2002

At the beginning of 2002...

I was profoundly happy to see the back of 2001, which was a hard and terrible year in a variety of ways (with the exception of the publication of my first novel, which the rest may have happened in order to cosmically balance).

I didn't yet have a completed second novel in hand.

Because I was writing twenty hours a day and permitting myself anything that would help me get that novel done, I weighed about eight hundred million pounds and was living on Entenmann's doughnuts, Dr Pepper, and mozzarella sticks.

I didn't have a yellow belt in Krav Maga. I hadn't even heard of Krav Maga.

I didn't have an ARMA Workshop 1.0 certificate in longsword, or a longsword waster, or any experience actually using a longsword.

I had only a dim recollection of CPR and no first-aid training.

I had never made an illuminated manuscript from scratch with authentic period materials.

I couldn't read, understand, or speak any Japanese.

I had never played at the Blarney Star. Playing the Blarney Star is to Irish traditional music what playing the Palace was to vaudeville and playing Carnegie Hall is to mainstream musicians.

I was still in my thirties.

I had never grown tomatoes.

I didn't have a Livejournal.

At the end of 2002...that's all changed!