It seemed like it might be a good time to have a lighter post.

Over at relevantblog, Mary asked: Quick: What were you doing ten, twenty and thirty years ago? … But I read about it at the center holds when Sherri asked the same question … and it’s intriguing to think about. So …

What were you doing ten, twenty and thirty years ago? Here’s what I was doing …

Ten Years Ago – (October 1997) LightGirl was three and LightBoy was 6 months + old. I was at my wits end with him. It’s pretty likely that he was screaming and I was crying. He was the world’s most miserable baby. I remember looking at him at about this point in his life and I told him that I was really mad at him for being so miserable because he was the last baby I was going to have. He stopped screaming every waking moment the instant he learned how to crawl. He’s been a happy guy ever since then. Those first 9 months were exceedingly difficult.

Twenty Years Ago – (October 1987) LightHusband and I had been married about two months and we were just moving into house in Arlington, Virginia with a housemate. All the wedding gifts meant we’d outgrown our apartment (also in Arlington) and we hated apartment living anyway. We loved that house; it had an enormous backyard, but it was at the end of a deadend street and we sometimes witnessed drug deals taking place across the street from our front porch. Our neighbors were a group house of people about our age and so we had a community garden with them. And we sometimes had joint parties and other joint activities between the houses. It was a blast.

Thirty Years Ago – (October 1977) I had just started my junior year of highschool. It would be the last year I was on the gymnastics team and the last year I was on the softball team. I was probably fretting about the PSATs. And not fretting about my grades. My father was chairman of the schoolboard. I was on the advanced track in math and science. I babysat to earn spending money. I did a lot of babysitting. The going rate was $0.75 per hour. On a really good night I’d earn $5.00.

Now -October 2007- I’m a homeschooling mom, managing a hockey team and cheering two hockey players, who does some art quilting on the side. Life certainly is strange.

So … here’s what Mary says for instructions …

It’s an experiment to see how many degrees we can separate (kind of like Kevin Bacon, only it’s relevantblog). Even if you’re not tagged, don’t be crabby, just take up the baton and run with it. Here’s what I ask: Have folks post their 10-20-30s, and then link back to the Mother Ship (www.relevantblog.blogspot.com) or write a comment here, saying where you heard about this experiment and sharing where you blog. This isn’t to build my empire, it’s to find out how far we can expand the blogosphere. After all this talk about blog tours, it got me thinking. How many people can one blog potentially reach?

Mary tagged people and told anyone to play. Sherri just told anyone to play along. I think I’m going tag some people and say that if you’ve read this far you’re also tagged … let me know that you played in comments. Let’s see how far this can go!!

Doug, Patrick, Julie, Erin, Che, and Paul