I was born and raised just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in a small town called Coatesville, or the dot above the "d" in Philadelphia on the Map. I'd have to say I think I had a pretty "normal" childhood with a very loving family. I was fortunate in that my parents were not divorced and we had dinner every night with the family as a regular practice. The only thing that I saw as somewhat of a problem was that I was the only child. Now this was a only problem because it seemed as if I was always alone, but otherwise I was pretty much spoiled by my parents which was definitely not a problem in my eyes. Growing up I played baseball, soccer and took Martial Arts. During high school I also worked in the cash office of one of the local grocery stores to make spending money. I graduated from the Coatesville Area Senior High in 1989. I speak fluent German and during the spring of 1989 I took a trip to Europe and spent some time in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.  It was an amazing time.  Eventually I left Coatesville to attend the Pennsylvania State University in the Fall of 1989. [return to top]

I started my university career at the Penn State Altoona Campus.  Penn State Altoona was the largest of all the branch campuses and was located only 30 minutes from University Park, or Penn State Main Campus.  I spent 2 years at the Penn State Altoona trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life and working on all of my general education credits.  Eventually I transferred to the Penn State Main Campus in the Fall of 1991 without any knowledge of what I wanted to do.  I tried a number of different majors such as Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Political Science but I just wasn't happy and couldn't really decide what I wanted to do.  I was working as a bartender in a local restaurant at the time when I finally talked to an advisor who persuaded me to try Hospitality Management.  It sounded like a good idea, so I did.  Well I really enjoyed the first few classes so I decided that would be my major.  Eventually I ended up graduating with my BS in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management in December of 1994.  While I was at Penn State I ended up meeting Rob.  We met in February of 1993 through joint friends and ended up moving in together after about a year.  Our senior year we eventually moved to a nice area just outside of the campus with our two golden retrievers, Trevor and Jack.  Following our graduation from Penn State, we decided to find a warmer area.  We had some friends that moved to Arizona so we decided to visit them and instantly fell in love with it.  In late December of 1994 we packed our things and moved to sunny Phoenix, Arizona. [return to top]

The only downside to the move was that we could not find a place to live that would allow for 2 large dogs.  At the time Arizona was very dog unfriendly.  We ended up giving up Trevor and Jack to friends that stayed in University Park.  It was the last time we saw them but they were better off then being in the desert.  So after the move to Arizona, I took a job as a Cost Control Auditor at a large resort in Scottsdale.  After only a year I grew very tired of the hospitality industry, the low wages, and long hours.  My luck turned as one of my former instructors from Penn State had given my name to a company that specialized in installing computer systems into Hotels, Restaurants and Casinos.  After a job interview with them in July of 1995, I was offered a position as an Applications Specialist.  I quickly decided to take the job however it required me to move to their western regional office in Las Vegas.  Rob and I once again packed up and moved to Las Vegas together. [return to top]

In the August of 1995, we packed our things and headed north so I could take the new job in Las Vegas.  Rob ended up finding a job similar in nature to mine, which was lucky for both of us.  We both spent most of our time traveling with our companies.  Neither one of us was rarely in Las Vegas.  It was interesting at first, as we didn't see much of us, but would sometimes be able to meet up in different cities.  As I look back on the situation I can't complain because It gave us both the opportunity to see parts of the United States that neither of us would have traveled too on our own.  I was glad for the opportunity and experience the jobs gave us.  After about a year I grew very tired of the traveling and decided to take another position within the company that did not require national travel.  At this point I began to spend some substantial time in Las Vegas and I realized that I didn't really like it.  It seemed to me it was really difficult to get to know anyone there, and the quality of life was directly related to gambling.  I decided to look for another job back in Arizona and found one in October of 1996.  Rob and I had a long discussion about moving back to Arizona because he really wanted to stay in Las Vegas and keep his job.  Finally he was able to make arrangements to keep his job but fly in and out of Phoenix instead.  Once again we packed up and moved back to Phoenix. [return to top]

I started my consulting career in Phoenix in October of 1996 working at American Express. Rob eventually got a new job with a company based in Phoenix, however the traveling was not any less. It was difficult on both of us and finally after a few years and several problems we decided it was best to separate and go our own paths. It was a difficult decision for both of us after spending so much time together, but it was the only fair thing because we were growing and taking different paths with our lives. It required a great deal of adjustment for us both but in the end was the best decision. I made a few friends and was generally happy with my life. In June of 1998 I ended up meeting my next boyfriend, Danny. Things moved very quickly with us and we moved in together in early August. So much happened in the short year that Danny and I were together. We almost built a house in Arizona and decided to get two dogs together, Zach and Koda. Things were going alright for us but Danny really did not like Arizona so we decided to move somewhere else. We had made plans to move back to the Philadelphia area to be near my friends and family. In July of 1999 we took a trip out for a week. It seemed like a good choice and we decided to move there in October and started to make arrangements. In September over Labor Day weekend we went out to San Francisco to visit with some of Danny's friends before our move back to Philadelphia. During this trip I fell in love with the bay area and Danny convinced me that it would be better for us to move there instead of Philadelphia. So I found a job and before you know it we were making plans to move to San Francisco in the beginning of October instead of Philadelphia. [return to top]

So Danny and I decided to move to San Francisco, and right before we got here we also decided to end our relationship.  We had a number of reasons of why this seemed like the best choice for us but I was very hard for me to move out somewhere that I didn't know anyone.  I wanted to still do the move because I had found a great job and I wanted to make the change to get out of Arizona.  I started off living in Foster City, CA which is just about 20 minutes south of San Francisco.  I took a job with a company I thought was a growing dot-com in the city.  Well to my surprise about a month after I started working for them, they lost funding and laid off about 60% of the staff.  I was not laid off but the morale was very low.  I decided to seek out a new position and found one.  I started working for a software company in Redwood City, CA.  I decided that it was too expensive and I was tired of living in the Suburbs so I moved up to San Francisco to live in the city in the Spring of 2001.  While in San Francisco I met my Partner, Justin.  We were mostly happy in San Francisco but just decided it was a little too expensive, so Justin and I moved back to Phoenix in April of 2002.  I met some great friends in San Francisco and I will never regret living there as it was one of the best experiences of my life. [return to top]

In January of 2002 I was laid off from Gator.com due to the economic downturn.  I took a new position as a portal consultant and was able to live anywhere as my job required almost 100% travel.  After some long discussion and consideration Justin and I decided to move back to Phoenix.  We both thought it would be less expensive for us would help us to get ahead a little bit.  We've been back in Arizona since April-2002 and have been having a really great time hanging out with old friends and even meeting some new ones.  Justin and I just recently bought a large house in April of 2003 and also now have a White German Shepherd Puppy named Berg.  Everything is going well and I'm really enjoying being somewhat settled at the moment. [return to top]