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Various cool things happened between then and fifth grade; we got an
Atari 2600 (oh man
was that cool), we went to summer camp a lot, we spent time in Woburn at the
Cannons' house, made countless trips up to York Beach, and saw Star Wars
100 times one summer in the theater.
Then in 5th grade (1979-1980ish) I started learning about computers (before
anyone had computers, you understand.. it was a total hobby, unlike today
where they're as common as toasters). My Dad had
given me a Radio Shack book
on BASIC (which by the way is a good story.. click that link!), and then
a few days later my fifth grade teacher Ms. Blankenheim brought a computer
into the class. From that point on I was interested in computers, and I
won't go into my chronology about what computers I've owned or anything drawn
out like that. Well, ok, actually, if you really want to know,
here....
I got my first job at Caldor, in Stoneham, working
as a cashier. I can't remember how many years I worked there, but it
was somewhere around four I think. I eventually moved up to the position of
"Head Cashier" (oooooh), meaning I then worked at the "Courtesy Desk"
(a misnomer if ever I encountered one), dealing with the worst of the
customers.
I was quite happy the day that Caldor went bankrupt (and used to
have a link here to the bankrupcy filing, but it seems to be gone now).
It's painful to even think about the place..
Even the logo was depressing -
a dreary, brown rainbow. Ugh. That place did a lot of damage to my mind.
The damages came in many forms:
Eventually MyWay East let people go, with a fair amount of warning, and
AltaVista started announcing internally that they were looking for people.
I started at AltaVista in December, 2000, just in time for the Christmas
party playing paintball in Boston.
That's where I work now.
Then, you should really read the
Birthday/Proposal Story and view
these pictures..
And that's a very rough draft of a sketchy detail of about 1 ten-thousandth
of what's happened to me so far. Enough history. My interests (a bit more
current) include snowboarding, sailing, rollerblading, snorkeling,
scuba diving (NAUI Advanced Certified), rock climbing, photography,
hang gliding, films, and Laurie.
There. More than you ever wanted to know about me. Can I believe
someone actually read all that? Nah, maybe you just skipped down here
to read about Laurie...
So, I went to west, which I hated,
for 3 years and in 7th grade I went to East Jr. high, which was renamed in
either eigth or nineth grade to Doherty Jr. High. In 10th grade I went on to
Andover High School and graduated in 1990. The most significant teachers in
that time of my life were Mr. Loschi in 5th grade, who I did not like.
He was my math teacher and told me that I should not be in the accelerated
math classes because I wasn't good in math, and then put me into a lower
level math class the following year. I remember not liking to do my homework
back then because it bored me...it was too easy, not too difficult,
and of course he missed that completely! I was so horrible in math that
I ended up getting my bachelors degree in Math from Merrimack college in 1994.
So much for Mr. Loschi's completely wrong assessment of my abilities!
I certainly enjoyed that satisfaction of proving him wrong!
I'd like to see how well he did in Real Analysis! Anyway, so much for
negative influences - the best teacher I ever had in the Andover Public
School System was Ms. Finneran. She was my Junior and Senior year English
teacher. She was the only teacher ever to actually teach me how to read
in a manner that I understood. All the other english teachers I had from
7th - 10th grade never taught you how to read. She was a great teacher,
and a great inspiration for getting me to set high goals for myself.
During high school and college I worked at daycares in town, until my Junior
year when I got a job babysitting the 4 greatest kids ever
Samantha, Benjamin, Theodore and Margaret. We had lots of fun the summer
Margaret was born, and through out the year. I enjoyed going on vacations
with them to smuggler's notch and Chicago for their cousin's wedding.
They are a great part of my life, even today!
After college, I went to work for Raytheon in Tewksbury, MA. I stayed for
4 years there, which was far too long. I came out underpaid, but far wiser
to the world. Getting away from that place was good. I then went to
News Internet Services. It was a great company with a great bunch of people.
It is sad that it ended so fast. I was there for a year, until May of 2000
when the former vice president and architect started a company together,
and was immediately bought by CMGI. We were NetWright for a short time,
and then our name was changed to CMGI Solutions.
CMGI Solutions was a company with great potential and extremely bad management.
Ultimately, the management killed us. They bought a company called Tallan,
and Tallan took over, offering all the engineers a full-time travel position.
This did not go over well, and I turned down the job. I'd just bought a brand
new house, and I had met the best thing that happend to me - my
husband-to-be Jeff. Jeff and I are the only good thing that came out of
CMGI Solutions. From there, I went to Engage, another CMGI company.
I am a software engineer, I can design code, write it, and test it.
Currently I'm in QA, but I was in development for the past 5 years.
I moved into an apartment with a college friend, Allie. We lived together for
4 years, until I bought a condo in Methuen. It was a great condo, and I
filled it up with 4 cats, Sneaky, Squeeky Boo and Jewel. They are adorable,
and very playful. I lived in my condo for a year, until the crazy
real estate market went up so much that I had a downpayment for a house...
so I bought a 3 bedroom colonial, which is wonderful! The cats loved the
new space, and have adapted well to it!
Jeff and I started dating December of 1999, and pretty much knew from the
first time we went out together that it was right. Since there was to be a
discrepancy of 3 months from the time I sold my condo and moved into the
house, I moved in with him for 3 months, and when I closed on the house,
he moved in immediately. We then got married May 5, 2001. It's been the
best 2 years of my life. I have never been happier, and things are good.
We plan to move into a much bigger house, as Jeff's stuff has filled the
house, garage and basement! We clearly need more space! So, we're saving
up, and should be in a bigger house in a year or so.
Since I met jeff, I have aquired a few new hobbies. I now absolutely love
snowboarding, and I got certified in scuba diving on my honeymoon in Hawaii!
I also love rollerblading and camping now! We've had so much fun
together...and I'm looking forward to much more!
).
In April, we both moved into that new house (where we live now) in Methuen, MA.
We got married on May 5th, 2001,
in Windam, NH, and spent three weeks in Hawaii on our
honeymoon.
At the time of this writing (September, 2001), our collective hobbies include
snowboarding, rollerblading, SCUBA diving, movies, 