Shhh, It's a secret!

Summary

I did a writing exercise suggested to me by a friend who has been sort of a mentor to me. It is a short narrative describing myself in a page or two. I thought it would be cool if I took that and modified it to appear here. I am going to put it in the “About Me” spot on the right hand side of this page…

I’m a guy with a very varied background. I grew up the third of four children in a pretty normal lower middle class family in New Jersey. I actually consider myself a New York City boy since we lived (and I still live) so close to it that we might as well have been living in the city.

I went to a Catholic grammar school and a public high school (in the top 10% of class no less). Oh the stories I can tell about the nuttiness and tyranny of having nuns from the Felician order teaching us! After that, public high school was a radical change from the ways of a Catholic grammar school for me. It definitely was culture shock.

In high school, I was in the college prep curriculum but I always regretted not taking any shop classes. I could have used some construction and auto repair skills at many times in my life.

There were a number of teachers in high school that helped shape the person I have become. The first one I always think of is Mr. Prezioso, my US History 1 & 2 teacher. I learned a ton about history but he also showed that learning could be fun. He was also one of the first teachers I had that showed respect of our individuality and maturity. Also, he instilled a great thirst and respect for history in me. Another teacher was Mr. Ryan. He was our advisor for our senior year book. He was kind of a hippie but very cool. He showed me individuality and encouraged me to question things. I wish that I could remember to question things more often like he encouraged.

One other thing that I picked up in high school is my fondness for computers. I took the first computer programming class ever offered in my high school (I programmed a slot machine on Radio Shack TRS-80). Since then, computers have been a backbone to my life. A lot of the things in my life are connected with my aptitude for or interest in computers.

After high school, I was supposed to attend Rutgers University. But since neither I nor my family could afford to pay for it and I did not want a student loan, I decided to join the US Air Force and get my college education that way.

I left home for basic training in February 1981, starting more than nine years of interesting experiences, travel, drunkenness and sexual awakening.

When you enlist in the US military, you are given a battery of aptitude and intelligence tests. These tests help determine what kind of jobs you would be best suited for. What came up for me was Law Enforcement, Intelligence and I few others that I can’t recall. I ended up in intelligence. They did not call it that at the time. For security reasons, they called it Radio Communications Analysis. After a six week basic training I was assigned to a technical school at San Angelo, Texas to learn to be an intelligence reporter and analyst. Three months later, I left for my first assignment, Kadena Airbase, Okinawa Japan. I think that was about the farthest I could go away from home (it was also my last choice of places I wanted to be assigned). It took about 26 hours to travel there. Throughout my career, I was also stationed in Maryland, the U.K. and Texas.

As I mentioned earlier, I had some very interesting experiences while in the Air Force which I often recount on this blog.

I got out of the Air Force in 1990 and started my civilian life as a lowly clerk in a catalog customer service group for a company I won’t mention. I moved up pretty fast there and in about 6 months, I was a database analyst for the marketing and purchasing groups. That eventually led to a marketing analyst job in a large catalog company just as the web was exploding on the world. While in that position, I began to build and market web sites for them (around 1996) and that has been most of my professional life since then (even though I have moved through two other companies since).

I met the love of my life in 1990 (she happened to be the sister of a friend of mine) although we did not date until 1993. We married in 1994 and our son was born in 1997. After my aunt passed away in 1999, we bought her old two family home and have been struggling to make ends meet ever since. (Oh the trials and tribulations of an owner of an old beat up house that needs attention!)

I took up writing a blog about 2 years ago as a lark to put some things out there that I might want to share with my son someday. Mainly, I wanted to have it there if I happened to pass away before he was old enough for me to tell him these things. It has not worked that way since I found blogging to be a better outlet for whatever thoughts are on my mind. The thoughts I have written about were generally related to sex and how I was getting or not getting it from my wife. My posts have also been about memories or experiences from my past. I still may go back to writing things that I want to share with my son but as my blogging has evolved this is not the place for that right now.

If you care to read my ramblings, you’ll find my thoughts, stories and anecdotes on everything from married life, to aging, child rearing, money and politics (not too often). I do write a lot about what I want or do in my sex life. To me, sex is an important part of my life and I think about it a lot. I do write about other things, really, I do.

posted by section306g @ 7:23 PM