A Quarter of a Century? Wow! That Blew by Fast

Twenty-five years ago this August I moved to Los Angeles from Chicago. A lot has happened in that time. A. LOT. Los Angeles was hosting the Olympics, and I was a carefree party kind of girl. Now... I'm not.

I partied, screwed around, dabbled in pharmaceuticals, and generally just frittered time away. Through a wild and crazy set of circumstances and experiences, I am now a single mom, with a 16 (almost 17)-year-old daughter. I drive a Trailblazer SUV. The only pharmaceuticals I come in contact with now are ibuprofen and red wine. I wouldn't change where I've been or what I've gone through (good or bad) as they got me to where I am and I like things the way they are now.

When I first moved to L.A., I only knew one person. He was a good (gay) friend from college, and he told me when I visited him after one particularly brutal Chicago winter, that if I wanted to move to L.A., I could stay with him until I got a job and found a place to live. That was fastest "yes" EVER. So I wrapped up my life in Chicago, packed my cats in the Honda, and moved out west. Best decision I ever made.

I'm a smart girl. Really. Not long after I moved to L.A., I took the test for Mensa, and was invited to join. I thought that joining the group and going to some of the activities would be a good way to expand my social circle and meet some intelligent people, usually my favorite kind. Oh boy--what an eye-opener. I've never met a more brilliant group of minds, but OMG! What they had in brainpower they lacked in social skills and the ability to dress themselves. After I went to an event where one of the guys wore a deerskin Daniel Boone outfit complete with coonskin cap (on purpose and it wasn't a costume party), I thought it was time to find some other people to hang out with.

These days my social activities revolve mostly around the horse world. My daughter shows, I teach lessons, and together we train horses for ourselves and our clients. It's not a big practice, since I still work a day job to pay bills (private school anyone?), but I've made a point of being relatively picky in choosing clients, so I have a great group of people that I see on a regular basis.

I used to live my life on the ragged edge of disaster, being the drama queen that I am. It was all insanity, all the time. Now I'm pushing it to stay up until 10 pm, and I have found that boring equals wonderful. I am consciously grateful for the health of my family and horses, a good-paying job, and decent place to live. My favorite kind of day is one in which the toughest decision of the day is "paper or plastic?".

It's been a long strange trip... but a good one.