We have been following Erin's story for quite some time now. How long? That is a wonderful question and one that I could not answer as telling time isn't as easy as it used to be, for me anyway. In the 'old' days way back before I was married and had kids the passage of time was associated with where (and what grade) I was attending school.
Now?
I am 12+ years out of college and 11 years in the same job so that annual 'resetting' of the life clock hasn't happened and the past 12 years now fall into one of three general phases:
BM - (not to be confused with a bodily function) Before Marriage
AM - (not to be confused with the morning) After Marriage
AK - (I have no silly thing to say here) After Kids
Since our son Will was born in 2004 that means I could have been following your story for 4 years....or six months....since my feeble intellect is completely incapable of discerning the difference. In any event, it has been wonderful to get to 'know' your via your webpage and to also learn that Texans don't all ride horses, wear gun belts in public, can finish sentences without a 'YaaHOOOO', don't all have long handlebar mustaches, and are just as wonderful (if not more so) than people everywhere else.
You have singlehandedly debunked every thing about Texans that I had previously believed to be the absolute truth. (I don't know why I have intermingled Yosemite Sam and all of Texas but I'd like to blame to many cartoons as a youngster and not nearly enought travel outside of New England).
I love all of your stories and it is so wonderful to get to know you, your passion, your commitment, your personality, as well as your struggles. I managed to get past the age of 30 before I truly learned that life, in fact, is not fair. To see you dealing with adversity in such a mature and optimistic manner is a wonderful source of strength to me so I thank you for that.
Here is some useless information:
-Maybe it is just us but in our "AM" period our house had two coffee tables and four end tables. After kids?
We have one end table hidden in a corner and wedged behind a "Pack & Play"....that's it. Everything else (along with sleep) has vanished.
-I really do not enjoy, like, or use any sort of lotion or cream. I despise putting on sun block, chap stick, or any sort of lotion. Right now my lips are impossibly chapped and I have a cold. If I sneeze violently it results in a tear in my lips and bleeding. However, I still refuse to do anything about this. The only exception is sun block...I do it to avoid skin cancer (I am pale white, covered in freckles, and 'had' red hair). I do the sun block thing but it makes me feel terrible. I have no rational explanation for this.
-I never worse sunglasses, owned sunglasses, or believed in sunglasses. One day last year I was going to a Red Sox game after work with a colleague and he talked me into buying a pair since it was impossibly sunny that day. Ever since? I don't know how I survived without sunglasses. I wear them all the time and in fact I wore them today (I take a train and walk to work) and it was 15 degrees farenheit outside.
-I usually eat all of my sides with a meal before the main course and it drives my wife insane. Burger and fries? I eat the fries and then the burger. Steak, asparagus, and mashed potatoes? You guessed it...the steak comes last. I don't know why this is and I also do not understand why my wife gets so upset with me.
-My office is 64 degrees right now and I keep placing a winter hat on one hand in lieu of gloves to try and warm up my blue fingers
-I always brush my teeth in the morning...but not every night at bedtime. I need to practice better oral hygiene.
-Our dog Molly turns 7 in January and every time I wonder how old she is I have to remember what year I was married (Oct 2001) since I know Molly was born in January of the following year ('02)/
-I sometimes type faster than I think and this can and has resulted in horrible spelling errors (and using the absolute wrong words at times). I also hate to proofread so please forgive my lack of attention in this note. I always promise to try harder, but I never do.
-Don't be afraid to add pickles to any recipe....you'd be surprised what it can add.
-I like to cut up chicken breasts into bite size pieces and add them to a heated pan with sautéed onions. I cook the chicken in Italian dressing before adding pickles, mushrooms, and rice. I then add some hot sauce after placing a serving in my own dish since no one else in my house likes hot sauce.
-I always go a minimum of 3 weeks beyond the date than any reasonable person would go and get a haircut.
-I once boarded a plane to a foreign country for a week without a passport, any luggage, and seven dollars in my wallet.
-I don't like musicals, operas, or any sort of performance that uses dance or music to communicate. I'd rather light myself on fire than sit through the movie "Grease"....it is my wife's favorite movie.
-I love that my cable box has a built in DVR.....and I hate when there are programs in the DVR because I feel this intense pressure to quickly watch all of the programs. What is that all about? The whole point of DVR is to watch the shows when you want to but if there ever happens to be two episodes of the same program in the DVR I end up having a near mental breakdown. I've actually stayed up until 1am some nights simply to get 'caught up'. How absurd is that? I think I'll go home and throw my television in the trash because it really is not supposed to create stress nor lead to insomnia. I thought the electronic age was supposed to make life easier?
-I love the idea of the Erin Project
-I had precisely 2 classes in my college career before 10am...neither worked out well.
-Only 2 others before 11:15 am...by junior and senior year I had picked a major that allowed me to have all of my classes after 11:15am with no classes on Monday or Fridays. I also picked this major since there was no math requirement other than some absurd computer class (I had to switch out of Psychology as a major since statistics was a required course).
-I part my hair to the right....I tried the left once but it made my brain hurt. However, I'm thankful that (for now) parting my hair is still a requirement
-I once had a full leg cast on my right leg....it was green.
-I love to read, but I rarely find the time. I was on a summer vacation in NH with my family and I HATED the beach. While everyone was swimming I was moping around the house (I forget how old I was but I'm guessing 12) and I picked up a book. It was "Thinner" by Stephen King and I could not put it down and I was completely engrossed. I've loved reading ever since and would only pick up a book prior to that if I was forced to for school. I'm currently reading "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. I enjoy his work...he makes my brain feel like someone is making it stretch and use muscles it rarely uses...which is nice. I also enjoy reading 'some' science fiction for this very same reason and that is probably why "The Stand" by Stephen King is my all time favorite sci-fi book. I also just finished reading "The Mayflower" by Nathaniel Philbrick for the second time....I really enjoyed reading about King Phillips war as it is a fascinating story that is never told. My other recent favorite was "Over the Edge of the World" about Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe...it was really quite mind boggling. I'd rather light myself on fire, or watch Grease, than get in a time machine to be a crew member on that voyage
-I wear glasses when I read in bed and when I sit at my desk
-I have a map of the United States and a map of Massachusetts on the wall in my office. In my first job here at this company from 1997 until 2000 I used to have to work on a technical support desk solving finance, business, software, and technical problems. Given my aforementioned schoolwork you may wonder how I got that job....I often wonder myself. In any event, it was a challenging job (in a good way) and it is also where I met my wife and when I would ponder a question I couldn't quite answer I'd look at a map. Something about looking at a map allowed me to focus on the problem while not focusing on the problem and eventually it would allow me to untangle the mystery and solve the problem. I've had my current job since the spring of 2000 and since I'm 8 years in this position those types of challenging problems are not something I face 25 times a day. However, I still haven't taken down those maps and I don't think I ever will since there are other problems in life that staring at a map can help you to sort out.
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