Stacy Horn

Missing Photo! A photograph was here! Don’t know where it went!

My cousin Debbie sent me birthday presents! And my favorite kind!! Old photographs. This one is of my mother (dyed blonde!) my grandmother, and me, at 11-years old.

A flood in the basement of the house where I grew up destroyed all the family photographs that were stored there. As a result, I have only a handful of pictures of myself growing up. I’ve got a couple of me as a baby and a toddler, and one when I was 12-years-old. I have a bunch from 16-years-old on, because my father bought me a camera then, and I went nuts taking pictures, and making albums and I had those with me.

So this picture of me at 11, is one of maybe six photographs that I know of that exist of me before I turned 16. I was a pool rat. I spent every day that I could in the water.

The conversation between me and my mother is probably going something like this.

“How long before I can go back in the water??”
“I told you. A half an hour.”
“It’s been way over a half an hour!”
“It’s been ten minutes.”
“No, it’s been an hour at least.”
“Stacy, you’re not going back in that water until you digest your food.”
“I’m done digesting! I promise!”

Thank you, Deb!!

Tonight is the finale for “So You Think You Can Dance.” It’s so hard to decide, every single one of the dancers is extremely charming. You just really like each one of them. (And how I miss Ivan!) And they are all good at what they do. But I gotta go with Travis. He really is the best dancer, AND you love him. Oh, but I love Benji, Heidi and Donyelle, too. This is killing me!! Why must you make us decide?? Maybe it will come out a four-way tie!

But watch Travis in this. Amazing. And remember the one with the park bench?

[Video removed because the link no longer works.]

This morning I gave the keynote address for a conference titled: Cold Case Homicide Investigations: Methodology and Protocol, Juvenile Homicide Applications. I was invited by Dave Chortle of the Anne Arundel County States Attorney Office and the Mid-Atlantic Cold Case Homicide Investigators Association. The conference was also hosted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service Cold Case Homicide Unit (NCIS), and the Magloclen Organization.

I had such a great time. Now I’m thinking it was a mistake not to have stayed for a couple of days of the conference. Everyone was so nice and interesting and how can you not love people who do everything they can to solve the murders of children?

I believe these people marching are called Plebes. My father is a graduate of Annapolis. I’ve never been there and it was kinda cool to go and to give a speech there. Thank you so much for inviting me, Dave! It was an honor, and you were a great host. And thank you Mike and Len for your help getting me there and helping me set up.

My friend Rebecca and I went to visit Mary, who loves cats as much as I do. This is Mary with Darcy. I fell in love with Darcy and almost kidnapped him. But Mary was onto me and kept an eye on Darcy, so no go with the kidnapping.

I am at a crossroads in my life. This feeling has been building. Last month when I put together the list of what I would do with the next ten years of my life, it felt empty. Nothing on it was what I really needed to do. I have to change my life, I’ve decided.

This might be the real midlife crisis (I thought I went through one at 40). I’ve been talking to all my friends. I think most of them get it. I’ve done most of the things I wanted to do with my life. And I’ve maneuvered my life so that most of what I do is exactly what I want to do. That should feel great, and it doesn’t feel bad, but it does feel kinda pointless.

Rebecca, a successful architect, just quit her job and went back to school to become a neo-natal nurse.

So, I think I have to change my life, too. Except for the writing part. That part feels JUST fine, thank you, and I will do that as long as I possibly can.

And it’s not too hot! The window in front of me is open, there’s a real breeze. That’s Buddy and Finney laying about under my chair at my desk. God, they’re cute. What’s up for this weekend:

– Brunch with some friends.
– Practice Annapolis speech.
– Work on Duke book.
– Gym at some point.
– Movie at some point. That reminds me, see Little Miss Sunshine. GO. Trust me.
– Figure out new career. I seem to be going through a second mid-life crisis and feel the need to re-vamp my life. I’ll talk about this in another post, but I’m open to suggestions.