Hi, my name is Sheila Stone and I live in Los Angeles, California. I'm the one in the middle. The two bodyguard-sized guys with me are my sons, Kris and Jon.
I just turned 54 years old – and I never lie about my age. I’ve been told I look younger but I never know how to react to that. The socially-acceptable response is, “Thank you very much” but implicit in that reply is acceptance of the belief that “younger is better.” That rubs me the wrong way. I happen to think that – although it’s a pretty much a given that younger usually LOOKS better – youth is highly overrated. I’m much more confident and comfortable in my own skin now than I ever was, even if that skin tends to fit a bit looser than it used to.
In 2005, I graduated from UCLA with a BA in Anthropology. That’s not terribly unusual until you add in the fact that I attended UCLA at the same time as both of my sons. (The picture makes more sense now, doesn't it?) All being at the same school wasn’t as strange as it might have been since we didn’t live together and it’s a big campus. Luckily, Kris & Jon had reached the age where they found the situation more amusing than mortifying. They even deigned to say hi if we ran into each other on campus.
After graduation, I used my student status to get a BUNAC work permit and went to live in Europe. I spent the autumn in gorgeous but damp Galway, Ireland (living in a hostel room with 7 other women & one bathroom!). For Christmas the boys and I met in Copenhagen. Jon was on a study abroad program there and Kris flew in from Houston where he’s a grad student at Rice. From January to April I lived in beautiful, historic York, in the north of England. I also spent time traveling in Spain, Crete and Italy. It was AMAZING.
Now before anyone gets the mistaken impression that I must be independently wealthy, let me set you straight. I did this all on a serious shoestring. Having the BUNAC permits enabled me to work in Ireland and England but I lived very hand-to-mouth. It was still great.
But all good things come to an end. I returned to Los Angeles last June - just in time for Jon’s UCLA graduation. I wasted no time starting to job hunt. Poverty may build character but it gets to be a strain after a while.
I now work at Affinity Media International as the Acquisitions Coordinator. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Well, don’t get too impressed - at this point, it’s more of a glorified executive assistant. When I began in July, the company didn’t even have a filing cabinet. My position is supposed to grow. Stay tuned to see if I actually DO make it though the pink ceiling...!
I'll be posting more often, now that I've broken the ice. I bought "Blogging for Dummies" (since I couldn't find a copy of "Blogging for the Completely Clueless) and that should help me figure this blog-thing out eventually. (Although I'm still trying to understand just what an RSS feed is!)
Cheers,
Sheila
