9 to 50 -- 2001
There was a guy I'd met through the LARP---come to think of it, he was running the tabletop game where HWSNBN and I met---who first told me about a weekly discussion group that met at the local UU church. They were pagan-friendly, he said, and I'd given them a try. That was in early '99---I remember, because that year they had a Beltane event that I went to, and HWSNBN went with me, although he's not pagan. He claims to be Catholic, but although he may have gone there as a kid, honestly, if he's anything, I'd say agnostic---but that's neither here nor there.
What matters is, I'd started going to services there, and had gotten a key and permission for the Camarilla to use the main building on Saturday evenings. And one Saturday evening, who should show up but Mb and her hub. I hadn't seen her since their departure from my spare room, which we didn't mention. Instead, she told me about the medical billing service she was working for, and that they were hiring. I went down there, and so began the chapter of my life entitiled, "You people!" (As in, "You people sent me this bill in the mail. Why didn't you people send this to my insurance? You people don't know what you're doing, my insurance said you people coded it wrong or they would have paid it, they pay everything!"---and so on.)
I'd been there less than a month when 9/11 happened. One of the girls had a radio on in her cubicle, and she said, "A plane hit the World Trade Center!" Well, I know that the Empire State Building was once struck by a plane, so I wasn't completely freaked out. Then a little while later, she said another plane had crashed into the other tower, and I was sure that it was some morning DJ's warped take on "The War of the World" broadcast. It didn't really sink in, especially when the next plane hit the Pentagon and another one went down---it seemed so over the top, like a big budget James Cameron thriller. I kept waiting for a punchline.
I realized the phones had gone silent. No one was calling to bitch about their bill, which suggested that maybe it was because everyone was huddled around their TV watching the breaking news. Someone who lived nearby ran out and brought in her portable TV, and there was the undeniable footage of tragedy.
Being a native New Yorker, albeit transplanted to Southern soil and thriving, I was more than a little in shock. Peter had worked in the Towers before his early retirement. I'd called him there often, talked to his coworkers while they paged him to the phone, knew that he shared my letters with them---and I wonder what happened to those good people. And I'll never know.
For weeks, I felt guilty about enjoying myself. HWSNBN and I went to see "The Musketeer", which would have been an exciting movie, if I hadn't had the feeling that I was doing something wrong for enjoying myself. We went and saw---I don't recall the title, but it was the current Schwarzenegger flick---and for once, car chases and explosions made me cringe instead of cheer.
When Halloween rolled around, I didn't play fair when it came to the company costume contest. With all the flag-waving that was going on at the time, how could I *not* win as Lady Liberty? Green shift, crown, torch, book...I got a WalMart gift card out of it, and invested the proceeds in an opulent velvet vest. (Pun not resistable.) And as proof of my pack-rattery, I still have the crown lurking around somewhere....
Also that fall, some friends of ours got married. I needed something to wear to the wedding, and because I was somewhere in the neighborhood of 375, off-the-rack formalwear wasn't a viable option. GK to the rescue! She found some material on eBay, I bought a pattern (which she modified), and we collaborated on a full-length, 3/4 sleeve red dress...maybe not the best shade of red for me, but it fit well.
Mb and I went hunting for something for her to wear, which we found at a plus-size consignment store down around Indian Harbor Beach. It was a snazzy black and silver number that needed a few stickes to mend...a seam or strap or something, I forget. But she took my word for it that it was an easy fix and got it, and it was an easy fix---I may not be quite up there with GK as far as tailoring goes, but basic things like seams and buttons, yeah, no problem.
As usual, I got completely fraught about the wedding. Maybe it's because the first wedding I encounted was Peter's and since it was a family event and my mother stressed about it, I thought that was what everybody did, but anyway---I'd like a wedding of my own someday. I don't necessarily want to get married, I just want a wedding.
But NOT to HWSNBN.
.
What matters is, I'd started going to services there, and had gotten a key and permission for the Camarilla to use the main building on Saturday evenings. And one Saturday evening, who should show up but Mb and her hub. I hadn't seen her since their departure from my spare room, which we didn't mention. Instead, she told me about the medical billing service she was working for, and that they were hiring. I went down there, and so began the chapter of my life entitiled, "You people!" (As in, "You people sent me this bill in the mail. Why didn't you people send this to my insurance? You people don't know what you're doing, my insurance said you people coded it wrong or they would have paid it, they pay everything!"---and so on.)
I'd been there less than a month when 9/11 happened. One of the girls had a radio on in her cubicle, and she said, "A plane hit the World Trade Center!" Well, I know that the Empire State Building was once struck by a plane, so I wasn't completely freaked out. Then a little while later, she said another plane had crashed into the other tower, and I was sure that it was some morning DJ's warped take on "The War of the World" broadcast. It didn't really sink in, especially when the next plane hit the Pentagon and another one went down---it seemed so over the top, like a big budget James Cameron thriller. I kept waiting for a punchline.
I realized the phones had gone silent. No one was calling to bitch about their bill, which suggested that maybe it was because everyone was huddled around their TV watching the breaking news. Someone who lived nearby ran out and brought in her portable TV, and there was the undeniable footage of tragedy.
Being a native New Yorker, albeit transplanted to Southern soil and thriving, I was more than a little in shock. Peter had worked in the Towers before his early retirement. I'd called him there often, talked to his coworkers while they paged him to the phone, knew that he shared my letters with them---and I wonder what happened to those good people. And I'll never know.
For weeks, I felt guilty about enjoying myself. HWSNBN and I went to see "The Musketeer", which would have been an exciting movie, if I hadn't had the feeling that I was doing something wrong for enjoying myself. We went and saw---I don't recall the title, but it was the current Schwarzenegger flick---and for once, car chases and explosions made me cringe instead of cheer.
When Halloween rolled around, I didn't play fair when it came to the company costume contest. With all the flag-waving that was going on at the time, how could I *not* win as Lady Liberty? Green shift, crown, torch, book...I got a WalMart gift card out of it, and invested the proceeds in an opulent velvet vest. (Pun not resistable.) And as proof of my pack-rattery, I still have the crown lurking around somewhere....
Also that fall, some friends of ours got married. I needed something to wear to the wedding, and because I was somewhere in the neighborhood of 375, off-the-rack formalwear wasn't a viable option. GK to the rescue! She found some material on eBay, I bought a pattern (which she modified), and we collaborated on a full-length, 3/4 sleeve red dress...maybe not the best shade of red for me, but it fit well.
Mb and I went hunting for something for her to wear, which we found at a plus-size consignment store down around Indian Harbor Beach. It was a snazzy black and silver number that needed a few stickes to mend...a seam or strap or something, I forget. But she took my word for it that it was an easy fix and got it, and it was an easy fix---I may not be quite up there with GK as far as tailoring goes, but basic things like seams and buttons, yeah, no problem.
As usual, I got completely fraught about the wedding. Maybe it's because the first wedding I encounted was Peter's and since it was a family event and my mother stressed about it, I thought that was what everybody did, but anyway---I'd like a wedding of my own someday. I don't necessarily want to get married, I just want a wedding.
But NOT to HWSNBN.
.