1) i was an only child till my mother remarried when i was twelve. till then i lived with my mother and maternal grand mother.

2) i went to a catholic grade school.

3) i was the verbal/emotional target of humiliation of most of my class mates from about 2nd grade on till 7th grade, when we moved. their name for me was ‘possom’.

4) i ‘inherited’ a step sister and four step brothers.

5) my brothers liked me ok. but my step sister hated me. violently.

6) my step father was an alcoholic.

 7) i started writing prose in my teens.

 8) i ran away from home eight times after my mother remarried.

 9) our neighbor had a horse named blaze that i used to ride all the time.

10) i was gothic in high school, in the early seventies, long before anyone else was.

11) i had one best friend in high school. we both quit school at the end of our sophomor year. nobody seemed to care.

12) the sixth time i ran away, i was given the two options. i could go to an institution, or i could enter the job corps. i chose the job corps, and was sent to astoria oregon. there were four training programs; office, food service, child care, or nursing. i chose child care, because i didnt think i was smart enough to learn office stuff or nursing, and i hated the idea of working in the food industry. i sucked at working with children. i eventually ran away from there too.

13) i met the father of my son on one of my ‘adventures in running away’. after a very turbulent realtionship, and a long breakup, we got married. i joined the army to support us, because he wouldnt work. i conceived my son there.