If you had told me: Part 1 of an ongoing series

Before I get to that, I wanted to say that I am fine, Peter is fine, Caroline is loving the college lifestyle and the cats are okay too.

I have been busy with work and a couple of other projects.

Today I have a day off that I plan to use to get ready for Halloween and clean up the living room.

Tomorrow I work and hand out Halloween treats.

Monday, I have another day off so I can get other things done around here.

Now onto if you had told me.

This comes from a discussion at work when I had some personal knowledge about what we were talking about.

Afterwards a fellow employee asked me, “How interesting is your life?”

I replied with a smile, “Very.”

And that got me thinking about all that I have done and the people I can call friend, I would have never believed it if you had told me back in the day what was to come.

For example, if you had told me back in October of 1978 after watching the Muppet Show with guest star Alice Cooper and that in August of 2019, I would be having lunch with Alice Cooper and Steve Whitmire and we would have a lot of things in common, I would not have believed you.

If you had told me back in 1977 that I would be working on the literary side of Star Wars in 1998, I would have thought you were kidding. I met a lot of people while working on that who are now lifelong friends.

If you had told me in 1992 that I would meet Peter David over a puppet and we would become friends then romantically involved, married, and have a child together, I would have laughed for so many reasons.

If you had told me back in 1984 that I would be good friends with both the writer and the artist of Issue 18 of New Mutants, I think I would have done a spit take. Chris Clairmont was one of my favorite writers for Marvel Comics. His X-Men was amazing. I had been enjoying New Mutants but issue 18, the start of the Demon Bear story, rocked my world with the amazing art of Bill Sienkiewicz. Both men have been friends for years now and I appreciate my time with them.

If you had told me back in 1978 that I would have a tattoo on my arm of Cutter, the leader of the wolf riders, drawing by Wendy Pini the artist of Elfquest while her husband Richard Pini took photos and kibitzed while it was being done, I would not have believed you. Wendy and Richard are among our mutual friends between Peter and me. We have three sets of friends that we are now both friends with. There were his friends, my friends, and the people we both knew before we got together aka our mutual friends.

If you had told me how much traveling around the world I have done since college, it would have been hard to believe.

There is a lot I have done that younger me would have been amazed to know.

And I am grateful for every one.