At Last, The Bio

This is a picture of me from June '05 in Krakow, Poland. I'm standing next to "Krak," the dragon who has become somewhat of the symbol of Krakow.

Sorry it has taken me so long to do this; I seem to have become quite the procrastinator!

I ended up majoring in philosophy and graduated from Penn in 1990. College was a blast and I met some really great people.

While in school I worked part-time as a computer tech for three years at Wharton which really saved my ass when I went to look for a real, full-time job because having a BA in Philosophy during a recession wasn’t exactly a standout credential.

After 30 interviews I finally landed a computer tech job at LaSalle University in North Philly in February ’91. The only thing that kept me together during the unemployed time was Michael, who I met on a Rush fan e-mail list. (Note: toward the end of college I got really into the rock band Rush. I should have listened to Dan P. in middle school!) Michael asked a question on-list and we ended up having a private e-mail correspondence. From this we struck up a friendship and then a romance. He was at PSU at the time but then transferred to Temple to be with me. (Silly boy!)

Michael is a couple of years younger than me so we stayed in Philly for a couple of years while he finished his undergrad (BA in German). We moved to Pittsburgh in ’93 so he could go to law school and I got another computer job. We also married that October. Around this time we acquired our first two dachshunds, Johann, a red short-hair male (above, with Gretchen) and Ludwig, a chocolate and tan long-hair male (below). When Michael graduated from law school in ’96 he got a job in Delaware so we moved again and I found another job.

After years of wondering why most of my friends had traveled even when they didn't seem to have any money, we finally traveled to Europe in 2000 to attend Michael’s brother’s wedding in Hungary. Now bitten by the travel bug, I surprised Michael later that year by taking him to Iceland for his 30th birthday.

The following March my sister and I traveled to Italy. A few months later Michael and I bought a house. These two events had a lot to do with me deciding to pursue a career in interior design. I had been thinking about getting out of the computer field for years but I didn’t know what I wanted to do instead. Traveling to Italy reawakened my interest in art and buying a house focused my energy on the importance of comfortable, livable spaces.

At some point, Michael and I had gotten involved in Dachshund Rescue of North America. This also meant that we had adopted two more doxies: Gretchen, a black and tan short-hair female (above) and Romeo, a black and tan dapple male (below).

I began working on my MS in Interior Design at Drexel University in Philadelphia the summer of 2003. It is a full-time program. I knew the program was going to be intense but I am amazed at how my whole life has gotten sucked into this strange black hole of graduate school. I am looking forward to having a life again since I graduate on June 17.

Fortunately, by the time I see all of you, this grad school craziness will be a thing of the past and I will be working at some type of job or seeking employment.

I hope this was worth the wait. :-D