My next home was Newport, Rhode Island. My earliest memories are of here. I began school here, attending St. Michael's Country Day School (although I don't remember it being a "Country Day School" when I was there, it's definitely called that now). I also started taking acting classes here, and was in a couple of shows in a community theatre- a production of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper (I played a page to the Prince) and the original play The Rhode Island Red (I played a cow). I also began swimming on a team at the Navy Base here, although I wouldn't keep up with that nearly as much. Also of note is that I got my first job in Newport- my mother worked in a Burger King for a short time to raise some money for a family trip, and I was hired by the manager to wash his car every other week.

Next we moved to Dorseyville, Pennsylvania. My father was stationed at the Naval Reserve Cetner in Pittsburgh, but we got stationed out in the boonies so the military could make use of housing built for a Nike missile silo. Here I continued school, attending the fourth through sixth grades at Northern Area Elementary (I couldn't find a web site for that, but I'd swear it was in Fox Chapel School District). Northern Area, a public school, was a big culture shock after having gone to a private school like St Michael's. I don't think I ever really adjusted to it. Here I did continue taking drama lessons, though I wasn't in any productions.

After Pittsburgh, my father was stationed in Orlando, Florida. Ironically enough, we had been planning a vacation to Disney World, so we just turned that money into "annual passes" to the parks. We went often. Here in Orlando I made it through junior high somehow at Liberty Junior High (now apparently Liberty Middle School, though I can't find a webpage for it). I also started high school at Oak Ridge High School. I was only there for one year, but I became pretty active in their Thespian Society, which is something I kept up in later years. While I was here, I did a couple of shows.

After my freshman year of high school, we moved to Slidell, Louisiana, where I finished off high school at Slidell High School. Hijinks ensued. I did most of my theater work here, at Slidell Little Theatre and at school. I also got my first "real" job, working as a bagboy at Albertson's Supermarket. Slidell was a pretty good place to go to school, really... It had all the benefits of a small town, while being very, very close to New Orleans.

From high school I proceeded to Brandeis University. For some reason (I'm still not entirely sure why), life as a student at Brandeis never clicked for me. I was there for all of a year before being "asked" to take a year off to consider my options. I knew that I wanted to go back to school, so I worked towards that end.

By now, my father had been transferred to Schenectady, New York, which is outside of Albany. I went to live with him there, and found a job working on the night shift at Grand Union Supermarket, stocking shelves overnight. If there's one thing that taught me, it's that I didn't want to be a sad old man stocking shelves in the middle of the night. So, when the summer ended, I left that job behind and found work at Newest Lunch, a luncheonette famous for its hot dogs, while attending Union College. Union didn't offer night courses for undergraduates, so I took continuing education classes. I audited them (now I wish I could change that decision) and got both glowing recommendations from the professors and Continuing Studies administration and high marks, which bought my way back in to Brandeis.

I did well during my first year back at Brandeis, but slipped during my third semester there, and was immediately asked to leave once again. This time, I wasn't so sure that when I returned to university I wanted to return to Brandeis. I did want to stay in Waltham, Massachusetts, however, because my friends were living there. I stuck around for that semester, and was going to stay indefinitely, but my folks convinced me to come to San Francisco for the summer.

That summer I took summer classes at U.C. Berkeley. I lived in a student co-op in Berkeley, and worked on the crew of a couple of shows. Once again, I got high marks. This time, though, I didn't bother re-applying to Brandeis.

I did return to Waltham, however. I stayed with some friends until I got a job. It took a while, but eventually one prospect a friend told me about panned out. I began working as a Customer Service Representative at The Internet Access Company.

That was a mixed blessing. While working at TIAC allowed me to avoid waiting tables or working retail, and certainly allowed me to learn quite a bit about computers and networking, it also allowed me to learn quite a bit about terrible employers. Employees at TIAC were routinely shafted and unrecognised. Promised raises only appeared after being pushed for by employees- and sometimes never appeared, Human Resources policies were conveniently "under review" when vacations were requested, and the place was generally mismanaged. Eventually I got out of the Customer Service Department, however, and into Opertaions, where things were marginally better. While the department heads there were better bosses, their bosses were still the same, though, so things didn't improve that much. Eventually, I was given a raise above my starting salary- a whole 8%- and not long after that was laid off in a round of cutbacks (coincidentally enough, along with everyone else who was making more than a base salary).

That was pretty much the best thing that could have happened to me, though. I took a few weeks off to decompress, collecting unemployment. It was barely enough to scrape by on, but it did the job. After a short break, I contacted a technological recruiter, who did absolutely nothing for me. Fortunately, without his help I managed to secure the job I told him I most wanted- in the GTE Internetworking NOC. That's where I still work.