Everyone else is doing it, so it must make you cool 🙂
This could be tough because I haven’t exactly been the shyest person int he world about my life, but I’ll give it a shot:
Ten things you don’t know about me
1. When I was 12 or 13 years old, I was an altar boy in the Catholic church. Briefly. I was also a member of the church folk group (and still twitch when I hear the title “Glory and Praise” – you Catholics know what I’m talking about 🙂
2. When I was high school I was a big fan of Christian rock groups. Petra, Resurrection Band, Michael W. Smith – all of those. What shook me out of it was when I went to a Petra concert and saw the power of groupthink in action – getting caught up in the fervor of the crowd, not thinking, just reacting. It scared the living crap out of me. That was when I decided I needed to figure out my religion for myself and not simply follow others blindly.
3. I was a discipline problem all through elementary and middle school. I frequently got into fights and in sixth grade even got in-school suspension for fighting. The one thing I learned: I don’t start fights, but if there’s no choice, I don’t fight fair, I fight to win {toothy grin}
4. I have only ever failed one class in my entire nineteen-year academic career: sixth-grade religion class at Reverend Brown Catholic Elementary School in Sparta, New Jersey.
5. By the time that I moved out from my parents’ to attend college in 1986, we had moved eleven times (St. Louis, MO; Park Forest, IL; Trumbull, CT; Shelton, CT; Southbury, CT; Budd Lake, NJ; Forest Lake, NJ; Andover, NJ; Anderson, SC (3 times)). And my father is a chemist, not in the military 🙂
6. I have a Masters of Engineering degree in Chemical Engineer from Virginia Tech (and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University). I went to Virginia Tech to get a Ph.D. originally, then scaled that back to a Masters of Science, and almost left three and a half years in without a degree when my funding ran out and my advisor wanted to drop me from the program. The department secretary of all people pointed me to the non-thesis Masters of Engineering degree, which I received one semester later after completing a short report for a different advisor. And yes, I am completely burned out on graduate school and have very little good to say about it. The sad thing is that I realized after a few years in industry that a Masters is a Masters, and no one cares that my degree is a non-thesis one.
7. I didn’t start out to be a chemical engineer. When I started my undergraduate studies at Tulane University (I later had to transfer to Clemson because my financial aid ran out), I wanted to study mechanical engineering. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my brain around statics and dynamics and had to drop the course. This led me to take a semester off and work in a chemical laboratory for about eight months before transferring to Clemson. That experience taught me the virtue of finishing college, and that I wanted to stay in the chemical industry.
8. I was a disc jockey at WTUL-FM in New Orleans for a year and a half, and at WSBF-FM in Clemson, SC for three years. I was also Jazz Director at WSBF (and in retrospect my taste in jazz was execrable), although my first love was my job as co-host of “Banjos and Bagpipes,” a weekly three-hour program of Celtic, folk, and bluegrass music. Through that program, I got to meet and interview great folks like Mike Cross, Christene Lavin, Micheal O’Domhnaill and Triona ni Domhnaill of Nightnoise (Micheal and I agreed that there was no decent beer to be had in the United States), Fiona Ritchie of NPR’ The Thistle and Shamrock (a lovely woman!) and was invited to join Grier Coppins and Patrick O’Gorman of Rare Air for a few tokes of a joint (I declined).
9. I have never tried any drugs, not marijuana, not pills, not anything. I’m too much of a control freak to want to lose control with those.
10. On Monday, April 22, 2002 I will celebrate the eight anniversary of my coming out (wow, I need to update that page. But all of it still holds true). This one event in my entire life changed who I am and what I am today very much for the better. I am forever grateful to those who gave me their support and friendship during those first few rocky years (and yes, that most definitely includes you, Jen) (and of course, my parents :-).
Well, there you have it!
A long boring reply….
I learned today that you and I have a couple things in common! (Some stuff I knew already…)
1-I’m gay, and I didn’t admit that until I was an adult.
2-I went through the 80’s about the same time you did (I’m 33, and I graduated in 1986…I’m guessing that you graduated in 1985?).
3-I love Celtic music! I especially love Clanned, Loreena McKennitt, and Dervish.
4-I went to a parochial grade school as well (I went to a scary Lutheran school…I still have nightmares!)
5-I got into all the Christian rock bands for a while too there…actually I still like some…but like you, I had a bad experience at a Petra concert in 1983. People around me were swooning like they were in some kind of funky trance…It reminded me of the WWII films of Hitler speaking in front of all the SS troops! Scary, even for a Christian like me. Hey…do you remember Stryper? *giggles hysterically*
6-I had a discipline problem in middle school and in the first couple years of h.s. I was suspended in 7th grade for fighting a boy (I didn’t start it, but I wasn’t about to allow myself to get my ass kicked), and I was suspended when I was a sophomore for ripping my locker door off it’s hinges and smacking a kid with the door (ironically, I did this because he accused me of being a lesbian…he saw me hug another girl).
7-I didn’t work at a radio station, but I did work for our local PBS station as a technical director for two years. Also, I worked master control at a small low powered TV station in downtown Milwaukee for a year and a half. I did naughty things on air! We played a lot of old movies, and I liked to pod down the audio from the video, and turn on my microphone and talk over the actors and make my own dialog *giggle!* The only people who could receive our station were the college kids in the dorms at Marquette University, and some of the MSOE guys, and they got a kick out of it. I never got caught *smiles*.
I am completely opposite than you in a couple areas…I smoked a lot of pot in college…not much since college though. I failed classes in High School…mostly because I skipped a lot my sophomore year. I did great in college, but I think that’s because college challenged me, and I am always up for a challenge.
Re: A long boring reply….
2-I went through the 80’s about the same time you did (I’m 33, and I graduated in 1986…I’m guessing that you graduated in 1985?).
Nope, 1986 as well. Children of the ’80’s, we are!
3-I love Celtic music! I especially love Clanned, Loreena McKennitt, and Dervish.
Clannad is a bit too mellow for me, but there are times when Loreena McKennitt suits my mood perfectly. I saw Dervish live at the Celtic Fest in Milwaukee a few years ago and they were fabulous! My favorites have always been those who blend Celtic with other genres: the folk-rock of Fairport Convention, Spirit of the West, and Seven Nations, the Celtic jazz of Rare Air, and the trippy weirdness of Ashley MacIsaac. Mmm, good stuff.
4-I went to a parochial grade school as well (I went to a scary Lutheran school…I still have nightmares!)
I only went to Catholic school for one year – the sixth grade. I did not fit in 🙂
Scary, even for a Christian like me. Hey…do you remember Stryper? *giggles hysterically*
Just to be perfectly clear, I wasn’t trying to bash Christianity or Catholicism – it didn’t work for me but for it works for millions of others, and I wish them all well. And for Stryper…oh dear. I might even still have a cassette or two of their stuff if I dig around enough.
Re: A long boring reply….
I knew you weren’t bashing Christianity. I’m sorry if you got the impression that I thought you were. I know you well enough to know you don’t do that. *snug*
But, I have a serious hang up with the Lutheran church. I was reminded every day that I was at that fruggen school that I was going to hell because I was not Lutheran. It sucked. I was the outcast among the students, and the teachers hated me. I thought Christians were suppose to show they were Christian by their love, but all that school taught was hate. A lot of Christians are like that…but not all of us. Christ taught me how to love, not hate. *smile*
Thanks for the info about the Celtic music. I am always looking for good folk music, and jazz is cool as well.
Well….
Guess it’s kinda cheating for me to say, but I knew all that. 😉
Well… except that part about being a Choir boy…. Hmmm…. I could say a LOT about that and your being gay, but I won’t.
Kinda part of being your ex-boyfriend, I’m glad none of that was a real big surprise.
-Partran
Re: Well….
Guess it’s kinda cheating for me to say, but I knew all that. 😉
That actually makes me glad. That means we communicated enough when we were together 🙂
Well… except that part about being a Choir boy…. Hmmm…. I could say a LOT about that and your being gay, but I won’t.
Nah, I don’t think there was much of a correlation. Besides, it wasn’t so much a choir as a guy with a guitar and four or five entirely-too-earnest folk singers. Trust me, it was dreadful.
And just for the record, no, I never had any close encounters with any priests.
As a side note, I would like to note that a lot of times you hear about how guys engaged in same-sex experimentation as they were growing up, and how they “fooled around” with their buddies. All I want to say is: where the hell were these people when I was growing up, dammit?
Re: Well….
Hee. I’d be in that category of experimentation…. except a little more than that.
In hindsight… I had a LOT of same sex encounters growing up. All friends of mine. Two guys in particular. One, when I was about 13, and he was the same, entailed plenty of frottage. And later, about 16… well…. let’s just say that I didn’t realize I was gay until about 5 YEARS after my cherry was gone.
In hindsight… I wish I had waited, because I can’t stand the person who I played with then. We were just buddies then and things became strained then broken a long time ago. I may always remember my first, but I won’t like the guy.
PS> You know… being really involved IN the church might hinder the experimentation thing. Or it might not. I was a Boyscout.
Of classes and concerts…
As I remember back I too only failed one course throughout my years of education. That was the first semester of Algrebra in my freshman year of high school. Oddly enough I passed with a ‘C’ grade in my second semester. Then when I had to retake the first semester in summer school I managed to get an ‘A’ because that teacher made the subject make sense. One thing I learned is nothing is lamer when one is a young teen then spending hot, sunny summer days stuck in a school building for 4 hours.
I never went to a Christian rock content (that may suprise some, yet again it may not), but just to heavy metal or thrash rock concerts and we were all too busy pushing and knocking each other around to get into any sort of ‘groupthink’ =) Ahh those were the days…
Luv ya!
Argh, browser crashed while signing….
So, glad I could be of any assistance 8 years ago. Just like a good sports bra I am, nice and supportive. Has it really been 8 years? I really miss those lazy nights of dinner parties at your place. To continue the tripping down nostalgia lane, I ran into Scott of Technomancer fame at the event on saturday. Spent most of the day hanging out and introducing him around.
Anyway, to wrap it up. I am so glad you found a niche, a place you are comfortable in your life, and even better, someone to share it with. Love ya! Jen</a