Happy Leap Day!

Today marks my 11th Leap Day.

For the first time since the 1980s, this is the second Leap Day in a row that I’ve lived in the same house, which I think is a pretty good achievement. If I’m still living in the same house when the next Leap Day arrives (Feb. 29th, 2020) – and I intend to – I’ll have already set a record for longest time living in the same house.

Today also marks the 5th anniversary of my engagement to Jennifer, which is odd because we’ve been married for 19 years.

Anyway, I thought I’d take this opportunity to note where I was in life during each of my 11 Leap Days…

1976: Okay, I obviously don’t recall anything about 1976, much less Leap Day itself. But I can tell you I was just a few months old and living in a mobile home in Burnsville.

1980: At this time, I was a soon-to-be preschooler. Still living in the same mobile home in Burnsville. My mom was pregnant with my sister.

1984: In 1984, I was a student at Savage Elementary School, which wasn’t nearly as brutal as its name implies. Still living in Burnsville, and still in a mobile home, but a different one than last time.

1988: For the second Leap Day in a row, I was still living in the same mobile home. This marked my fourth and final Leap Day living in Camelot Acres Mobile Home Park. In 1988, I was a teenager attending junior high school or, as I like to call it, the nadir of my education.

1992: Lots of changes here. My family and I now lived in Lakeville, and I was attending Rosemount High School, a school barely saved from being the worst school I ever attended by virtue of being slightly better than my junior high school. I was employed at my first job, a book shelver at the Galaxie Library in Apple Valley.

1996: This is the day Jennifer and I got engaged. I was living in a duplex in St. Paul with two roommates while working at Lenscrafters at the Mall of America in Bloomington.

2000: My first Leap Day as a married man, Jennifer and I were living in a one-bedroom apartment in Apple Valley. I still worked at Lenscrafters, but by this time I was working at their Burnsville location. I was also a college man at this time, about a month-and-a-half into my time at Century College working on an Associate’s Degree.

2004: Jennifer and I were still in Apple Valley, but now we were living with our two cats in a small townhome that we owned. I was employed at Part Three Analytical in Oakdale, but later in the week, I put in my notice that I’d be quitting in mid-March. On this day, we watched the 76th Academy Awards with a couple of friends who, at first, didn’t understand how it could only be the second anniversary of our engagement.

2008: By 2008, Jennifer and I were parents, so on our ninth Leap Day, two-and-a-half-year-old Owen was experiencing his very first Leap Day. I was employed at the place where I still work today. Jennifer and I had been living in Big Lake with our cats for over three years, though the very next day we drove to our new apartment in St. Paul to sign the lease. We left Big Lake ten days later.

2012: During the four years since the last Leap Day, Jennifer, Owen, and I moved twice. First to that apartment I mentioned above, then (in 2011) to the house where we now live. Though our number of cats was now half of what it was in 2008, our number of kids had doubled – Isla was born in 2010, so this was her first Leap Day. I was once again a college student, though this time I was at Hamline. Jennifer and I celebrated the 4th anniversary of our engagement by dining at Buca.

2016: Today, Jennifer and I celebrated the 5th anniversary of our engagement by dining at Supatra’s. I took the day off of work and we watched a very romantic movie this afternoon while kid number three – Emmett, experiencing his first Leap Day – napped upstairs. Our one cat passed away a year ago, but we now have a new cat. I’ve now worked for the same employer for three Leap Days and lived in the same house for two. Still at Hamline, too.

Happy Leap Day, everyone!