Tomorrow will be a busy day, and I don't blog much on the weekends anyway, so I have to tell you how old I feel right now.

Eighteen years ago tomorrow, I won the regional competition that would send me to the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee.  Now it's just Scripps, I wonder what happened to Howard.

At thirteen, I had short hair, and though I'd already had my braces removed, I still felt very awkward - I was boyish from the neck up, but all woman from the neck down.  But in the photo they published in my sponsoring paper, there was no mistaking that I was happy.  I'd finally found the competition in which I could excel.  No sport, and really nothing else up to that point (I found lots more later, drama, writing, public speaking, but I was only in eighth grade), offered me the chance to win.  And here I was, heading to Washington.

It was pretty damn cool.

But oh my goodness, eighteen years ago?