Wow. So here's this big blank page that I'm supposed to fill with something that you would want to read. Pretty intimidating.

My name is Michelle Darling. If you plunk down a map of the United States, and stick your finger on the exact center, and then move it a little to the right, you won't be too terribly far from where I live. It's kind of funny how stuff is beautiful all around the edges of our country, but nearly the entire middle bit is a big, flat, hot, boring expanse of nothingness. I guess it used to be prairie. Now it's cornfields. Personally, I don't see much difference.

I spent most of my life working in hospitals and doctor's offices. I stayed in that field much longer than I should have, mostly because I was good at it. I really always dreamed of being an artist. But you can't feed kids with dreams, you know?

In late 2005, I was rescued from my life of miserable burn-out. I started dating a wonderful guy named Chris, and got laid off from my job soon after that. I say "laid off" because "fired" makes it sound like I deserved it or something. They said they couldn't afford to keep me. It was a tough time for them financially, and I think they didn't like me much. I wasn't happy there, which probably made it easy for them to let me go. To cut to the end of this story, Chris got me involved in web design, and I've never once regretted it. I love my job!

This site will probably be a place where I put all the stuff I'd show off if I had hundreds of friends all over the country. I do have a few, and maybe I'll make some more. Sometimes I do stuff that is actually interesting. By cornfield-country standards, of course.