The next few years of my life are filled with blueberries and sheep and cows and chickens. Oh my.

I’m sixteen, and I leave home to go to the Florida School of the Arts, where I have my own apartment and am the envy of all my Gainesville friends. They didn’t know it wasn’t at all like Fame; it was more like Deliverance.

I’m seventeen, move back to Gainesville, and get my first job. It’s at a science fiction/fantasy/comic shop/gaming bookstore. I am in heaven.

I’m twenty, and move to DC to live with my friend Quinn. I discover that in my heart of hearts, I am not a big-city girl, like I thought I was. I spend a year answering phones at an asphalt company and discover a level of sexism I had never before been exposed to.

I’m twenty-one, and move back home to Gainesville with my tail between my legs. New job – bookstore (and nobody is surprised). My grandmother, the one who taught me ceramics, dies. My life begins to change in noticeable ways.

I’m twenty-four, and get married for the first time.

I’m twenty-five, and code my first website. It’s horribly designed, and I’m glad it no longer exists.

I’m twenty-nine, get divorced, and go back to school.

I’m thirty-one, and my father dies. I feel that nothing will be the same.

I’m thirty-three, and get married again.

I’m thirty-four, and take up knitting.

I’m thirty-five, and finally get to fly to the UK; something I’ve wanted to do my whole life. The stopover in Iceland was a bonus!

I’m thirty-six, and wondering where I’m going in this life.

I’m thirty-seven, and my father’s best friend, who helped to raise and shape me, loses his years-long battle with cancer. I start to feel that men in my life are doomed.

I’m thirty-eight, and open a business with two of my friends.

I’m forty, and we close the physical location of the yarn store and go online. I’m faced with many choices. I take the crafty path.