I was born in Pennsylvania, but don't remember it since we moved when I was three months old. The only home I remember growing up is Northern Virginia. I'm a Novian (Northern Virginia person, though I'm not complete convinced that's a real word anyone but me uses) first, a Washingtonian second and a Virginian third.
I went to a science & tech governor's school, Thomas Jefferson High for Science & Technology. It was a truly wonderful experience. I'm one of the few people in the world who liked high school.
College was a different story. I found a few scattered friends and an organization here & there to help me, but, overall, it felt like junior high again only with LOTS of alcohol. But I finished, graduating with a double major in Theatre & Astronomy.
I left my college graduation in the middle of the ceremony to drive to Texas, where I worked at an outdoor drama for the summer. That summer, I costumed & dressed more people than I ever thought I would. I also saw lots of creepy crawlies that this east coast gal was quite surprised to find wandering everywhere in Palo Duro Canyon.
I has only been west of the Mississippi River once, prior to working in Texas. So afterwords, I took a road trip. Six weeks of driving, camping by myself, staying with wonderful friends & relatives and the occasional hotel. I'm planning on getting more info on the trip up on a webpage to help anyone else who wants to try this.
Anyway, you can learn a lot about yourself when you're stuck with yourself for that long. And I came to terms with a lot of things, especially from college. (woo-hoo! go personal reflection!) I returned to Northen Virginia to take the next steps.
I temped for a great temp agency, Randstad that kept me working. I auditioned at a few conferences and ended up with an acting job at Snow Camp Outdoor Drama for the summer in NC. I had a wonderful summer and met some truly amazing people. I was very sad to see the season end.
I did a little touring children's theatre which didn't work out and headed back to NoVa to temp some more. I returned to Snow Camp the following summer, but many of the first summer folks didn't return so the second season had a different dynamic.
After that, I tried touring children's theater again, this time based out of Saginaw, MI. Unfortunately the group is now defunct. It was a lot of hard work and not always the best, but I survived and even enjoyed it overall. Michigan was another place that I had only visited once, but now I feel much more at home in. We went all over the state and some of Ohio & Indiana.
Then, it was back to NoVa. I decided to stick around the DC area for a while this time. I was ready to stop moving around so much even if staying stationary meant giving up a full-time job in the theater for now. So I temped and finally took a permenant position as an admin. I've acted with non-professional companies in the Washington area and taken a couple of classes.
And I've managed to feel established for the first time since high school. I'm at home here. I'm a mile from my parents & sister. I've got a wonderful roomate, an amazing girfriend and some truly phenomenal friends. I have plants for the first time (that I haven't killed off). And lots of theater to particpate in and go see. Eventually, I'd like to look at going to grad school for theatre & switching jobs to a non-profit organization or theater. In the meantime, I chug along, spending time with family & friends, working, playing with my kitty nieces, writing & playing music and generally existing happily.
So that is me.
