As you already know I was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore is where most of my family is at. My family in Baltimore includes my Father and Stepmother, my three younger step brothers (one’s adopted), and two younger step sisters (one of whom is also adopted). My grandmother, aunt and uncles also live in Baltimore.
My mother is also in Baltimore. She's always learning and doing new things. You go Mom!
I am now living in Oakville , Ontario in Canada. I moved up here from the U.S. in July of 1989 to be with my fiance. Living in Canada has not been much different from living in the States just more 'eh's at the end of sentences and colored money. *Laugh* Seriously though the only differences are little ones. I am enjoying myself here and very much enjoying being with my love and wife, Tricia.
I lived in Rochester, New York for 11 years. I originally moved there in 1988 with my mom so that she could attend divinity school here. We stayed in Rochester for five years while she earned her degree. After five years we moved back to Baltimore for a year then moved back to Rochester.
My College GraduationMay 10th 1997 I graduated from St. John Fisher College. The weather was kind of cold and wet. We, the graduates, had to proceed into the student life center from outside. There were 500 people graduating including master degree graduates. It was a long ceremony.
My grandparents came up from Baltimore to see my graduation and so did my aunt. Afterwards I had a party with some friends and family at one of my friend's house. It was very nice.
The first reason is that I moved around a bit while in Baltimore. For pre-kindergarten and kindergarten I lived in the city with my mom. For first and second grade I lived in Baltimore County on Featherbed Lane. After that we moved back in with my grandmother in the city. I attended two schools in the third grade because I attended a private christian school for the first half of third grade. It wasn't very good. It had just started up and it showed. For the second half of third grade I attended Ashburton Public school in the city. Surprisingly the kids in the christian school were worse behaved than those in the public school.
Another reason is that the school's only went up to a certain grade. You have to switch schools when they only go up to 6th or 8th grade. And again to go to High School.
You never know when or where you'll meet that special someone. I met the love of my life online. I don't remember the exact date when I first met Trish but it wasn't exactly love at first sight.
I do remember us hitting it off real well when we first met. And yes there was attraction but I wasn't looking for a cyber-relationship at the time. Though I was and still am always ready to make a new friend. And that is what Trish and I were. Just friends.
Well when did the line between friendship and something more than friendship get crossed? Officially it was March 1, 1998. The actual time? Well can anyone truly say the exact time they fell in love with someone? Especially the love that would be the one you would love for the rest of your life?
We met in real life for the first time on March 5th in Ontario, Canada in a city just outside of Toronto. We have met many times since then and plan on meeting many, many more. She is my best friend, my closest confidant, my right hand and sometimes even my left. All that I could dream or ever ask of. My dream come true.
Life online has been quite an experience for me. I've been online for quite a number of years. The first time I ever got on the 'net was in 1992. That was before the advent of the world wide web. It was my first year in college and everything was in text and newsgroups and e-mail were my big thing then. I was very involved during that first year and then was off and on after then for a while.
I became very involved in the 'net and the world wide web again in 1997. That was when I did my first web page. Alot of what was on that page is still on my pages now. I didn't get into chatting when I first came onto the web.
I did eventually get around to chatting, through an e-mail I got inviting me to join a small group of chatters in a place called 'The Den'. The person had seen my page and had e-mailed me to compliment me on the good work that I'd done.
I've also worked online. As a content editor for the WOKR Channel 13 web page, later called RochesterToday, I got to do actual 'work' over the web. I broadcast local Rochester news to literally thousands of people everyday. Most of the work was retyping the broadcast and picking photos from the footage shot by the reporters but it was still online work.
This was somewhat humbling for my writing ego. I am not, nor have ever claimed to be, a journalist or even a non-fiction writer. And my editing skills are not spectacular, I'm sure you can see that on this page if you look *S*, but I was still good enough for thousands of people to see almost daily.
This is the joy and danger of being online. You can be seen easily and quickly by many, many more people than in any other medium. You may get lost in all the clutter, but there is sill that possibility that your words, pictures, ideas, etc. may get across to alot of individuals and those words, pictures, ideas, etc. may have a much bigger impact than you realize.
My first Valentine's Day with Tricia was actually pretty tame. However the Valentine's weekend was wonderful and loving. Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday in '99. So we decided, okay I decided, to do something for each day of the weekend of Valentine's. They would each be small things but loving and nice things.
That Friday we went out to dinner at the Golden Griddle. Okay, okay, not the most romantic of places or the nicest and the reason for chosing it wasn't the most romantic (we had a coupon for a buy 1 get 1 free dinner that expired Fri.) but it turned out nicely and was a good choice. We had a nice dinner and afterwards I stopped and got her half a dozen red roses (the first romantic Valentine day gift planned for the weekend) which she loved. Then we spent the evening cuddling in front of the tv.
Saturday was a laid back day, with a romantic start. I made her breakfast, it was going to be breakfast in bed but she wanted to get up. And we spent the rest of the day doing nothing. That evening I got my Valentine's Day gift. A video game and some candy. Does this woman know the way into my heart or what?
Sunday, the actual Valentine's Day according to the calendar, was a very lazy Sunday afternoon. I went to church and came home to get something to eat. By now I had told her I was going to get her something later that day. After lounging for a bit I got off my duff and went to get Trish her last Valentine's day gift. I was going to get her a lottery ticket with the numbers being the date of our anniversary (03-01-98), our wedding date (05-01-99) and our first Valentine's day (02-14-99) and a little note that would have said
Here's a winning lottery ticket for you because I won the jackpot when I won your heart,
however I wasn't thinking, and not being a lottery player I did not realize that there was no lottery sold on Sunday at least that I found, though going out after 4 may have had something to do with it. I did, however, get the second thing I was looking for which was Titanic on video. I had been promising her the movie for months and finally got it. It was the first movie we ever saw together. And I got her some candy. And that was how we spent our first Valentine's Day together. *VBS* (Very Big Smile)
Check out my city links to visit pages about the cities that I've lived in
Check out places where I've gone to school.
Check out places where I've worked.
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