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[22 Dec 2009|02:12pm] |
Charlotte "Charlie" Anabel Dahl lived a very ordinary life. Her parents, Leslie Michael and Georgia Ann, met during their undergrad at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey and decided to start their lives together there. They were married during Les' second year of grad school and lived in their small house in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. Charlie was born just before her parent's second wedding anniversary, on a sunshiney Friday afternoon in September, 1975. Her sister Michael was born 3 years later, followed by Theodora (Teddy) in 1983. The Dahl girls spent their early years in that small old house in Whitehouse Station, climbing up and down stairs dating back close to 200 years. It was a good house, a fine house, a house her parents still live in. And it served them well.
By the time Charlie got to high school, the personality differences between her and her sisters was more and more evident. There was Charlie- bookish and bright, always reading or writing something in her ever present notebook; Michael- smart and chatty, talking talking talking- to anyone who would listen, about anything they'd listen to; Teddy- rough and tumble, involved in soccer and drums, out there trying to be one of the boys. But it was in high school that Charlie flourished. She got lucky and had good English teachers, teachers who cared about fostering young talent. She was encouraged to write for the school literary journal and get involved with an organization for young writers in the area- all things that helped Charlie find her voice and embrace her ability.
After high school came college, undergrad at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, where Charlie was a literature major with a writing minor. A suburb of Chicago, River Forest was a lot like Whitehouse Station - a few people with more money than sense, close enough to the city that when it all became too much she could go downtown and disappear. At Dominican, she met Erik Richmond, a finance major- much like her father. She and Erik started dating second semester of her Freshman year at Dominican, moving in together into an apartment in Evanston when she was accepted into Northwestern University's MFA Creative Writing program. He was older, already into his Junior year at Dominican when they met, working on his MBA at U of C when they moved to Evanston. Charlie and Erik were the perfect pair- through their arguments and the passing of Charlie's grandfather and Erik's mother, they stood next to one another. In the short story collection she wrote as part of her thesis, the thank yous read:
To Momma and Daddy, Mikey and Teds- Team Dahl shoots and scores.
To Grandma Nellie, Grandpa Adam, Grandma Elise and my Angel, Grandpa Charlie- they say the breath of life is family, and you are forever mine.
And to my Erik, love of my life, heart of my heart, through thick and thin when I write the story of my life, it will be in two parts: childhood and you.
And Charlie was sure that that was true. She was sure that Erik was it for her, that the two of them would be it for one another. After graduation, she took a part time teaching position at Northeastern Illinois University in the English department- teaching freshman composition and 200 level Creative Writing classes. She was working on her masters in Communications back at Northwestern(focusing on Public Relations, in case the writing thing fell apart). And she liked it. She liked sharing with her students, giving them the opportunity to express themselves freely.
But that's when everything fell apart. Charlie'd been at NEIU for a year when it happened. She came home and found Erik on the couch, watching the door, waiting for her. He said he didn't know how it happened, or when, but he knew it did. And that he... couldn't. Just that he couldn't. Somehow, in the just about eight years they'd been together, something changed. He wasn't in love.
Needless to say, Charlie was devastated. She'd made the mistake of building her life around Erik, under the assumption that Erik was doing the same - but when you make assumptions...
The city was suffocating her, slowly. When the semester was over, she went to New York, to visit her best friend and her fiance. When New York was too much, she went to New Orleans, to see Teddy and her roommate, and the life she'd built there.
Everyone had built a life except for Charlie. She'd spent so much time with her nose in a book and her head in the clouds, she let it pass her by. And here she was, on the edge of thirty, and what did she have to show for it. A degree in writing, a half finished degree in Public Relations... and that was about it. It seemed she'd let life pass her by.
So she did what anyone in the wrong mind would do. Charlotte Annabel Dahl went back to the apartment in Evanston, packed her entire life into boxes and bins and moved - to Washington DC. It was sort of an arbitrary choice... Michael was living in Baltimore doing radio. Charlie'd lived on the East Coast and the Third Coast, and had no real desire to move to the West Coast. She couldn't complain: Michael was nearby but not on top of her, home was nearby if she ever needed to run, there were limited memories of Erik. It would be her chance to start over.
She went through a long arduous interviewing process, trying to find something... event planning, house management, SOMETHING. And that's where Gregory Miers came into the picture. He was hard. He was a pain in the ass, to be quite frank.
And they worked amazing well together (when Charlie didn't feel like she wanted to cry, which still happened on occasion). She was his constant companion, his walking calendar, his body man (or woman, as the case was).
( quick facts and a survey )
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