How old was I when...

[ailbhe]

1. Fell in love: No idea. Definitely by the time I was 14, and what a grand passion that was! Every parting made us both cry buckets, we wrote reams of letters, 20-40 pages a week.

2. Got a Myspace account: This year next year sometime never.

3. Got drunk: About 17? Someone bought me something that tasted of chocolate without either of us knowing what was in it. I got sick.

4. Smoked weed: 19? 20?

5. Got french kissed: 14. See under Grand Passion.

6. Went to the hospital for surgery: Does Linnea's birth count? Surgery wasn't part of plan A. The repair work 8 months later was. So I was 26?

7. Got your heart broken badly: Oh god. Three? Four? The gods turned on me pretty early. Irreparably? Never. My mother is good heart-glue. Really, really good. Or maybe I mean she makes hearts strong and supple, so they don't really break...

8. Lost a pet: Never, in the way this survey means.

9. Got arrested: Not even close. I've been moved along there though.

10. Smoked a cigarette: One puff at about 6 or 7, a whole cigarette at about 11 (1990ish). Quit totally in early August 2003 when I suspected a pregnancy.

11. Broken a bone: Fractured five bones in my elbows at almost 20, ice-skating. Oops.

12. Went to a concert: Classical, no later than 4 years old. REM at Slane when I was about 16. I haven't been to many non-classical concerts though.

13. Got your own cell phone: 19, living in a house with no phone when prone to illness. My mother got me a very early Pay As You Go.

14. Got a speeding ticket: Not applicable.

15. Run away: For real? Overnight and everything? I think I was 15. Not overnight, about 9.

16. Snuck out of the house: Fully intending to return? Probably about 6. Ish. First Communion time.

17. Pierced other than your ears: I'd love piercings if they didn't involve putting holes in my body. I can't bear the idea of pierced ears.

18. Got a tattoo: I'd love tattoos if they didn't involve putting ink in my body. (Why yes, my contraceptive implant bothers me greatly).

19. Bought porn: Never. I've seen porn twice that I can recall, assuming Ms Auel doesn't count, which, frankly, I bet she does. Oh - no - I bought Fanny Hill. So about 16. And I read The Story of O at about that time too.

22. Totaled a car: Not applicable. I've never totalled a bike either. Nor even a skateboard.

23. Moved out of your parents' house: my third time running away from home was at 17, and even though i still was naive, i was much better prepared than i had been at 7 and at 12. i've not been back since, and i've made a good life, so that event has to rank really high on the "best things i ever did" list. I'm leaving p's answer unedited. It was a few weeks before my 18th birthday. But I've gone home for visits, though never ever as a dependent.

25. How old are you now? 29.

26. Had a kid: I was twenty five and a half when my first daughter was born. I was 19 when I first miscarried, and didn't know about it at the time. But I mourned an unborn baby from when I was 19 until I was about 23. I just thought it was also unconceived.

27. Got married: When I was almost 4 I married a little boy at school. His name was Cillian, I think.