Pieces of Me (part 1 of 4) Family and Friends This is my favorite picture of Mom. It was taken when she worked as a technical typist for a company called Sanborn Company. They eventually turned into (or were bought out by) a company called Hewlett-Packard. Every month, the employees were offered the choice between stock and bonus money. Mom (here at 21 years old) chose bonus money, to go on a trip to Hawaii. Her friend Ron, who worked in the mailroom, chose stock. Ron now has three homes across the country and can buy anything in the world he wants. Mom works for a lumberyard for slightly more than minimum wage. Though I'd like to be born rich, I wouldn't trade the experience of growing up the way I did for anything in the world. This is Mom today. She's wearing her sparkly dress for the wedding. She still looks wonderful, much better than this picture would suggest. Like me, she turns out a little strained-looking in pictures. My older brother Chris and my niece Stephanie (Susan refuses to have her picture taken even though she's drop-dead gorgeous). As with most of my family pictures, I'm taking the most recent, which means the wedding. Stephanie has grown into one of the most beautiful women I know. Chris looks just like Dad, except Dad didn't cut his own hair. My younger brother Sean and his new bride (obviously!) Heather. They're like Ken and Barbie. Sean and I sometimes look very alike (when I'm very thin), and sometimes very different. We both look like Mom. Quinns through and through. Heather is just as nice as she is beautiful. I think this is the happiest picture I own. From left to right: CJ, Cassie, and Julia. CJ and Cassie are twins, and Julia is 10.5 months younger than them. CJ looks just like his Dad. Cassie looks just like her Mom. Julia is some combination of the two, combined with other members of the family from both sides. I can't wait until they're teenagers, because they're going to raise hell. My favorite picture, ever, of Laurie. I didn't know her when this picture was taken (she was in her senior year of high school then), but she looked very much like this when I met her during my sophomore year of college. Laurie smiles better than anyone, and has a laugh you can hear from a mile away. A more recent picture of Laurie, most likely at one of my birthday parties. I'd say I'm around 29 in this picture, judging from the shirt, so just before I started the journal. Laurie generally doesn't like to have her picture taken, so this one is candid, because I think she was incidental to a picture being taken of me. Next