About me-mini biography

I suppose I've never properly introduced myself here, have I?

I was born in 1974 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on the Fort Carson army base where my dad was stationed as an enlisted man. After he completed his service, my parents moved back to their hometown of Quincy, IL to raise me and give me a baby sister (born 1978). We were not religious, and I'm really glad for this.

I eventually went to Quincy University, a Franciscan university where many of the instructors were friars. Their biology program was pretty good, and I became an avid birdwatcher as a result of my ornithology class. For most of the time I was there, I dated someone who was wonderful, but ultimately incompatible.

After I ran out of scholarship money to attend school, I floated for a while in jobs until I met my first spouse and moved to Schenectady, NY to live with him in 1998. We did great at first, but things eventually fell apart.

I was going to school for fisheries and aquaculture, making the Dean's List, when I met Brian. I have been glued to him pretty much ever since. A few months after we met, I needed surgery for PCOS--I had a number of large cysts removed, and Brian took good care of me while I recovered. After that surgery, my body started to really go haywire, and I developed fibromyalgia.

At that point, I had been fat and fit for over five years. I could no longer do things that were perfectly easy before the surgery. Every dream I'd had of becoming a field biologist was gone, because I could no longer do the physical labor associated with the work.

So here I am, a brain full of knowledge and a wrecked body full of pain, wondering what's next.