Following my
wife's lead, I'm going to give this "sentences" thing a shot.
1) I am born at YNHH on my great-grandmother's 82nd birthday. The delivery is a disaster except for the fact that all of us survive. I spend the first year of my life surrounded by love and adoration but without the services of the medical malpractice attorney that would have heard the story of my birth and fought to change my family's tax bracket for generations to come.
2) I start walking and talking. My parents bring home Teri- instantly and forever, my best friend.
3) I'm cute as hell. I talk in full sentences. I help with the baby. I sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus on Christmas. I sit anywhere my parents put me for as long as they need to without crying.
4) I do a lot of singing and dancing and know all the words and lyrics to the plays that my dad is in, but I am a very shy little girl.
5) I learn to swim and go to Scooter School (nursery school.)
6) I go to kindergarden. We do this totally dorky daily stretching as we say the alphabet- I think it's cool.
7) I have Mrs. Robbie for 1st grade. I like her but don't like leavingy my mother's side. I get scared and cry everytime I have to go to an outside class or everytime there is a substitute teacher. My parents buy a house on 380 Oak avenue.
8) 2nd grade, Mrs Hague. I get the part of Hoppy Bunny in the class play (it's the only part I was even interested in, God knows why.) Auntie Sheila, my dad's sister, dies of melanoma- it is the first time I see my dad cry in saddness.
9) Mrs. Robbie moves to the 3rd grade and so do I- slightly less crying this year.
10) 4th grade: I am busting out of my shell little by little. I get in trouble for "acting up" in class for the first time... I was drawing faces on my thumbs and pretended my thumbs were having a conversation. Mrs. Diamond had a cow about it.
11) I love reading and history, music and gym. I want to do better in the mental arithmatic competitions that Mr. Smith conducts. Playing the flute is hard.
12) 6th grade... I quit flute and my dad finds out when he asks Mr. music-teacher-man "How's she doing with the flute?" on parent-teacher night. I can't wait for grammar school to be over so I can quit girl scouts too.
13) Dodd Jr. High School... I really like switching classes and mostly all my teachers. I meet Mr. Wyllie. He's the smartest teacher I've ever had. He talks to us like we are adults- he sometimes even swears! I learn more from him- I think- than I will ever learn from anyone. I play softball and sing in the chorus. I get my period.
14) Mr Wyllie also teaches 8th grade history. He asks me to be in charge of scholastic magazine distribution. He gives me a laminated pass to get out of all my study halls. The pass lets me "take a friend" to help pass out the magazines- it's a good year!
15) I go to High School where my parents met 18 years before; I get involved in music, theater, and softball. I have the same group of 4 or 5 friends that I've been in school with for years, but I become friends with a bunch of Juniors and Seniors too.
16) Sophmore year- I am able to navagate comfortably between a bunch of different "clicks" within the high school. My best friends are in Chorus and softball. Academics are generally good. I hate latin. I'm confounded by math. Writing and History are still my favorite subjects. I earn a varsity letter in softball.
17) Junior year- I swear the only class i remember is Chemistry. My chem friends and I keep a notebook that's like a prehistoric blog containing all kinds of commentary about the class and teachers. I don't tell anyone, but decide i will ask my friend, Jesse, to the prom. Before I get the chance, he calls and asks me. (It still rates at one of my top ten "best" phone calls!) I run for class president; not so much because I want the job but because I don't think the two most popular girls in our class should run for "co-president" uncontested. I lose but it is a respectable showing. I meet John. It is a great year, dispite my terrible acne.
18) I fall in love, love, love. I make All-State (chorus) as a Soprano and am elected All State pitcher. Our team wins the league championship. I apply to 2 schools and chose UConn when BC doesn't pick me for "early decision."
19) UConn: Classes are hard. Dorm life is awesome. (I live in the
jungle) I gain the "freshman 15" and go on the pill. (so make that the freshman 20)
20) I become an RA as a sophomore and earn my room and board. So really, every extra serving at the "all you can eat" cafeteria is like giving myself a raise. (I gain another 15.)
21) Nursing school really begins. I love my clinical instructor, but am totally stressed out and can't really keep up in pathophysiology. By the end of the first semester, it becomes clear that I will be staying at UConn for a 5th year.
22) Still in love with John, I start to notice women more. Life seems great- then things become complicated.
23) I get through nursing school. My personal life starts to fall apart. I break up with John.
24) I drive cross country for the first time. I become an ICU nurse. I get my first "real" girlfriend. We break up. I get my first apartment. I come out to my parents. I feel like things are starting to be okay again.
25) John dies. It is unexpected and devastating. I feel like someone reached into my chest and tore my aorta off my heart. I spend the rest of the year trying to remember how to breathe.
26) I turn 25 and much of the next year is a blur. I think everytime I have a birthday I will whisper to myself, "not everybody gets to turn (insert age.)" I grieve hard, like it's a full time job. I move to Boston with my sister. We live in a phat pad on Mass ave, and i learn to laugh again. I wake up nearly every day feeling lucky. I think living in Boston saves my life. I get into grad school.
27) I become a Yalie but commute to school from my HOME in Boston. It takes the whole year before that gets tired enough for me to want to move back to CT. I meet Katy and tons of other amazing people in New Haven. I get a tatoo.
28) I spend the summer on Martha's Vineyard, as a travel nurse. It's the best summer of my life because of the ocean, my tan, and the deliciously kind and crazy people i meet while on the island. I donate eggs. I move into an apartment with Nealie. I continue my graduate studies, continue ICU nursing, and fall in love, love, love again.
29) I move in with Katy and graduate from Yale.
30) We move to Hartford. I become a home care nurse and a nursing clinical instructor. My father's father passes away. I propose to Katy and offer her a diamond ring. She says "yes" and returns the favor a few weeks later. We're engaged!
31) I go to Vegas for the first time. My sister marries Bill. I start working at Fair Haven.
32) My Grandpa "Bean" dies. Katy's Grandma Tierney dies. It's a very sad and difficult summer, but we have an amazing wedding in September. We buy a house on the last day of the year. We take a huge tree down after it tried to fall on the house. I chop wood for the remainder of the spring and summer.
33) I continue to periodically chop wood... thankless task. I legally change my name. I become an expectant aunt. We get some civil recognition of our relationship- BUT not MARRIAGE... no, no, SWEET LORD NO- please don't call it marriage... it might make other marriages suddenly invalid if the state of Connecticut says we're married. (True confession: when the police aren't around, I call it "marriage;" and most folks I know- despite the VERY CLEAR federal law [
HR 3396] indicating that marriage needs to be protected from people like us- call her my "wife" ;)
Earlier today I went downstairs to watch the first of 8 (yes, 8) women's basketball games for the weekend. I was doubly thrilled to enjoy left over ice cream ("scoop o' chocolate, scoop o' vanilla, don't waste my time") with peanut butter sauce (cannot be beat). When I took it out of the freezer, however, it seemed a little more like liquid than like ice cream. Being totally distracted, I simply put the container down on the counter, said "that's weird", and proceeded to watch basketball.
