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What is your background? What do you do?

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dly64:
I know there is a wide range of people on this site and I find it very interesting to see what others do for a living (other than spending an inordinate amount of time on BetterMost!) as well as hearing about their backgrounds. 

A brief synopsis of my background ...

I grew up in a small northern Indiana town. I was raised Mennonite. My mom grew up Mennonite, my dad grew up Amiish. (Yes, there is a difference, but I won't delve into that here ... unless you really want to know). I always loved the arts and channeled most of my energy towards music.

I went to college and originally wanted to major in music. What I ended up having a double major ... Psychology and the Arts. After a hiatus that lasted several years, I went back to get my MBA with an emphasis in Marketing. I now work for an insurance company in the sales and marketing area. It allows me to be creative and to be around a lot of people. I am often told, because I love film so much (old to new), that it seems odd for me to work in the business world. C'est la vie! I love what I do and feel most fortunate. It still gives me plenty of time to indulge in my passions .... film, art, music.

Tell me about you!  :)

saucycobblers:
Hi dly64. Nice to know ya!

I grew up in a small market town in the UK. Always loved drama and have done amdram since i was a kid. Went to art school and afterwards was a technical drawer for a living - mainly for engineering firms - and loved it. Computers put paid to my line of work, so I stayed in civil engineering working in labs - and hated it. Sooo... 10 years after leaving school I went back and did a degree in Theatre and Media and a masters degree in Film. I've been teaching film and media ever since. Still love the amdram, and dancing (tap and salsa)  ;D

David:
I'm 40 yrs old and was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut.  The Insurance Capital of the world.   Well, it was  LOL.   

My Great grand parents immigrated here from Sweden in 1913. The came over on the Lusitania.  (Before it was torpedoed!)      My Dads family was from Nova Scotia.  He is of English and Welsh decent.

I have always been in the Automotive field of work.  Everything from renting cars to selling them, to running an Automitive Electronics repair business.   Well, times they are a changing.  Currently I'm one of many unemployed in the Automotive business.   But things are looking up for a career change.

Been Gay since 24 and out since I was 29.     Currently single and waiting for my Cowboy to show up.    ;D

Currently accepting applications!   But you must be approved by Victoria and Leslie first.  :laugh:

ednbarby:
I grew up in western New York state, first in a suburb of Rochester called Gates, then, from 13 on, in a small resort town on a lake about 40 miles southeast of there called Canandaigua that became a bedroom community - what do they call them now? - an exurb? - of Rochester.  I lived with my Mom and two older brothers until I was 13.  My Dad and she had split up when I was 2.  I went to stay with him and his new wife while my Mom went into rehab for alcoholism for 3 months one summer.  It was decided I'd stay by the four of us (but mostly on her urging) because the schools there and general environment were better than what she felt she could offer.

I went to college in northern New York state at a state school there.  I majored in Computer Science and English.  I hated the former and loved the latter.  To work them both into a viable career when I graduated, I started out as a technical writer, writing application programming how-to manuals for programmers in banks for a company (not IBM) that made a good deal of the hardware and software in most banks at the time.  It was the most mind-bogglingly boring thing I've ever done.  I started out wanting to be a tech writer thinking that I'd get to write the kind of stuff that comes with Microsoft software or Dell hardware - and that I'd make it so people could actually understand it.  But getting on with either of those companies (or HP or IBM) at that time was a challenge.  I couldn't even buy my way into an interview with them because my GPA was 3.43 and not the required 3.5.

I met my husband while I was working at that first job in Ohio.  He was in the Air Force and was stationed there.  I went on to a second job, this time as a software test engineer, at another company in town.  Did that for three years and loved it, for the most part, because it was kind of like doing forensic science but on computer software, if you can imagine that.  OK, also boring, but at least a little more interesting and challenging than the first one.

We moved to Florida in 1993, he to be based out of Miami as an airline pilot, and me to do God knows what.  I didn't think I wanted to work in the software industry any more, or at least not for a while.  So I went to work for a veterinarian as a receptionist and part-time vet technician (i.e., the one that does all the grunt work of veterinary medicine while the vet schmoozes the clients and makes the diagnoses and does the surgeries).  I had considered going back to school to get a veterinary degree and wanted to see if I had the right stuff for it.  My first day, I assisted in euthanizing a very sick dog and watched a cat die of liver failure.  I did not have the right stuff.  I was an extraordinarily good phlebotomist, culture examiner, and receptionist, though.  After three years of working my tail off for 10 bucks an hour and free veterinary care for my two dogs (one of whom I adopted from him), I decided it was time to go back to software.  I loved working with the animals.  But the people drove me nuts.  Tell you what, I learned things about my fellow human beings I wish I never had to come to know in those three years.

I've been working for the same company as a software systems analyst ever since.  Basically, I test the software people in my company use to do their jobs before it's released to them to make sure it does all the things they want it to and none of the things they don't.  I have a great boss and work with nice people, and we do some things for the outside world as part of our business and aside from that out in the community that I'm very proud of.

Oh, and I'm an atheist.  My folks was Methodist, but we never stepped foot in any churches except for weddings and funerals.  My mother thought my brothers and I should decide what to believe in on our own and so never took us as kids, plus she thought it was hypocritical of her to do that when she didn't believe in organized religion herself.  My Dad and stepmom were on the same page where that was concerned.

Wow - you're Swedish by descent, David?  You know, some of the best people are.  ;)  I'm Irish and Dutch by mine, mostly Irish.  Born on St. Patty's Day to boot.  And I'm 41.  My husband and I have a four and a half year old son named Will.  He is the light of our lives.  He's just started to read, and there's nothing more extraordinary than hearing your child - or any child you've been teaching to read - read the words you both see on the page to you for the first time.

OK, I'll stop and give someone else a chance to use up the precious cyber space...

Sheyne:
Well, I'm 32 this year and live in Brisbane. I was born here and have lived here all my life, save for a couple of years in the mid-nineties where I made Sydney my home for work. I was contemplating making it my home permanently cause the work was fairly okay but the pay was pretty good. My dad falling seriously ill with a mystery sickness brought me home (where oddly enough, after a week, he was totally recovered. Mum, who's into kooky stuff, reckons he was pining for his little girl..  ::) ) All things considered, I was glad to get home. Sydney moves a little faster than I'm used to and I didn't really like the apathy many people had down there.

I graduated high school by the skin of my teeth, given that I had spent nearly half the year off battling a particularly evil case of Glandular Fever, but I passed anyway. Yay. Went straight into the work force cause I wanted to buy a car. Had a secretary job for a year (me and 32 men... say it with me... HEAVEN) and then I went to work in a bank. Stayed there for 7 years, in a variety of positions, but I had the opportunity to do banking, insurance, home loans, personal loans etc. It was an okay job. Pay was miserable but I learnt lessons in managing money there and pretty soon, i had bought my new car and also an apartment. Which was bliss... ahhh freedom! Met a guy, Brendan who told me all the right things, treated me just the right way... to my face at least. And while I thought I had the perfect boyfriend, he had a girl to sleep with, for very minimal effort of his part and he also had food on the table and a roof over his head whenever his father pissed him off too much. Hmm. Owing to my incredibly low self esteem, this went on for some time. During the last 2 years at the bank, I got itchy feet and decided to study psychology part time. So I had the job, the degree, the house, the boyfriend... and i was constantly struck by this feeling that something was missing from my life. I was 23.

Then I met a friend for lunch and my life changed. This guy was a mutual friend of Brendan and I. So I was a little surprised to walk into the restuarant and find "my" Brendan sitting right beside Michael engaged deeply in conversation. I sat down, we ordered, we ate. Then this guy who I had shared my bed, my house, my food, my life with looked me in the eye and said "I've bought a plane ticket to London. I leave tomorrow afternoon. I won't be back." And then he stood up without another word, clapped both hands on Michael's shoulders and walked out. I was pretty numb for a while. Michael looked shocked. He said "I had no idea he was going to do that.. he said he wanted to see you". I haven't spoken to either guy since that day. Nor have I heard from Brendan.

I was due to go to a wedding the following weekend, Brendan had agreed to come with me as my date. So i needed to find someone to accompany me. My then-friend Kelli set me up with a single guy she knew. I was still reeling and stunned from having been dumped so unceremoniously, but I was in the "anger" stage of recovery and as a big fuck-you to Brendan, I got involved with this guy. It was a one-night stand that lasted a horrible 7 months. When I eventually left him, I was pregnant with my son. I realised there was no way I was going back to work in the bank, so I sold my precious apartment and moved back with Mum and Dad. I was almost 25.

I had William, on my own. This guy R, wanted to marry me and have more kids. I said no, that wasn't going to happen. He left. And thank G*d for that. I waited until Will was 18 months old and went to my mum and asked her if she and dad would support me while I went to University. I told her I wanted to be a teacher. She was delighted, as the thick streak of materialism that underpins her personality means that nobody is anybody till they have a degree.. *rolls eyes*  She's a good person, my mum, but she's got all her priorities wrong.

So for 5 years I studied teaching. I graduated earlier this year and walked into my dream job in April. I'm teaching grade 1/2 at a local school and my little William, who, as it turns out, is Autistic, started school this year as well. What's life like raising an Autistic child on your own??  Gawd... that's a story for another time!!

 :)

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