Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
What the Aughts wrought
The decade is winding down, so I thought I’d do a quick summary of what the Aughts meant to me and my family.
1. In 2000, if I remember correctly, we bought our beach house in Oregon, a fixer-upper that’s still being fixed up and will probably never be fully fixed up. We still own it. Would like to have sold it but the bottom fell out of the market, and it’s too precious a property to sell low.
2. Also in 2000, I had a year-long gig writing as an agony aunt for iVillage. My articles are still posted and folks still read them.
3. When that job ran its course, I had nothing left to write. This coincided (more or less) with my 40th birthday. Mildly dissatisfied with my job, I decided I would spend the next 20 years or so reinventing myself as a writer. I wrote that super-long SF novel (or trilogy, or whatever it was) and the romance, and maybe a dozen or more short stories, a few of which were published in minor zines.
4. I started this blog in 2005. Met lots of great folks here.
5. Jake was only four at the beginning of this decade. Wow! Put it that way, and ten years seems like a very long time indeed. So in all that time, he grew up, went to school, outgrew school, had his brush with the medical system (chronic headaches in 2005, which scared the hell out of us because at the time, a few kids with headaches had shown up in my office — with less than favorable outcomes, shall we say), got homeschooled, and ended up in, of all the unlikely places, Catholic school. And a fine young man he’s becoming, too.
6. Bad decade for Karen . . . her dad died (in 2004, I think), and her medical problems took a turn starting with a bad fall. Her already challenging life became a lot more challenging.
7. After ten years in North Coast country, we left for better things. Took a while to find better things, but eventually we did. And now we’re in El Bako, where in the summer you can fry an egg on your forehead, and year round the air smells variously of garbage, poultry farms, or cow manure. And we’re loving it.
I’m sure I’ll think of more. What did the Aughts bring for you?
D.
I am writing my own. Will let you know when I post it.
You know, it hadn’t occurred to me until you wrote this that this is the end of the decade.
I lost both my parents, but am closer than ever to my sister and brother. Paying for my children’s education put me back into the workforce after a 17 year maternity leave, but the last tuition payment has been made. Retirement is in sight. My husband and I became empty nesters, but our five children are now all happy, thriving college graduates with good jobs. Our granddaughters became teenagers. It’s been a good ten years – it felt like it went by in a flash.
Looking forward to it, Dean.
Lucie, it seems like a full ten years to me — for both us 😉
[…] Dougal asks what the Aughts Wrought. […]
I can’t even begin to say all of what the aughts brought me. i was TWELVE when they started. my bat mitzvah was in 2000! end of elementary school, all of middle school, high school, and most of college was in them. first boyfriends, first heartaches, friends that came and went. drivers license, 21st birthday. finding you and my other blogger friends–and having my own blog(s). glasses to contacts. long hair to shortshort. no style to some semblance of it. no self-confidence to loads. first sleepaway camp (related to the last item).
dramatic changes in my inner and outer selves.
i may put this and add to it on my blog. watch for it 😉
Lemme know, shains 😉
The aughts. Hmm. Well, I sold 32 novels, novellas and novellettes, was three times nominated for one of two major awards in my genre and won once. We had 2 kids, and learned what it means to live with autism. We left the Pacific Northwest for snowy Michigan, of all places, and love it. And next year, both kids are in school full time, so this really is the last year of an era for us.
it’s there, go and see!
Charlene, you are such an underachiever.
Shaina, OMW*.
*On my way. WoW* slang.
*World of Warcraft.
hehe my boyf’s a wow nerd. i know lots of the terminology 😛
It’s the decade I stumbled across an amusing blog entitled “Balls and Walnuts”, and stayed to enjoy the ride of it’s 5 year (so far) mission to boldly go (etc..) I’m looking forward to B&W-TNG, (and possibly B&W-Voyager, but not B&W-DSN).
Have a verry merry Christmoose!