I encountered my first research subject, Billy Chumbers, in first grade. Our experiments were quite literally puppy love – I remember zooming around his living room with a sock in my mouth, pretending to be a dog carrying a pup. However, I thought of him quite seriously, and describedhim to everyone as my first boyfriend.

When baby number one arrived 13 years ago, I had no email account or Internet connection. My Fortune 100 company used an internal company network – employees were forbidden to use computers to communicate with anyone or conduct any research outside the corporate net. This seems like cave-woman days in terms of technology.

Freedom was on tap to everyone in the world on July 4th weekend. Except apparently the fiance of Prince Albert of Monaco.

When I was ten, my best friends mom was the smartest woman I knew. She was a 49 spitfire from New York City who wore a great deal of black along with a sophisticated perfume never before sniffed in my staid DC hometown. As a young woman, shed been one of the early Peace Corps volunteers in Africa, and then written a best-selling memoir about the experience.