Schmutzie is a name that I was given several years ago by an old group of friends, and it stuck in my head throughout the late 1990s until 2003, 
when it finally found a place for itself again in late August 2003 at Milkmoney or Not, Here I Come, which is where you will find the majority of my online writing. I was born in 1972. I live on the wide, flat prairies in Canada and am married to this delightful and absurd man, the Fiery One. My interests include reading, writing, good soup, off colours, photography, vintage coats, weblog design, and not killing the little creatures I keep around the apartment. I am an ashamed smoker, which makes the habit that much sweeter.
I want to write for the rest of my life. I love writing. If I could sit at this computer all day and write and then get up again tomorrow and do it then, too, and then keep on like that until that last day when my heart stops, I would bliss out. I started an English degree years ago, and I loved doing it, but the cost of a University degree that I wasn't really finding personally useful made the whole endeavour seem unnecessary. My goal is to one day go back and be one of those middle-aged returning students who makes everyone else cringe in class when I put up my hand.
Before my half-hearted attempt at academic stardom, I wandered somewhat aimlessly after high school. I moved out of my parents' house, was diagnosed with a few psychological disorders by as many psychiatrists, and then proceeded to do more than my fair share of LSD. I was less than employable but had an excellent time of it overall, if truth must be told.
Since I seem to be working backwards here, before that sparkling period of my life, I went to a Mennonite boarding school. Now when I look back, that just seems weird, because I am not religious in the least. Of course, it only seems weird if you don't take into account that I was put through the church girl's club (where we learned how to cook and sew and knit and change diapers, naturally), church youth choir, church plays, church summer camp, Mennonite youth conferences in Canada and the United States, Sunday School, and I sat in as librarian in our little one-room library on occasion. I had so much religion by the time I was fifteen that I was pretty much cured of it.
Prior to my induction into Sunday School, I was really little. This is what I looked like when I was three. I haven't changed a whole heck of a lot aside from growing a few feet and greying prematurely and gaining my secondary sex characteristics. My smile still looks the same, though, and it has been no small feat to keep it that way.
I tend to indulge in run-on, over-hyphenated, and listy sentences with many commas. I go on about my childhood at times. I also throw in one of my own poems occasionally. I know these issues make for difficult times, but if you can overcome these hurdles, enjoy your stay at Milkmoney or Not, Here I Come.
