Well, facts of our life. Little bitty tidbits that should help you understand us better. Really, I'm not that optimistic that understand is the right word. Maybe "gain insight" or "something extra for you to read at work". Those might work better. Believe it or not, I get a reasonable amount of questions about our life. I know. I'm shocked too. Here are the most asked and some semblance of an answer.
How'd you two crazy kids meet?
Chuck and I met the first night of college in 2001 and have spent our entire adult lives together. It's been a ride growing up with someone else. We got married a few weeks after college graduation -- too young but it worked for us. I wrote about our relationship once. I titled it "A Cautionary Tale of Rebound Relationships". That's about it.
Why did you start a blog? You don't have kids.
Couple of reasons. I habitually stalked a few blogs for a few months and found it all fascinating. Except, most people I know have babies and blogs. I broke all the rules. But I still felt I needed to contribute when I was reading so much. I'm such a giver.
And because I dropped out of journalism school to become a teacher and I missed writing. I'm not creative or artsy, but I still needed an outlet so the option was dress in all black and to head to poetry readings or start a blog. I took a chance.
What's with the Ship's Wheel and the nautical jokes?
We have a ship's wheel mounted in our living room. Yup.
And that should help you understand the constant inside joke references. Sorry 'bout those. We weren't trying to leave you out.
What's the deal with having kids in 2053?
The deal is when you're married for almost 7 years and in you're late-twenties, people start with the questions. I'm not a fan of the questions. Neither is Chuck. So 2053 it is. Take it or leave it.
How do you pronounce your mom's name?
I never thought my mom's name would be a pronunciation difficulty, but I get this a lot. Fe is my Mom. She has a real name too, but we like Fe. And it's Fe, with a long Ee sound. Fe rhymes with "be". Get it now? Better?
What do you "do"?
Chuck was an airline pilot, and then the recession came and the layoffs came with it. We weren't upset. Chuck wasn't loving the gone 5 days, home 2 kind of lifestyle. We're independent people, but even we have a limit. Now he works at a real job doing regulatory affairs, which I think sounds dirty but actually has to do with flying. He's a big fan of coming home each night.
I'm a teacher. I help blow noses. I sing Happy Birthday and add the Cha Cha Chas. I'm the only one in my work space allowed to use a stapler, tape dispenser, and scissors with pointed ends. Because I'm a teacher, it's important to me that the blog stays G rated. If you can help with this, that's great. No bad words, no bad thoughts, mind your p's and q's in your comments.
What's the deal with Jack?
Jack is our angel cat. When you don't have kids, you turn into certain kind of people. We became cat people. We did not set out to be cat people. This happened on accident. We're a little mortified at being those people.
But we are what we are. We've had Jack for 4 glorious years. I still get lost in his green eyes and tuna breath. We've taught him to fetch and walk on a leash. We've built him an 8 foot scratching post. We paid $1,700 for emergency surgery when he swallowed a toy. It was one of my first posts here. We are those people. We are cat people.
Who's Lucy? I thought you were sans children?
Lucy is my favorite niece. She's also my only niece. She belongs to Shelley, my favorite sister. She's also my only sister. We're together a lot and I'm a big fan of those two, so they end up on the blog pretty often.
What kind of camera do you have?
My cameras are my life, which is a little sad. My first is a Pentax K200D. I shoot with either a standard 3.5-5.6f 18-55mm lens or a fixed 1.4f 50mm. I also have a really annoying mounted flash. Oh, I am obnoxious. I also have a Nikon D5000 and a D7000. I shoot with a standard 3.5-5.6f 18-55mm lens, a fixed 1.8f 30mm, or a telephoto 4-5.6f 200mm lens. The camera thing is getting out of control.
The real hero is Photoshop. It was Photoshop Elementary,because that thing is about $75 bucks and I'm a miser. I'm stin in love with Elements, but I got a teacher discount on real CS4 Photoshop (for $120 bucks) so I had to take it. I feel a little like it's cheating on Elements, but I had to do it.
