alfvaen | Mar. 25th, 2010

maradydd posted a meme about where you were and what you were doing during every census, which for the U.S. is every ten years, including this one. Now the Canadian census is every five years, and doesn't come around until next year, so I was torn between doing that one or the U.S. one, but since I'm blocked on the big NaNoWriMo summary post I'm working on (which is turning into me rereading all of my NaNo novels, which could take a while), I'll do one now for the every-ten-years thing.

In 1980 I turned nine years old, in grade six, living in Grande Prairie in a house about ten blocks north of downtown and going to Avondale Elementary School. I was mostly into D&D at the time, with my newish friend Jeremy, who I'd met in grade five. I was getting pretty good at getting around on my bike. My favourite books were probably Narnia; can't remember if I'd read Watership Down yet.

In 1990 I turned nineteen years old, over halfway through my B.Sc. at the University of Alberta, having given up on my Honours degree in Physics and ready to settle for Specialization instead. I was renting a house in Millwoods, on the south side of Edmonton, with Jeremy and Dave (not the best roommate choice we ever made). I proposed to Nicole on Valentine's Day, and went to three or four weddings of her cousins that summer to meet her extended family. I spent most of the summer working for Dr. Doug Schmitt on a research scholarship, as I had the summer before.

In 2000 I turned twenty-nine. Nicole and I, who had gotten married in 1991, had just had Simon the year before, and had also moved into our current house in Millwoods. I was working at Kakari Systems, and had been for a couple of years now; things were going pretty well there. I was not yet blogging or doing NaNoWriMo. Nicole had sold Running On Instinct, and probably also Violet Eyes and Silver Eyes as well, since they all came out in 2001, and was staying home to write/parent full-time.

In 2010, I am working for Investopedia.com, just into my second year there. We're still living in Millwoods, but looking at selling our house and moving into a bigger one. I've done NaNoWriMo quite a few times, and have blogged off and on since 2001. We have three kids now, Simon, Luke, and Jinian, who's just turned two. I play a lot of Sims 2 and watch a moderate amount of TV.

In 2020, Simon may be in university, Luke will be finishing high school, and Jinian will probably be in grade six. With luck, I will have figured out how to rewrite one of those novels and maybe even get it published. With even more luck, Nicole will be a best-selling author and I'll get to stay home all day. Stranger things have happened, though perhaps not to us.