Saturday, August 14, 2010

In the Beginning...

...my father loved chess. He was also fond of birds. Furthermore, he loved to read.

You see where this is going, right? Because my mother didn't. There she is, laid up in the hospital bed, holding me to her chest, and she was so drugged up that when the person came around with that whole birth certificate bit, and asked what my name was?

There was my dad, forever reliable, to blurt out: "Rook."

...It has not been an easy life, let it be said. Fun, mind you - I'm not going to sit here and spout out 'woe is me' BS about how life has been hard; it hasn't. Interesting, occasionally the pits, but certainly never hard. Let's rewind to that 'interesting' bit, because it is. About a year ago, life just went from typical and normal to 'interesting'. The Chinese have a saying: "May your life be interesting."

They consider it a curse.

A year ago, my family and I moved to Maryland. It was not quite the eighteenth birthday present I wanted, to be fair. However, a few weeks after we moved up, I started to overlook that fact. I'm a stone's throw from two malls. There are plenty of conventions year round that I could go to, not to mention Renne Faire, which is awesome.

So all of these things are awesome, but the best part, I think, is the fact that..well..

Okay, hang on. Let me give a bit of back story, first.

I live in a cul-de-sac(that's a dead end street, for those of you not in the know), and while ours isn't the last house, it's close enough for government work. At the very end of the street is the end of the sidewalk, a path that loops around into an empty lot(that is mostly overrun by grass and further back, a brief smattering of woods), which leads into the back parking lot of the grocery store in my back yard. Not literally in my back yard, but you get the idea. I can walk to the grocery store. If we get snowed in? We don't have to worry about clearing the car out from under all that snow, nor shoveling our way to the street. Just get up, thrown on a good layer of clothes, and away you go.

Terribly helpful on those nights when it's 8:30, you don't feel like getting in the car just to drive around the block, you know.

But the best part of this is that...well...

I am pretty sure that that empty lot, a few doors down, overgrown with grass, peeking out of old, cracked concrete?

I think it may be a thinny.

2 comments:

  1. I think Rook is a nice name. ~Rose

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  2. Why thank you! It's not exactly something I'm fond of, truth be told; I've seen my fair share of teasing because of it, sadly.

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