Me: The Early Years
| Me: The Corrupted Years
Me: The "Find Myself" Years
| Me: The Mathochist Years | Me:
The Aimless Years | A Mystery Explained
| Wanna know where you're headed?
I grew up in a small town between
Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana, called Port Vincent. Actually, to be quite honest, I'm not even sure if Port Vincent is large enough to be classified as a town. Although it has been on the map for years, it only became large enough to be considered a village in the last 11 or so years. But out of habit I will continue to refer it to a small town. Now, I'm not complaining bout this, mind you. PVLA was a nice quiet homey little place to grow up in, if you like that sort of thing. Which I did. At least while I was a kid. But it was PURE BOREDOM for me when I was a teenager. The only places to hang out were bars, which I wasn't interested in, or your friends' cars, if you were lucky enough to have a friend that drove. (Consequently, I had a lot of friends who became parents before they were out of high school!) At the ripe old age of 15 I HAD to get out of there. So how, you ask, does one get out of a town like this so young, without convincing your parents to move?The Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts, is in Natchitoches, La. It is a haven for Louisiana's most educationally and artistically underchallenged high school juniors and seniors. It is the only school of its kind in the country. All the other schools of this type focus on either Math/Science or Arts. And let me just say that their students are really missing out! Attending LSMSA was an awesome experience for me, and part of that experience was meeting so many people from around the state with so many different interests. I made lots of friends there, and I learned a lot more than I could have at my "home school." I was completely at home there. Being interested in learning was no longer uncool; I wasn't "that nerd girl" anymore. I was surrounded by some of the brightest, most interesting people I have ever known -- both faculty and students -- and I was completely happy. (Okay, okay, so I was clinically depressed for a while there, too. But that had nothing to do with the school and everything to do with my screwy hormones. Luckily I had an awesome Roomie who helped me snap out of it without even knowing that's what she was doing!) I spent my days in classes learning about Math, Latin, PhysICKS, Art, History, Literature, and Computers; my evenings rehearsing in the dance studio with my fellow dancers in the Positive Energy Dance Ensemble; and my nights just hanging out with my friends and giving my brain a chance to rest. It was much cooler than I could ever describe. All I can say is, if you are a teenager and you have a chance to go to a school like this, DON'T PASS IT UP! And If you are a parent, relative, or friend of someone contemplating going, be as supportive and encouraging as you can. You can't imagine how much going to a place like this can lead someone to greatness in the future... especially someone from a small town who came from a less-than-average school. (And in LA, it's not hard for a school to be less than average!)
Two months later I got married and moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming.&Although Cheyenne is the capitol city, it is really just the biggest town in a state full of small towns. Me being a small town girl, that was acceptable... for a while. Eventually I began to get jealous of people who could shop at Wal Mart after 9:00 p.m., and longed for places where there were more than one mall, and/or more than 3 department stores. You might be wondering why anyone would move to such a place. At the time my husband, Jeff, was stationed at F. E. Warren AFB. So if I wanted to be with him, I didn't have much choice.
The first year I lived in Cheyenne, I attended Laramie County Community College, and took some of the fun courses I missed out on getting my BS in such a hurry, like class piano, French, German, and even a choir class! (If you've ever heard me attempt to sing, you will understand why I still find that so amazing.)
In the summer of '98 I completed my Master's degree in
Click here to see a list of courses I took at CSU
I had the honor of being a teaching assistant for the department during my two years of graduate school torture there. (How did those t-shirts go, John? Something like, "Graduate school -- it's not just a job; it's an indenture!") I taught M155 - Calculus for Biological Scientists, as well as some Pre-Calculus classes in the Individualized Math Program.
After I graduated, I had trouble finding a job in Cheyenne that utilized my talents. Eventually I took a position working as an MSR at Warren Federal Credit Union, just so I could pay some bills and have some extra spending money. As a credit union, WFCU's okay, but it wasn't the most employee-friendly of places. I understand things are much different there now, though. I worked there for about 9 months.
After that I taught M155 again at my alma mater (which, by the way, is Latin for "nurturing mother." Latin is cool!). That was the coolest part-time job I've ever had, except for private tutoring. I met lots of wonderful students, and even managed to convince a few of them that Math isn't so terrible after all. That job ended in December of 99, and I moved about a month later. Otherwise I would probably still be doing it.
All in all, Wyoming wasn't a bad experience. I made many friends, some of whom still like me enough to keep in touch with me. I learned to drive in snow. Heck, I got to SEE snow! There was never any traffic. I got my master's degree while I was there. Yeah, it was okay.
We lived in Wyoming for four and a half years, but for the last 7 months of that Jeff was TDY in the Republic of Georgia. During that time I had my groovy friend Cassie move in with me. She helped me stay sane, and tried her best to keep me out of trouble. (You'll have to ask HER if she was successful or not!)
In January of 2000 Jeff and I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We bought our first house, and are still getting settled in even though we've been here 6 months already. Jeff is stationed at Kirtland AFB, and works for the Air Force Research Laboratory.
The first day I was here, I attended a meeting for the NM PCOSupport group, and made some new friends. The next month I was voted (being the only nominee) as Director of Inquiry Management. Among other things, that puts me in charge of the group's web page. It is still a small group - not even big enough to be a chapter-in-formation yet, but we are working on changing that.
After a month or two looking all over the city for a church, I the one I was led to also happened to be the closest one to me. It's St. Joseph's on the Rio Grande. Right now I am playing music at the 5:00 Saturday evening Mass.
As usual for me, I keep pretty busy. Since I listed all the stuff that I do on my main page, I won't list it again here.
When he's not at work or spending quality time with me, Jeff stays very busy with New Mexico Wing Civil Air Patrol, or plays games on his computer. He also has a group that he plays role-playing games with on Saturday nights.