Here is a year-by-year timeline of the highlights of my life…
1973 |
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Age 0 – Hello world! |
1974 |
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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 |
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Age 2 – Eye Surgery (x2). |
1976 |
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Age 3 – I don’t know – playing with tractors? |
1977 |
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Age 4 – Still playing with tractors. |
1978 |
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Age 5 – Kindy-garten and I break my foot on the first day. (Also, my first love – the teacher!) |
1979 |
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Age 6 – I start playing hockey (although not as a goalie – this is just me trying out my cousin’s equipment.) |
1980 |
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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 |
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Age 8 – Move to the big kids’ end of the elementary school – gotta act tough! |
1982 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Age 11 – First big trip of my life – a family trip to Hawaii. |
1985 |
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Age 12 – Our family does a houseboating trip to La Ronge in northern, Saskatchewan. Still the coldest water I’ve ever swam in. |
1986 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Age 17 – Extended family car trip to Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and back. |
1991 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Age 23 – Graduate with a four-year BA – English in five years (okay, four and a half) |
1997 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Age 26 – Trip to Mazatlan, Mexico with Shea. |
2000 |
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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 |
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Age 28 – Buy a new car, a condo and an engagement ring in rapid succession right around the time I turn 29. |
2002 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Age 33 – Guess who’s pregnant? We bring home a pretty awesome souvenir from our year in Ontario! |
2007 |
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Age 34 – Pace Owen joins our family on May 19, 2007. |
2008 |
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Age 35 – Accept position as Organization Development Specialist with Regina Public Library |
2009 |
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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. |
2010 |
Age 37 – Province-wide Sask Info & Library Services public library consortium goes live | |
2011 |
Age 38 – Newfoundland Trip for Wedding of One of My Best Friends | |
2012 |
Age 39 – Family Trip to Kauai and Maui | |
2013 |
Age 40 – Sasha Rayden is born on April 16 | |
2014 |
Age 41 – Buy rPod 182G Ultralight Camper | |
2015 |
Age 42 – Family Trip to Varadero, Cuba for New Year’s Eve | |
2016 |
Age 43 – First Game in New Mosaic Stadium |
