Man, this is harder than I thought it'd be. What do I say about Me? Born and raised in Pasadena, California. I loved the house I was raised in and even now am drawn to Bungalow style houses. I'm an only child but had a revolving door of close friends whom I considered like siblings while growing up. I moved away from LA in 1997 to get out of the rat race, to avoid dealing w/ my relationship I was in at the time (it was heading toward marriage and I was scared to death), and to try to reconnect w/ my Dad who'd moved to Houston in 1990. I went to the Houston Zoo by myself within a week of moving there and felt this Spark. That Zoo was Nothing like the LA Zoo I grew up going to. No green Polar Bears. My 4 1/2 years at the Houston Zoo began with volunteering in the Carnivore section - working w/ big cats and bears. Got hired into the Children's Zoo working w/ over 550 different animals - from bats to cats, goats, snakes, lizards, alligators, and various insects. It was really rewarding work but the supervisors were pretty horrible and I found myself pigeon holed in the Children's Zoo w/ no way to move to other areas. Also I had somehow hooked up w/ a guy that turned out to be a complete Freak. He began stalking me and I was convinced he was going to kill me. Having grown up where and how I did I was familiar w/ violence and fear - but my fear of this guy transended everything I had ever known. I will never forget the smell of fear coming off of me on one of the occasions he showed up at my house banging on the doors and windows - trying to get in. Big sigh... That was some scary shit. Anyhow. That was the major reason I left Houston for a lower paying job at a smaller Zoo in Tyler, Texas. I went from a big city with very little culture and almost no roots, to an East Texas small town where everyone knew one another, the men all talked like Larry the Cable Guy (Git Er Dun), and if you didn't know about horses you were left out of 95% of the conversations. I moved there thinking it would be fabulous to live on some Land out in the boonies, to find me a nice small town man who'd worship me simply because I was a woman (isn't that how Southern boys were supposed to be?), and that I'd finally settle down somewhere. I lived on a really beautiful plot of land (5 acres) only about 10 minutes away from the Zoo when my Mom and I first moved there. My Mom and I are really close so having her move to Texas from California in 2000, then from Houston to Tyler in 2002 didn't seem odd to me. The house we moved into ended up being haunted - really truly haunted. We only stayed there 6 months and just chose not to deal with the tons of issues that house had in addition to the haunting thing... I moved to a trailer on my own, yes a trailer, and had to do a lot of soul searching to have my ego accept this turn of events. At one point I lived literally in the middle of a cow pasture. I had no phone, no cable tv, no air conditioning, and only portable heaters during the winter. I'd wake up to a house that was 35 degrees. I'd go to work to warm up! That's pretty sad. Oh and did I mention that little place was an 8x28 1980's trailer, too? I was 30 minutes away from work and thought I was finally doing what I had always wanted to do. Be on my own, in my own space, on some really gorgeous land away from the city. It was a lot rougher than I thought'd it be and it opened my eyes about a lot of myself I had been holding onto in niave romantisim. Two of my three cats were killed by the neighbor dog and my dog, Ripley, was bit by a Copperhead snake while living there. Things I didn't forsee for myself when I decided to move out to the country...At the Zoo, things were really hard emotionally. I loved the animals I worked with. African Elephants, Black Rhinos, Giraffe, and Cheetahs... I will hold onto those feelings and memories for the rest of my life. But the people I worked with were some of the most mean hearted people I have ever met. Ever. I left that Zoo and moved away from Texas all together in June 2005. I was soooo ready to leave that state. Texas was a rough patch in my life and it taught me a tremendous amount about myself and who I chose to have in my life now. Oh yeah, while living in Houston I met a guy and got married in 1999. Really got married for all the wrong reasons and though I knew that then I chose to go ahead w/ it because I felt trapped by the commitment I had made by saying yes to begin w/... We spent really only about 3 years together as a married couple. The rest of the time we were apart. We finally got divorced in May 2005. That was a learning experience that's for sure. Never again...
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Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!
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Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!
Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!
Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!
Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!
Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!
Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!
Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!
