A child of the 70’s, I grew up in small town

outside of Portland, Oregon. Me, my two sisters, one younger and one older, and my younger brother lived with our parents in a four bedroom house loaded with animals. We had a big backyard with two fruit bearing trees, a swing set, and a handmade tree house of a rather shaky architectural design that my father built over a series of weekends one summer.

My mom was a stay-at-home mom until sometime after all four of us were in school. She was a great cook who, thankfully, believed in serving a variety of desserts for holidays. She made pumpkin pies on Thanksgiving using real pumpkin she froze during Halloween, not the pre-seasoned stuff you find on supermarket shelves. She still cans the best pickles known to mankind.

My dad tortured us from his Barcolounger watching Star Trek reruns each evening when he returned from work. He was responsible for handling all of the barbecuing duties and became quite adept at cooking beef for the six of us using tongs in one hand while holding a beer in the other. His jobs also included picking peaches - a job we were excluded from as the picking of peaches requires a delicate touch, splitting wood - not such a good idea to give a group of kids axes with instructions to swing, killing of spiders, and baiting hooks when fishing.

My childhood carries with it few complaints. Not only was I able to tag along with my older sister most of the time, there were also plenty of neighborhood kids to get into mischief with. My best friend, both then and now, is the cousin of a girl that lived across the street.

I was a fairly good student until I got my driver’s license and discovered my friends and I preferred leaving campus to go and get donuts at a local coffee shop to staying in class to have our minds filled with knowledge. I played the drums in band - no girly instruments for me - and acted in plays, later becoming a Thespian. (Note to those who don’t know - being a Thespian is not the same as being a lesbian, not that there is anything wrong with that.)

The first president I ever had the pleasure of voting for was WIlliam Jefferson Clinton, and I would happily vote for him again if given the opportunity. I look forward to voting for his wife, Hillary, when she runs for the presidency in 2008.

My college career spanned a long period of time and a multitude of colleges. I finally got a degree - a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. It may not give you much direction to choose this kind of education, meaning the liberal arts kind, but it does ensure you can write a coherent sentence and most English Lit majors I know have great spelling skills, which is immensely important when the spell check on your computer fails you. My work history includes being a dishwasher, grocery bagger and bottle counter, cashier, telemarketer (sorry!), screenprinter, customer service representative, marketing coordinator, and freelance and technical writer.

I have been the owner of a plethora of cats - Ruffles, Trixie, Tilly, Oreo, Maggie, Hannah, and now Mabel and Ellie. In 2005, we adopted Beauty the wonder dog, adding a canine to the mix.

I guess that is it for now. I considered writing about my hobbies, interests, etc., but each time I started listing stuff the paragraph turned into a personal ad - “I like walks on the beach, candlelight dinners, and daisies” - so this is all you get to learn about me on this part of the page. Oh wait, the game 500 is wicked fun. You must learn to play it immediately.