15 to 50: 1995
If I ever won the lottery, I'd probably take up attending college as a hobby. Humanities, History, Literature---any class I could write a term paper for was good; I made a small killing in Humanities, making and selling copies of my notes, and I wrote and sold a few term papers on the side.
Unfortunately, math wasn't so obliging. I flunked Intro to College Math---the PRE-Algebra class that didn't even count as a math credit. I ended up 4 credits short of a real degree---2 math and 2 science.
Hurricane Erin rolled through that summer. I was brushing my teeth when there was a violent crash outside. I fled, and spent the rest of the night huddled on some sofa cushions in the hallway---the closest thing I had to a windowless room.
Turned out we'd had a tiny tornado slide between my house and the house next door. It uprooted a tree---hence the crash---and tore up part of the roof. I got a check to replace the roof, but I got it patched and lived off the remainder for a while.
If I recall correctly, this was the year of the Halloween Short Story contest I wrote for AOL. S mentioned it to me, and then got mad at me because, not only did I have the temerity to enter it, I won the damn thing. The prize was something like 10 free hours---this was when AOL still charging by the hour. I wrote up the story of the Winchester Mystery House---what?! I DID. I first heard about it in a kid's magazine distributed by Gulf Oil Company back when I was about 8, it was the only so-called true ghost story I could think of.
She should have known better, it's not like she didn't know I could write. At the time, we were both into American Gothic, and she'd read the fanfic perpetually in progress that I produced for it.
I was also in a Film Appreciation class with J, who was one of my best customers for term papers, although she at least got the gist on paper, unlike some of them.
The diaspora hadn't started yet---all the C's were alive and well and in the same area, S and company were good, Peter and I were in constant contact by phone...I didn't know how good I had it.
.
Unfortunately, math wasn't so obliging. I flunked Intro to College Math---the PRE-Algebra class that didn't even count as a math credit. I ended up 4 credits short of a real degree---2 math and 2 science.
Hurricane Erin rolled through that summer. I was brushing my teeth when there was a violent crash outside. I fled, and spent the rest of the night huddled on some sofa cushions in the hallway---the closest thing I had to a windowless room.
Turned out we'd had a tiny tornado slide between my house and the house next door. It uprooted a tree---hence the crash---and tore up part of the roof. I got a check to replace the roof, but I got it patched and lived off the remainder for a while.
If I recall correctly, this was the year of the Halloween Short Story contest I wrote for AOL. S mentioned it to me, and then got mad at me because, not only did I have the temerity to enter it, I won the damn thing. The prize was something like 10 free hours---this was when AOL still charging by the hour. I wrote up the story of the Winchester Mystery House---what?! I DID. I first heard about it in a kid's magazine distributed by Gulf Oil Company back when I was about 8, it was the only so-called true ghost story I could think of.
She should have known better, it's not like she didn't know I could write. At the time, we were both into American Gothic, and she'd read the fanfic perpetually in progress that I produced for it.
I was also in a Film Appreciation class with J, who was one of my best customers for term papers, although she at least got the gist on paper, unlike some of them.
The diaspora hadn't started yet---all the C's were alive and well and in the same area, S and company were good, Peter and I were in constant contact by phone...I didn't know how good I had it.
.