Lizzie Foley
So, anyone remember “Man and Superman”, which we read in junior year English? Okay, I don’t remember it either, but I do remember that for some reason, the play inspired me to announce that getting married was stupid, and having kids was stupid, and well, blah, blah, blah. On my way out of class that day, Mrs. Sharp pulled me aside and said: “At some point in your life, you’re going to change your mind.” And I thought “Ha! Shows what you know.”
Turns out she was right (she often was, as I recall). I’ve been married for about 9 years now, and I’m a mom. My husband is Jon Wilkins – you know, the one from our class. We met way back at Barranca Mesa in 3rd grade, where we spent the next several years trying to kill each other at recess. By junior high we had formed an uneasy truce, and by high school, we’d managed to become friendly acquaintances (but nothing more, which was sad for me, since my all-consuming rage towards him had somehow morphed into an embarrassing crush).
We went our separate ways in college – he went east, and I went to California, first at U.C. Santa Barbara, and then I transferred to the University of Southern California to get a degree in screenwriting. College was fantastic. I loved being in Los Angeles. I loved being a film student. After I graduated, I spent three years working in film development – which is a horrible, soul-sucking job that involves crushing the hopes and dreams of other screenwriters. I wrote and sold some of my own stuff (which was then crushed in development by someone with the same job as me). Eventually I decided I needed to make a change.
So, in 1995, I came home to visit Los Alamos during the summer. And while I was home, I ran into Jon. We went out to dinner. We fell in love. And then, for some reason, we moved to Madison, Wisconsin.
If you love beer and bratwurst, Wisconsin is a fantastic place to live. Unfortunately, I can’t stand either of them. Additionally, Wisconsin is very cold, and when it is not cold, the air is filled with billions of mosquitoes. The high point for me during this period was working for a progressive labor union (AFSCME Local 171), which did a lot of good work protecting the rights of the blue collar, technical, and security employees of the University of Wisconsin - Madison. The low point was discovering that our ultra-religious neighbors wouldn’t let their children speak to me after they found out I hadn’t taken my husband’s last name (I never got around to telling them that Jon and I weren’t even engaged yet – I think knowing we were living together without the benefit of marriage might have killed them). Anyway, after two years I had all the frost-and-mosquito bites I could take, and so we moved to Boston.
Now technically, I know that Boston is cold, but after Wisconsin, the Massachusetts winters seemed pleasant and mild. I loved it. We lived in a two-family house in a neighborhood called Porter Square in Somerville (a suburb adjacent to Boston and Cambridge) for seven years while I got graduate degrees in sociology and education from Northeastern University and Harvard. I studied postmodern feminism and taught women’s studies. Jon and I got married in 1999 (and I kept my last name - so ha! take that old neighbors!). We both graduated from Harvard in June 2002 (he got a Ph.D., I got a second masters). In August, our amazing son Dash was born. He is utterly perfect (as are your children, I’m sure). We stayed in Boston for three more years, and then Jon got a job offer in Santa Fe.
So here we are, back in New Mexico. Dash will be starting 1st grade this year. He’s grown into skinny, brilliant little guy with a good heart. He loves graphic novels (the G-rated ones) and Chinese cartoons. We’re currently working on adopting a second child.
As far as pets go, we have three New Mexico mutts – a hyper Jack Russell/Pitbull Terrier, an even more hyper Border Collie/Catahoula Leopard Hound, and a neurotic Golden Retriever/Lab. They are friendly, but poorly trained. I lost a lot of my motivation to make them stop acting like uncivilized lunatics when they chased a burglar off our neighbors’ property. Sadly, this was after the burglar had stolen the neighbor’s widescreen TV – bad dogs!
And speaking of dogs…I want to put in a word for Abbie Kirkpatrick from our class. She is in Taiwan right now, running an animal rescue organization that does a lot of good work in a challenging environment. If you are thinking about adopting a dog in the near future, you should take a look at her website: http://air.freeshell.org. To see the dogs she’s currently looking to place in good homes, go to http://air.freeshell.org/?Rehoming%3A_Adoption:Adoptable, or email me and I’ll put her in touch with you. I’ve met a few of these pups. They are awesome –beautiful, athletic, and very, very smart.
I have always been so happy that I grew up in Los Alamos, and maybe I’m getting sentimental in my oldish age, but I feel like 20 years ago, I never appreciated how very cool you all are. Best wishes 2 U all 4-Ever – and I mean that sincerely, and not in that “what shall I write in this yearbook to make myself sound really clever” kind of way.
Take care!
Lizzie
lizziefoley@yahoo.com
