Head Tale

Following up on my promise from awhile ago to add an “About Me” page to this blog, I decided to do something a bit different than the traditional, paint-by-numbers, paragraph-long business-style bio or the fun but frivolous, paragraph-long informal version that many web sites have (er, no offense meant if that's what your web site has. )

I used to keep a timeline for my life's major events on my original web page so thought that might provide a good basis for this About Me page.  The major new feature are the photos to illustrate each major life milestone.   (You can also see a slideshow of all photos at full-size plus some extra photos I didn't end up using for this page although they aren't in chronological order as I can't figure out how to get Flickr to sort photos by filename.)

I've been working on this for awhile but Shea's and my anniversary sounds like as good of a day to post it as any.  Enjoy!

1973		Age  0 – Hello world!
1974		Age  1 – Eat, shit, sleep.  Repeat. (Although this photo looks like I might've accidentally added a comma between “eat” and “shit” that didn't need to be there, I assure you those are yams I'm eating!)
1975		Age  2 – Eye Surgery (x2).
1976		Age  3 – I don't know – playing with tractors?
1977		Age  4 – Still playing with tractors.
1978		Age  5 – Kindy-garten and I break my foot on the first day. (Also, my first love – the teacher!)
1979		Age  6 – I start playing hockey (although not as a goalie – this is just me trying out my cousin's equipment.)
1980		Age  7 – “Star Wars” and later, “The Empire Strikes Back” hit my life like a blizzard on the Planet Hoth.  (Er, in non-geek speak, they had a really big effect.)
1981		Age  8 – Move to the big kids' end of the elementary school – gotta act tough!
1982		Age  9 – Grade four – first year with more than one teacher.  Also, apparently no longer just acting tough as I join a local karate club.
1983		Age 10 – Braces then a retainer then a million dollar smile (well, a couple grand anyhow.)  I think I went for a year without smiling.
1984		Age 11 – First big trip of my life – a family trip to Hawaii.
1985		Age 12 – Our family does a houseboating trip to La Ronge in northern, Saskatchewan.  Still the coldest water I've ever swam in.
1986		Age 13 – Move to the high school (in our small town, kids go to Elementary school from Kindergarten to grade six then move to the high school from grade seven to twelve.) Also, my one and only award for brains – a Proficiency Cup for having a 90%+ avg. I couldn't find a photo of that auspicious occasion so this is a shot of me getting a Luther College Entrance Scholarship in 1991 which is another award for brains I guess although for some reason, that one didn't mean as much.  Jaded, I guess.
1987		Age 14 – Really enjoying English classes more and more as I start to think about what direction I might go in a few years when I'm done high school.  This photo was undated and I think I'm older than 14 in it but a picture of me coming out of the RPL's Central Branch seems to fit here.
1988		Age 15 – Illegal Drinking Age (have my first beer at a party after swearing I would NEVER EVER drink. Oops!)  You can tell I was obviously already a wildman.  Look at how I belted out “Mary Had A Little Lamb”  (Also, my first job as a gas station attendant at the local ESSO.)
1989		Age 16 – Driver's License – lookout world! (This is my first car – a Malibu Classic I paid $600 for – but it wasn't me that crashed it.  My roommate borrowed it a few years after I got it and was smoked by a drunk driver late one night.)
1990		Age 17 – Extended family car trip to Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and back.
1991		Age 18 – High School Graduation (technically at 17 since I'm a July baby.)  Plus I gain the Right to Officially Cancel the Vote of the Guy Who Voted Before Me
1992		Age 19 – Legal Drinking Age (although this is a picture of me around age 25.  Any shots of me drinking when I was younger are too embarrassing to put online.  And this coming from a guy who put the next photo up which prompted his own wife to ask, “Is that a hat you're wearing or your real hair?”)
1993		Age 20 – During the course of my undergrad degree, I switch from my initial Business Admin major which became Psychology which became Film which became English which is the degree I ended up convocating with.
1994		Age 21 – Trip to Las Vegas to celebrate my 21st birthday.   There's a really cool shot of me playing Blackjack in a casino but I can't find it so instead, you get a shot of a surprise party my parents threw me for my 21st birthday.  And yes, that is a cake in the shape of a computer.  (But I was really cool in that Vegas photo, honest!)
1995		Age 22 – One of five out of fifty plus applicants selected for a semester-long England Exchange thru U. of R. (and the happiest four month stretch of my life…up until I visit another city called London.)
1996		Age 23 – Graduate with a four-year BA – English in five years (okay, four and a half)
1997		Age 24 – My first real job – Web Site Designer for the Saskatchewan Publishers Group as part of a work-training program called the Graduate Employment and Mentorship Project (my major contribution is suggesting “GEM Project” might be a better way to refer to it than “GEMP”)
1998		Age 25 – Start dating the beautiful and talented Shea Thompson (or did I?  A running joke is that her mom still doesn't know when we started dating since we began our relationship as roommates.)
1999		Age 26 – Trip to Mazatlan, Mexico with Shea.
2000		Age 27 – Leave the SPG and move to Calgary, Alberta where Shea's accepted a position as an RN at the Alberta Children's Hospital. I am hired by the Writers Guild of Alberta and one of my jobs is to “fix” the door prize draws in favour of any well-known Canadians who might attend the events I organize.
2001		Age 28 – Buy a new car, a condo and an engagement ring in rapid succession right around the time I turn 29.
2002		Age 29 – Trip to the Mexican Riviera in March for our wedding followed by a blast of a Mexican-themed reception in Shea's hometown of Creelman, SK in August.
2003		Age 30 – A big highlight of this year is the Calgary Flames improbable march to the Stanley Cup Finals and all the related excitement in the city, especially along the “Red Mile” which is just a few blocks from our condo.
2004		Age 31 – Move back to Saskatchewan, buy a house, start a new job.  Get to partake in the province's incredible Centennial celebrations throughout the year.
2005		Age 32 – After nearly 10 years in the literary non-profit sector, I decide to pursue a new (but definitely related) career that I'd always had in the back of my mind as a possible profession.  I am accepted into the Master of Library & Information Science Program at the University of Western Ontario in late 2005, and ironically, nearly 10 years to the day after my first trip to London in 1995, I'm going back – only it's to (little) London, Ontario this time.
2006		Age 33 – Guess who's pregnant?  We bring home a pretty awesome souvenir from our year in Ontario!
2007		Age 34 – Pace Owen joins our family on May 19, 2007.
2008		Age 35 – Accept position as Organization Development Specialist with Regina Public Library
2009		Age 36 – Out myself (as if it was a big secret) as an NDP supporter while volunteering for Ryan Meili's campaign for the leadership of the Saskatchewan NDP.