If you have gotten this far, you probably already know something about me, but this bio actually has a lot in it that some of my closest friends don't know, so I encourage you to read if you are interested.

(some of the pictures are links to larger images, so click if you would like to see their actual size)

I was born in December of 1981, in the driveway of the apartment building my family lived in until we moved to Scarbrough, Maine. I was a chubby baby, and as a result of my sister being mistaken as a boy until well after I was born, my mother made sure I wore pink every day for probably the first two years of my life.
When I was still too young to remember my family moved to a duplex near Higgans Beach. I was a tomboy. I spent most of my days playing with the neighborhood boys, especially the two who lived on each side of my family, Ryan Christopher and Christopher Ryan. We played every day and often bathed together. Mom got over the pink thing, once I had hair long enough to assure I would not be mistaken for a boy.

When I was five, my parents divorced and my mother sister and I moved into the house my mother had grown up in, with my Grandparents and uncle. It got very crowded at times in this one floor, one bathroom two bedroom house. My mother sister and i shared one room, my grandfather and uncle shared the other, and my grandmother slept on the couch in the living room. But it never seemed too cramped at the time. I think I am very lucky to have had the chance to spend so much time with my family at this age.
I never liked school, and would ask every morning if I had to go. My mother always said that yes I did. So I did. I loved gym class, music class and art class and hated most of the rest. I did not fit in and was made fun of every day. I tried very hard to fit in but was never very successful.

In fifth grade my grandmother passed away. I remember saying See you tomorrow Grammy, as I walked out the door to spend the night at a friends house. While I was gone she was rushed to the hospital where she died a few days later. The hospital wouldnt let my visit her because I was too little to be in the ICU. I felt horrible for not keeping my promise to see her tomorrow.
Grammy and I fought all the time, and to this day I still have a lot of guilt about how much of a jerk I was to her, but she really was probably my best friend before she passed away. I remember sleeping on the love seat in the living room while she slept on the couch, so that she could wake me up at what seemed like 2 in the morning but was probably 11pm or so, to watch American Gladiators. I always told her that I was going to be on that show some day. But they canceled it before I got my chance.
By the time I was in 8th grade, my Grandfather and uncle had both gotten married and moved out, leaving only my mother, sister and I here at the house. My mother took my grandmothers place on the couch and my sister and I each got to have our own rooms for the first time in our lives. My mother got her own room for the first time in her life four years later when Katie went off to college.

Once I got to High School, I started to like school a little more. I was able to choose some of my own classes, and it didnt matter so much if you didnt fit in. I had a best friend for the first time since elementary school. Things were looking up. After my Sophomore year, I realized that I didnt need to try to be someone I wasnt to please people, and I started being myself.

My junior year was a time of huge self-discovery for me and incidentally not a great year academically. I learned a lot about who I was and who I wasnt. I made new friends, which is something my best friend couldnt handle. She stopped talking to me, for almost an entire year, which in retrospect was a good thing for me because it gave me a chance to learn some important things about myself. I became a lot more confident in myself and a lot less dependant upon other peoples approval.

In June of 2000 I graduated, one of five girls in my class to graduate in a purple gown, a color reserved for the boys. Instead of going off to school like most of my friends, I decided that taking some time off would be a good thing for me. After working my regular summer job as a camp counselor, I went to England Scotland and Ireland for three weeks with my godmother. When I came back I spent the year as a teacher in a before and after school program for children ages 5-11. While I loved that job very much, it was a difficult place for me to work, which had a lot to do with difficult things happening in my personal life. I decided to leave there when my contract was finished.

Take me home