I was born in south-western
Colorado in 1968. After my birth my parents moved to
Nebraska, where we stayed until the summer before I
started fifth grade. Having grown tired of tornados, hail
and snow (oh my) we moved back to Delta, Colorado, my
parents home town. I graduated from Delta High School in
1986 and joined the U.S. Army.
My army career was a blast with tours in Arizona,
Maryland, Korea, and Saudi Arabia. My original intent was
to stay for four years to get the college money and split.
I loved it so much that I put off college for two more
years.
When I finally got my
fill of the army, I went home and enrolled at Mesa State
College, originally in computer
sciences since that was what I had been doing in the military. Soon,
I realized that I was better suited as a writer and promptly changed
programs. Somehow, I had lost
the vision that I embraced in high school of teaching and
writing.
While in college I held down a variety
of jobs. I began as a programmer for a contact lens
factory but soon rebelled and got away from programming
entirely. The most logical escape, of course, was working
for a bar. Probably the most rewarding thing I have done
is working for the Center for Independence, which serves
the blind, deaf and disabled communities. The rebellion
had apparently waned, though, as I was their technology
advisor. Check out my Resume if you would
like to learn more, but I won't bore everyone else with
the details.
I worked as a teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL)
in South Korea for nearly three years. I arrived in Korea December
1997, was very excited about being back in Korea, and very happy
that I got to work in my field as well. I was in Poun, a small town
about an hour from Taejon, Korea. There are a lot of really
interesting temples and cities in the area, which I visited nearly
every weekend. I had an excellent tour guide/girlfriend (no, that is
not why I started dating her), who is now my wife.
Six months after my wife and I were wed, we
struck out for the North-West suburbs of Chicago, where I
worked for Follett Software Company as a technical writer and both of our daughters
were born. Times were good for about two years until Follet hit some lean times after the terrorist
attacks on 9/11. It seems the whole country was in shock and few people were thinking about
organizing their school libraries.
Unable to find other employment in Chicago we headed back to my home in Colorado. In hindsight
we probably should have stayed in Chicago as there has never been much available work for me in
my hometown. I worked for a wireless Internet company for a couple of years, but thankfully my
currently employer called and made me an offer that may have just saved us from starving.
I somehow got lucky and am back with the government, teaching English as a Second Language classes
to soldiers at the Defense Language Institute in San Antonio, Texas. I enjoy my job immensly
and even get a chance to travel every now and then (see the Bratislava section on the main page for
my latest trip).
My wife and I recently bought a house in San Antonio and Sunny has gone back to school to become a nurse.
Things are looking good indeed. Visit often to see where we go from here.
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