I am the youngest of six children, of English or Irish ancestry. My father served in the U.S. Army during the late 1940's in post-World War II Germany and, after completing his military service, returned home to the state of New Jersey, found work in a factory, and married. He had four sons by his first wife, but she died prematurely a few years later in 1962. He remarried the following year and my sister was born in January 1964. I was born 18 months after my sister, on Easter Sunday, 1965. Our youngest half-brother, Johnny, died of leukemia at a very young age.




Childhood

My father moved the family to the island territory of Puerto Rico, in 1968. I attended kindergarten and elementary school, and excelled academically. We returned to the mainland in 1974 and stayed briefly in Elmira, New York, before settling in Streator, Illinois. My brother, Joey, graduated from high school and enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.


In 1978, my father was promoted to factory manager and moved the family to Tampa, Florida. I started scuba diving at age 14 and received my certification in 1980. When I turned 16, my father got me a job at Busch Gardens, and I began taking annual ski trips with my coworkers to Sugar Mountain in North Carolina and Snowshoe, West Virginia.

I graduated from high school in 1983 and was accepted at the University of South Florida, where I began attending classes in the fall. My sister, Robin, married in 1986 and moved to Atlanta, Georgia with her husband. A few years later, my parents moved to California as my father continued his career in factory management. I stayed behind to finish my education in Tampa.



Adulthood

I graduated from the University of South Florida in 1988 and accepted a full-time job with the accounting department at Busch Gardens, but resigned a few years later to travel west. After a brief stay in California, I returned home to Florida and found temporary work, first in Tampa, and then in Crystal River. Eventually, I found new work as an Accounting Technician for the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Miami. After a few years there, I transferred to Los Angeles, California in 1997 and took an apartment in Venice Beach. I resigned from federal service that same year and returned to Florida once again.


In 1998, I found temporary work with the U.S. Forest Service and stayed at a Ranger Station in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. By season's end, I had accepted a permanent position with the Social Security Administration in Miami and returned there to work as a hearings office clerk.


In 2003, I transferred to San Jose, California, which is where I currently live and work. I was recently promoted to the position of Systems Administrator. My hobbies include surfing, oil painting, and taking vacations to the Hawai'ian islands. My sister, Robin, remarried and has a son, Logan, with her husband, Jeff. They live in Homossassa, Florida. My brother Joey lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and has a son named Jason.



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