My Name is Katti Wheeler, and I Used to be a Spy

I don't remember from what patch of thin air I pulled this obsession, but I've had it for a while now.  It's kind of waned over the years but it's still there.  I am obsessed with spies.  But like I said, I wouldn't really call it an obsession anymore at this point in my life.

It may have started with the fact that I'm the little sister.  I used to really enjoy spying on my older sister, whatever she did.  I think I also enjoyed getting her in trouble, but what little sister/brother doesn't enjoy that?  My cousin, Lauren, joined me in my obsession and we started to pretend we were spies any time we were together.  Sometimes we even roped her dad into playing along with us.  We went on covert 'missions' and had meetings with other spies who were, in reality, non-existent.

In middle school I happened upon this really awesome subscription in the monthly scholastic catalogs.  Each month they would send you new gadgets and a book about being a spy.  The starter kit would have been enough for me, but my mom kept the subscription up so I got something new every month.  Things got serious then, especially when my cousin started to get the subscription too.  Every outing was a mission.


 
  This is basically what my starter kit looked like.

We started our own spy organization then.  We came up with the ridiculous name "Federal Agent Bureau," which we frequently shortened to FAB.  When I say we were serious, I'm not even joking.  We had an FAB file book, which was essentially a handful of notebook paper in a binder.  It had at least five different files, including lists of agents, mission logs, and meeting logs.  We were the only two 'real' agents, but we pretended there were a lot of us.  We really did have meetings, too, and an oath you had to take to be an agent.  When we were apart we would send each other coded letters, or letters written in invisible ink.  We even had matching uniforms we had scrounged up.

Over the years our interest in being spies waned, but I still had a thing for it.  When Kim Possible was around I loved her.  I drew her, and variations of her, almost constantly, but I grew out of that eventually too.  In those gap years of high school I still kept the dream alive by writing spy stories, even though I didn't have any inspiration to look to.  I mean, there were a few bright spots, like National Treasure.  I totally knew they were looking at an 'Ottendorf'' cipher (book cipher) before they did.

Until Burn Notice came out.  Here was a niche I could finally settle into without it being an obsession.  I still watch it all the time, even though I haven't always been able to keep up weekly when it's on television.  Now with the availability of Netflix to me, I'm watching every episode they have up this summer.

This retired spy hasn't totally left everything behind, though.  I still have all of my gadgets and books in an old messenger bag up in my closet at home, and I occasionally take them down to look through my past.  I also still have our file book.  I will probably always keep them so when I'm a hundred years old and sitting in my rocking chair I can reminisce.

I've never been able to make myself like James Bond though.  It's great to get this secret past off my chest guys.