Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Self-Portrait Challenge: Introduce Yourself, Week 3

The Story of Deb Two weeks ago, on The Story of Deb: Episode One - The First Ten Years, I began my introduction for this month's Self-Portrait Challenge. Last week I continued the story with Episode Two - The Teen Decade. Now, to continue my (rather extended) introduction, Red Shoe Ramblings is pleased to present: Episode Three - The Roaring Twenties When we left The Story of Deb dangling at a not-so-scary precipice last week, I had just told you about some of the stuff that happened just before I turned twenty. Over the next year and a half I finished college, including having my senior art exhibit and doing a semester of student teaching - no photos of that, unfortunately. I taught high school art and it was actually rather fun even though I ultimately didn't pursue teaching. Then when I was 21, I graduated. WooHoo! At that point I really thought I was going to marry the guy I'd been dating for the past 3 1/2 years (that would be the one in last week's homecoming pics), but by the end of the summer he was telling me he "thought we should see other people" and we all know what THAT means. (Her name was Beth and he didn't marry her either. HA!) Over the next few years, I worked a couple of different jobs, including being an office manager for a small company, and being first a sales associate and later a display designer for a large department store. I remember those years as being a lot of fun - running around with friends, dancing at clubs, having a date here and there without being serious about anyone. I don't think I ever messed with a camera then though. I can't find any party evidence! Then when I was 24 I met Johnny. Anyone who stops by here often has heard of Johnny, although I usually refer to him simply as J because it's easier to type one letter than six. We met because I'd been complaining to a co-worker about a horrendous blind date I'd been on the weekend before and swore I'd never go on another one. She said "Oh! I know someone you should meet!" and I said "What part of 'never' wasn't clear?" I held out for weeks, but eventually she wore me down and talked me into coming to her house for dinner to meet this guy who worked with her husband. I tell people she threw us at each other and we stuck. We dated for two years, were engaged for two months, and got married a month before I turned 27. He was 33. Over the next few years we lived on the western side of Cincinnati, and in North Carolina and Wisconsin where we bought our own private jet. Ok, the last seven words of that sentence were a total lie. But someone named Richardson had a private jet up there so we grabbed a stranger and made them take our photo standing next to it. You know you'd have done it too! My brother was also nice enough to provide us with a niece and a nephew during this decade, something I still appreciate. Thanks, Mark! And finally, the year I was 29, we bought a house in southern Kentucky. No, that's not quite accurate. We bought some beautiful land in southern Kentucky that happened to have an old, run-down, thoroughly disgusting shack on it. We fully intended to tear that thing down, but ultimately ended up remodeling instead. That's a long story, so I won't go into it here, but maybe I'll write about it another day and share some photos. We did 90% of the work ourselves, and I'm still pretty darn proud of what we did with that place, even after all these years! (Before and After-ish) And THEN... To Be Continued Please join me next week for "The Story of Deb: Episode Four - Thirty Little Secrets." (Photos above are clickable if you want to see them larger in a new window.)