Wow–10 years ago. It was really a lifetime ago because so much has changed between us and in our lives and world.

My father had died the year before and my mother about 18 months before that. He was never the same after she died. She was the love of his life and he just wanted to be with her.

It was odd to be an orphan even as an adult. It’s amazing how much identity is tied up in being someone’s child. I had always been interested in genealogy and family history, but it made it more important to preserve it since I was the last one in my family.

I look back at pictures of Snake and me at the time period and we look young. Since I don’t think we really look that much different, excluding losing weight, since then, it has to be a perception. A lot of weird life has happened since then and I think it colors how we see that time.

[Snake: I agree. Things *look* different from then, and certainly life has changed so very much with family, gaining and losing family members, friends… it’s hard, almost impossible to wrap my head around that timeframe (10 years), but so much good, too. So much exploration, travel, learning that we have more to explore with us in Snake/Charmer ways and beyond. It’s weird to look at it as this block of time with all of these decorations and realize how much I’ve learned and experienced and (hopefully) grown.]

Ten years ago was pre-Twitter and pre-blog for Snake and Charmer. We have always been kinky, but we had started implementing more BDSM in our sex lives. We were on the cusp of a formal D/s and the signs were there even if we didn’t have words for it yet.

[Snake: It’s kind of funny, on this vein, to think about what we’ve learned that we didn’t care for as much as the things we love. Oh the experimentation that has happened… muwahahahahaha]

A lot of our friendships that are important now didn’t even exist back then. It’s strange to realize that they haven’t been in our lives for forever when they are there on a daily basis now. And most of them actually came as a result of Twitter and our blog.

[Snake: We’re so much better at talking, and we never were bad at it – that says something – and the conversations it’s all spawned… wow. ]

Another piece of our life that didn’t exist back then was dancing. We started that in 2013 and it’s becoming a huge part of our lives.

[Snake: “We dance for fun” was NEVER something I’d thought I’d say. But here we are. ]

We weren’t around for the beginning of Wicked Wednesday, but it has consistently been one of the memes that we’ve contributed for most of our blog life. And I’m proud to be part of that community. Happy Anniversary, Marie!