A decennial census of my life
This meme looked like fun, so...
March, 2011:
We still live in Barrington, but now there's a second floor on the house. Our "kitten" is now a year old. The two children are into all sorts of artistic activities. My spouse teaches, sings, and designs rituals for people. I've been writing fiction for four years, and publishing stories for three. I've been to Clarion and joined SFWA and CSFW. I've started regularly attending Boskone and Readercon. I have many writer-friends. Now a professor of Humanities, I'm teaching my first Science Fiction course. Two of my sisters are married, and have three daughters between them. We are spread all over the continent. I've read so many new authors I can't keep track of them all, although I've been obsessivey reading Orson Scott Card's "Ender" and "Shadow" books as well as all the Michael Chabon and Neil Gaiman I can get my hands on.
March, 2001:
We live in Barrington, Rhode Island, and we have two children, aged 6 (almost 7) years and 18 months. My father has been dead for more than eight years. My spouse has earned her Ph.D, and is currently the Interim Director of the Women's Center at Brown. One of my three sisters is married and has a daughter. I've been a full Professor of Legal Studies for almost four years, but I'm now working half-time for the Information Technology department as a project manager and head of the Project Review Board, in hopes of a career change. I've studied risk management, leadership and project cost accounting with the Project Management Institute. I'm currently working on a software project to help the Warren Municipal Court convert its traffic ticket records. Previously I've published several articles on the constitutive rhetoric of legal texts, focussing primarily on discrimination law and contracts. I've been attending ABLJ conferences for nine years. I've read lots of Robertson Davies and Margaret Atwood.
March, 1991:
I've been married for more than 3 years, living in South Attleboro, Massachusetts. My spouse is a graduate student. We have no children yet. Having quit my law firm job, I am in my first full year of teaching business law courses to students at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI. I am one of three law faculty members in the Business Administration Department. I've begun reading Gardner Dozois's Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies, which I will continue doing for the next two decades. I've been reading a lot of John Varley and Marge Piercy, and have recently been impressed by Alexander Jablokov, Nancy Kress and Greg Egan.
March, 1981:
I live in a small room designated "Second S&C Inner" or "Second Pendulum 3" at the Alpha Delta Phi house, Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut. I am one of the "Chaplains" of the House, which means I do readings before dinner and am vaguely responsible for the spiritual/emotional well-being of the members (a task for which I have no talent). I have recently finished seven months as an intern at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, where I played my only professional role: Fleance in a two-month run of Macbeth. I have decided, based on that experience, that I no longer wish make the theater my career; I am thinking seriously about law school. This term I'm studying film/theater direction, abnormal psychology, 20th century European literature, and astronomy. I am in the first year of what will be a very serious three-year romantic relationship. I have three younger sisters. During the previous year, I devoured all the extant novels of John Irving and Ursula K. Le Guin. My girlfriend is introducing me to the novels of Mary Renault.
March, 1971:
I live in Southfield, Michigan, with my parents and two younger sisters. I am in the fifth grade at Dwight D. Eisenhower elementary school; this is the year I was turned down for the Safety Patrol. My bedroom is full of model rockets and comic books. I have read through all of the Danny Dunn books, most of Hugh Walters's space exploration novels, and Roy A. Gallant's science books for kids. I've started reading the Heinlein juvenile novels.
March, 1961:
I am one year old and I do not yet have any siblings. My parents and I live on a U.S. Air Force base in Minot, North Dakota. My father is a medical officer. I vaguely remember the layout of the house, and how cold it was in Minot.