CoreBB

[Disclaimer: Use the bathroom now as this is a long read.]

I just want to thank Riko for having these focus on threads, Jungalist for paying the cable bill & all the little people who bought my albums...

My story begins about a year or so before I was born, at a Hippy party. This infamous party was where my mom and dad first met through mutual friends. My mom declared that this man she had just met was going to be the father of her children, about a year later I was born at the University of Minnesota Hospital

I don't remember a lot about my toddler years, but I do remember the day I got my first pet. For the longest time I had seen picture of a calico cat in a photography book & I wanted a cat just like that one. A few months after my sister was born my mom's friend's cat had kittens. All black, except one. A Calico

I knew right away that she would be mine and wasted no time pointing her out and then asking my mom if I could have 2

It was around this time that my dad was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He went to bed one day with the flu and woke up the next morning paralyzed. It was a life changing experience for our family. Even sometimes as an adult I wonder how my life would have been if my dad hadn't gotten this disease.

[Ducky goes to school...]

I went to Willard Elementary School for K-6 grade. I missed the bus on my first day of Kindergarten and had to get a ride from our upstairs neighbours Patricia & Marc. My mom dropped me off and it was so busy in the classroom that I didn't even notice when she had finally left. When I found out I cried.

Kindgergarten was fun & I ended up spending most of my Elementary years with the same kids I met in this AM class. One evening when I was 9 (so that would put me in about 4th grade) my dad didn't show up for dinner. He had told my mom he was going out after work with some collegues and would be home in time for dinner. Needless to say he didn't come home that night. My mom stayed up half the night calling the police & hospitals to see if he had been hurt.

Finally the next morning he came home and him and my mom had a long discussion. They seperated & 9 months later I had a new 1/2 sister. (um surprise?).

Soon after their split my mom got a new boyfriend who I adored. Sadly he turned out to be a druggie scumbag & gave me a 3 year long lesson in life.

Although Middle school was a blur I did meet a few influential people there. One was my best friend Val. We were inseperable & spent our summers together. I was heart broken to find out that at the end of 8th grade she was going to be moving to Florida.

We vowed to write letters every week. And we did.

[High School...]

High school was the best 4 years of my teenage life. People say that its all about college, but to me, it was all about High school. I formed core groups of friends that I am still in contact with today, including my best friend Chrissy

. I attended South High School in Minneapolis from 1996-2000. I made friends with everyone in school. The preps, the stoners, the partiers, the nerds...I was on yearbook & I was captain of the Varsity Track Team for my Junior and Senior years. I had a few boyfriends in highschool - but none were very serious. I maintained contact with my friend Val through letters & email & phone. I even visited her a few times while I was attending highschool. One of the many times that I went down to visit her I was introduced to one of her friends, Joe. We hit it off and would hang out whenever I came down to visit Val.

Senior year rolled around and it was time to apply for university. Since val was staying down in Florida & I had developed a circle of friends through her I thought it would be fun to go to school down there. So I did. I July of 2000 I moved out of my moms house and Val and I drove a tiny black Ford Ranger down to SW Florida. Over the next 2 years I developed a serious relationship with her friend Joe. Val ended up moving back to Minnesota about 3 months after I moved down to Florida. (

) but I decided to stay down in Florida. I ended up moving in with Joe & eventually was introduced to the world of Asheron's Call. Ah yes..

[Asheron's Addict...]

I started playing AC my first year in university. But I wasn't very interested in it. I had an archer named Mistress Cydonia & was introduced to AC Vault as a place to ask questions about AC. So I made my VN Name of Mystress Cydonia (it was later changed to Ducky). My interest in AC grew & I started to make some pretty good friends in the game on my own. Meanwhile I continued to grow unhappy at home. My relationship I felt was going nowhere. I wasn't in a healthy relationship & I wasn't being treated the way I thought I should be. I tried many times to have my voice heard but nothing ever changed. I started to escape to Asheron's Call. I joined a guild of a friend of mines just for fun with a new battlemage. They had message boards and I made friends with someone by the name of Jungalist. We had made a few plans to meet in game & quickly we became very good friends. One day I noticed him posting on the Leafcull boards. I sent him a quick PM to see if it was really him, after explaining who I was, a very special friendship began.

[AC Friends...]

Jungalist and I began to chat outside of Asheron's Call. A few times we even got together in a AC Friends Webcam chat. I had only seen a few pictures of this guy before and damn was he not the hottest thing since the morning sun.

Our relationship blossomed into an online romance, even though we had never met, and certainly never intentionally planned it to happen. Do you ever plan to fall in love?

After about a year and a half I decided that I had had enough of what was going on in Florida and asked my mom to help me move out. She flew down from Minnesota with a friend of hers and together we drove back my car jammed full of my crap.

After only a couple weeks of living in Minnesota again my mom and I decided to take a trip to London, Ontario Canada. To visit this friend I had been telling her about. At this point in my life I had no idea what I was doing. I had just left a bad relationship and my mom was leaving the country in a few months. She thought it would be a good idea for us to go and get some unanswered questions answered.

On June 26th, 2003 I finally met my soulmate face to face. In a small bed and breakfast in London he came to take my mother and me out to a late night dinner.

Our meeting was nothing short of miraculous. I can remember every single second leading up to the moment I walked down the stairs and basically flew into his arms for a hug. Even though we had never met I felt as though I had known him my whole entire life.

I remember our first date like it was yesterday, sometimes we even go back to the bar & sit at "our" table when we are feeling sentimental.

[Ducky Decisions...]

I decided after some long arguments with my mom that I was going to move to Canada. She was unsure of this "dark & handsome" man who had swept me off my feet, and was worried I was making a rash decision.

By some small miracle I was able to get a year long workers Visa to live & work in Canada. I arrived in Sept. of 2003 (a mere 2 1/2 months after we first met) and haven't left since. We were married in a small civil ceremony on Leap Day in 2004 and I became a resident of Canada in January of 2005.

He is my shining star and I have never regretted a decision I have made that brought me to where I am today.

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Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair.
So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And weâ€™ll change the world. ~ Jack Layton