1) i was born in houston texas (the lone star state)
2) during hurricane carla
3) on september 10th 1961. my mother said the barometric pressure dropped and i decided it was time to be born
4) my father was a photographer for the houston chronicle so i have the paper from the day i was born with photographs taken by my dad
5) i kind of hate my birthdate now. it's not 9/11 but it's darn close
6) i turned 40 on 9/10/01 and then the next day it was a near apocolypse. i am not looking forward to 50...and you should be worried too!
7) my first real memory is back to ohio after living in san francisco (really san jose - my dad was a photographer for the san francisco chronicle)
8) my memory is of sleeping in the u-haul on our mattress enroute. strange thing to be your first real memory
9) i am not a nomadic person as a result of all the moving i did as a child
10) my cousin (the one i was named after)swore that he could remember laying in his crib as an infant. he was a nomadic kind of guy....he lived in africa, saudi arabia and even rochester ny
11) my father attended RIT and was a photographer for many different papers before he took a job in rochester as a public relations guy
12) when my dad died he was working as a "dr" (his life's dream was to be an md) repairing printing equipment
13) my mom went to RIT also but left school to marry my dad
14) when my mom died she was a school lunch lady
15) my parents both died young
16) my mom was 49 and my dad was 53
17) my dad lived only 3 years after mom died
18) i have two sisters
19) amy is 4 years younger
20) michelle is 8 years younger
21) michelle and jeff were married on july 9, 1994 (oj simpson's birthday)
22) amy and tim were married july 3, 2004 (the day before america's birthday)
23) i was not married in july
24) i married john on september 28, 1985
25) i wanted to be an artist when i grew up
26) my mom said i wasn't good enough so i went to community college of the finger lakes to become a conservation law officer
27) after the first semester i changed my major to graphic arts
28) my favorite class was photography
29) i never finished school....i moved back home after a year and a half....no money, no car and no motivation
30) i found motivation
31) i found a job as a security guard.....i wanted a better job
32) i took classes part time
33) i started dating john and got into a technical program for graphic arts
34) i married john and started working as a payroll/accounts payable person in his place of business
35) his place of business is an amusement park (seabreeze park) where i had worked as a ride operator in high school and college
36) it's hard to work for your in-laws so in 1990 i decided to leave and go back to school
37) i was in school 1 week and found out i was pregnant with my oldest son
38) this was a much wanted child. i had had 2 miscarriages previously
39) alexander james was born on october 4, 1991
40) james was my dad's name and alex was the boy that dad never had
41) the following fall i started back to school
42) dad died right before alex's 1st birthday. alex never really warmed up to my dad (must have been the booming voice)
43) it's too bad because they would have been best friends
44) i gave up on school at this point....my family was priority
45) i became the dreaded stay at home mom better known as a "sahm"
46) when alex was 3 we moved from webster back to irondequoit and into the house that was john's grandfather's
47) grandpa built it (along with a huge number of others in the rochester area) and i didn't want it to be sold to strangers
48) i loved the community feel of this neighborhood and it was closer to work
49) my sister-in-law lives 2 doors (not 3) down
50) our property backs up to a very large county park so we are surrounded by woods, ponds, deer (that eat all my flowers) and lots of mosquitoes
51) in 1996 i was pregnant with my youngest son and alex was starting kindergarten (omg, what have i done....diapers again!)
52) he was also a much wanted child...2 ectopic pregnancies previously
53) on january 29, 1997 (his great grandpa's birthday) jack riley was born
54) his name is jack because i didn't want a jr and riley was the name of a character on "er" that i liked
55) i really wanted to name him william (where there is a will there is a way) finn but my husband put his foot down
56) i have very little irish blood in my family but i love the gaelic names
57) i do have relatives that came over on the mayflower
58) one of them signed the mayflower compact. cool!
59) perhaps this is why i love cape cod
60) we spend a week every summer in n truro and love provincetown
61) i am raising my boys to be more tolerant
62) jack loves to go into town for drag bingo night
63) when i "retire" i want a little apartment/house in provincetown where i can paint and call myself an artist
64) our favorite beach is "head of the meadow"
65) our favorite places to eat: the beachcomber, mojo's, bubalas, and sweets from the portuguese bakery on commercial street
66) i miss the portuguese fish house but not so much since i don't eat meat anymore
67) it was not a concious thing so much as an evolution thing for me; not eating meat
68) i always hated the way meat tasted anyway
69) i never ate venison or veal, then i couldn't eat pork (a visit to the fair) and I so love cows
70) one night while cooking steaks for dinner I just said, "this is it!"
71) it's been three years
72) believe it or not the one thing i miss is hot dogs (talk about a vegetarian nightmare in the slaughterhouse). i have yet to find a good substitute
73) my oldest son plays the sousaphone/tuba, baritone, bass guitar, piano and drums
74) he plays in the sr/jr high jazz bands, the school band and the marching band
75) he plays jazz because there is more opportunity but he wants to be flea (red hot chili peppers)
76) he is very good and i am very proud of him
77) i am also happy he has a great and varied taste in music
78) his brother is more like his mother, an artist
79) he wants to play music, but at his age he draws like no one else
80) he is even more detail oriented than I am
81) at his kindergarten screening when they asked him to draw a person, he drew every little detail. he ran out of time. the screener was impressed enough to remember and told me later
82) neither of these skills will be a big money making life/work skill
83) because my mother pushed me away from my dream i have tendancy to push my kids towards theirs
84) i hope they grow up to be able to use their skills and not have to live at home with mom and dad
85) i am a weight watchers lifetime member
86) i have gained back half (or more, don't tell) of the 96 pounds i lost
87) i am now back diligently weighing, measuring and writing down what i eat
88) i am also now going back to meetings
89) i want to feel comfortable on the beach in the turks and caicos in february
90) even if i was model thin, i would not feel completely comfortable in my bathing suit
91) i have never been model thin....perhaps this would be why
92) we have a dog that we "saved" from the humane society
93) his name was dexter and it fit so we kept it
94) we also call him "the big black hairy beast"
95) he is part black lab and part airdale
96) he looks like a black lab with wiry hair and a beard
97) he sheds (ugh!) like a lab not an airdale
98) he also weighs 90 pounds (thus the "big" and "beast" part)
99) he attached himself to me....i was the first to actually see him
100) i came down with meningitis shortly after we got him
101) when i finally came home from the hospital he wouldn't leave my side
102) loyalty is a quality i admire
