10 - 20 - 30

10 years ago - October 1997 - At this point in time my consulting business was going gang busters! Both my partner and I had quit our full-time day jobs and we were totally focused on the business. At any given moment we had about 4 - 5 employees working for us. (That would grow to 15 by the end of the company.) Life was good on the professional side of things. This may sound really odd when you read the next sentence... but my personal life was really good, too. My husband and I were separated. I kicked him out and it was the most freeing, self-empowering things I've ever had the pleasure to enjoy! It was purely sublime. He went to AA and NA and worked faithfully with his docs and a few months later we got back together. THANK-GOD! If that hadn't happened I wouldn't have Elizabeth. Though I could have lived without the other garbage that came with him.

20 years ago - October 1987 - I was a year or two into my career as a c/UNIX programmer. Yes, that's c. It's NOT c++ or Visual c or anything fancy like that. I wrote in good, old fashioned c (and a little assemble - but don't ask me about that today.) Around this time I got to meet Brian Kernighan when I went to a meeting at Bell Labs. Also, I had just gotten my first promotion. Junior Programmers were eligible for a promotion after 24 full months of service. But my project manager went to our management and made the case to promote me at 18 months. My boyfriend / to be husband / to be ex was working for Bear Sterns in NYC. The horrible life of stocks and bonds made everyone unhappy. But somehow we found the time to get engaged.

30 years ago - October 1977 - Six to eight weeks into the school year I was still adjusting to life as a high school freshman. I spent a lot of my spare time sitting in gas lines to keep my parents company while they waited... but by October '77 they were starting to get a little bit shorter. You still had to watch for the red, yellow, and green flags even when there was no line at the pump. I got my first really grown up album - Billy Joel, The Stranger (released Sept. '77.) In the mornings I spent a lot of time (and I mean a LOT) trying to get my fine little hairs to poof out for the perfect Dorothy Hamill Wedge. It didn't work. Maybe I could do it now with some of the super stiff hair products they have now... but in '77 my Wedge was more like a flat bowl cut.

I know we weren't ask for 40 years ago - but for the record in 1967 I started Kindergarten... an event that I was looking forward too!!!

~*~*~*~

All right, This is an experiment started by Mary DeMuth 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?

~*~*~*~

I, Liz, am third or maybe fourth generation.