days of our lives - day 01

Introduce yourself.

Thirty-two years ago, I was introduced to the world as the baby girl of two awesome parents and the baby sister to one awesome brother. I grew up in a small town in upstate New York, where my parents and most of my family still live. I was the girl who waited all summer to go back-to-school shopping for school supplies. I loved (and do love) to read and because I was the only one in my family who hated watching sports, I spent many an afternoon in my bedroom with my stereo on and / or my nose buried in a book. I was best friends with the boy across the street until his family moved into a different house across town.

I was raised as Catholic and remember going to St. Michael's for mass but don't remember when it was we stopped. I never much cared for it because it was boring as hell, my first childhood crush went to church with his family and I basically sat and daydreamed about him through most of the service. We did, however, frequent Midnight Mass when Christmas rolled around and to this day, although I don't care for the religious aspects, the smell of incense and the singing of carols is Christmas to me.

I dug grade school a lot, can remember each one of my teachers except for the 4th grade, and will always answer, "who was your favourite teacher?" with "Mrs. Turner. Hands down." I won a spelling bee in 5th grade but can't remember the word that won it for me. Junior high sucked ginormous amounts of ass but it was when I started taking French (which I would continue to take until my Freshman year of college) and realized my Francophile tendencies. I'm fairly certain it was in the 7th grade when I met my best friend and one of my earliest memories of a childhood sleepover was a night spent at her house. The first time I danced with a boy, it was with one of my brother's friends and to Firehouse's "Love of a Lifetime."

High school was sucky in the typically sucky ways and awesome in others. One of my brother's friends told us the summer after our Freshman year was when we would really start to party and that held basically true. I was somewhat of a geeky kid who got good grades but still lived it up like most teenagers. The first time I got drunk was on some blue flavour of MD 20/20. The first time I smoked, it was a Salem menthol (fucking gross) at a Steve Miller concert. The first time I got high, someone asked me to put on Dave Matthews "#34" and I kept scrolling through the disc numbers wondering why, for the life of me, I couldn't find any tracks beyond track number twelve. I enjoyed every class but Math and used to go home everyday, watch Kate & Allie, and promptly do my homework. I became good friends with the girl I've always considered my other best friend and remember our group hug at graduation as if it were yesterday. I started working at Morgan's somewhere in there and developed the hugest crush ever on a co-worker who, even today, when I see him, causes me to go home and leave my purse and milk in the car because I totally forgot why I had to run to the store in the first place.

My father looked at colleges with me, we visited only Buffalo State and St. Bonaventure, and I knew the minute we pulled up to the Bonaventure campus that I wanted to go there. I majored in Journalism / Mass Communications because I wanted to get paid to write. When I realized I didn't want to be on television or have to write for a newspaper or publication where someone told me what I *had* to write, I switched to Elementary Education. When I realized I didn't want to parent children I didn't give birth to, I switched to English and graduated with a B.A. My favourite courses were Women & Literature and Women in WWII. Because of that and the fact that only a couple more credits and a Senior project would qualify me for a concentration, I wound up with a Concentration in Women's Studies. My favourite academic moment was when my Women's Studies advisor (who was also my History professor) invited her African American History students to her house to listen to old jazz and blues records as she taught that evening's class in her living room. My Junior year involved the one and only time I don't remember getting from Point A to Point B after a night of drinking. For some reason, I decided to make my First Communion and Confirmation as a Junior. The next year, I realized just how much Catholicism isn't my bag and haven't had anything to do with it since. I worked at the student cafe and had to wear a black and white striped shirt that made me look like a referee. The library is still one of my favourite buildings anywhere. My "let's meet people online" phase began. The very first person, I haven't spoken to in years. The second one could have a post all to himself and I still probably wouldn't be able to truly sum up that friendship, which thankfully, still exists today. I had a single room for most of my Freshman year, lived with an awesome girl my sophomore year, another awesome girl my junior year, and three awesome housemates my Senior year; all of whom contributed to the amazing memories I have of my college years.

I moved back home after graduation and lived there for a bit before moving to Rochester and living with a cousin so I could work the 3 - 11 shift at Kinko's Documentation Creation Center. I typeset a bazillion resumes and academic papers, created a few menus, typed up some horrible, horrible Christmas form letters (complete with cheesy clip art), and met friends I still very much miss. We made fake business cards for each other and replaced Kinko's tag line (Kinko's. We're doing more.) with our own tagline, Kinko's. We're doing your mom. I still have the business card in a box full o' memories somewhere.

My "let's meet those online people in person" phase began, I flew to New York for the first time ever, met a guy from online for the first time ever, and had sex for the first time ever. And I still think The Moody Blues' "Your Wildest Dreams" is the best song to have playing while making out with someone. I met Steve, who was the first person I dated "seriously," the first non-familial male to tell me he loved me and the first non-familial male to whom I reciprocated those words (and feelings).

After having flown to Chicago to meet one of those online guys, I fell in love with the city. Our Kinko's location was closed down, I started a temp-to-perm gig at an Accounting firm, it never went permanent and when I was let go, decided to move to Chicago. I broke up with Steve. My mom and aunt packed up a couple cars, we drove out to Des Plaines, and I moved in with said guy from online. I lived in his son's bedroom in the basement (the kid was in college) which was next to the living room where he kept a giant boa constrictor. I lived there until I found my first job in the city as an assistant at an insurance company and became good friends with the woman who trained me. Exactly a month after I started that job, I signed a lease for my first apartment in the city; a tiny but adorable studio. I met Josh, who I dated on and off for a couple years, who introduced me to Buffy and all things Whedon, and who was the first person to really break my heart.

A few years ago, that same woman from my first job brought me over to the company where I am now and I've been administratively assistanting here since. I moved into a one bedroom apartment, which I love.

I'm a low-key, low-maintenance gal. I'm reserved with my feelings, not so reserved with most everything else. I'm a volunteer rape crisis counselor. I love reading. I love writing. I love cities. I love small towns. I love winter. I love the water. I love creative people and inspiring people and people who challenge me. I love memes that help give me ideas for the ol' blog here.