This here to the left is me! (singing) I am a 24 year old living in Houston, Texas, USA. I work for a nationwide computer training company specializing in both technical and end user instruction in the Greenway Plaza part of town. I work in the sales and marketing area. I am attending college working towards a Psychology degree, though I still have quite a long way and a lot of hard work to go before achieving this goal.
For fun, I play indoor soccer on a co-ed team in Southwest Houston. I play the position of full back and have gotten surprisingly good at it! I got into soccer about 2 years ago due to peer pressure and after throwing a fit saying that I did not want to play because I did not know how... I soon got over that and I fell in love with the sport!
I also work at a local Club helping run a Karaoke show on Saturday nights. I do get up on the stage and sing as often as I can. I guess you could say that I am a ham, but I have always been into drama and singing... I have actually goten a lot better over the last year. When I first started singing all I would sing was a song called "Me" by Paula Cole. I am currently working on 2 new songs..."I Don't Want to Wait" by Paula Cole and "Down on my Knees" by Trisha Yearwood. (It should prove to be interesting!) I go with my friends to other Karaoke places, and we pretty much travel all over town entering contests, and just doing it for fun. I have actually made a lot of new friends while doing Karaoke... some people might think it is stupid, but it is kind of like bowling, you do better after a 6pack!... But seriously, you might say it is stupid but you really have a good time after you go.
I also spend a great deal of time volunteering at the Children's Museum here in Houston, and I learn new things from the children every time I work with them. I am in charge of the art area called "Expressions", where the children are encouraged to paint pictures that they can take home with them as souvenirs of their trip to the museum. I have never left the museum without having at least 90% of my body covered in tempra paint, mostly in the shape of 5 year old's hands! I teach the children about primary colors and how you mix them to get secondary colors. I usually only have one or two of them a week that try to eat the paint, most of them just prefer to wear it. I also work in the Science area where I teach the kids about gravity using golf balls in a multitude of experiments and demonstrations. I also teach them about the Laws of Physics, such as Centripital force using nothing more that a bucket of water and my arm. I actually had a child go home and "demonstrate" this experiment for his father using a beach pail and muddy ditch water in the middle of the living room on the new beige carpet. The mother told me that they couldn't punnish him because he kept saying..."I don't know what I did mommie... my sin-twip-ick-awl fohwse wasn't wukin!" -Hey the kid learned something!
Last year I was the Chairperson of the International Festival for the Children's Museum that is held annually in the Buffalo Bayou Park in April. It was a lot of fun and very challenging but it was a lot of work. Though I enjoyed the challenge, I was extremely glad to pass that responsibility on to someone else for this year. (Sucker!)

I am very close to my family, and right now I am most proud of my little brother who is 16 years old and will be graduating from highschool (1 year early) AND college this year. Yes, I did say college!!! He will have an Associates degree from the local community college before he graduates highschool! He plans to attend the Air Force Academy in fall of 2001 to study Aerospace enginering. He decided when he was 2 years old that he was going to be an astronaut, and he has done everything possible to ensure that he will achieve his goal... now you see why I am so proud! Oh yeah... He just might be the Valedictorian of his Highschool class and he IS graduating with honors from college!! (We think he was switched at birth...) He will be getting his Eagle Scout in October, and for those of you that know nothing about Boy Scouts, this is the highest rank that you can achieve, and it is not easy!

Ever heard of Ani DiFranco? If not, you should give her a try. She is originally from Buffalo, NY, and put together her own recording label called "Righteous Babe Records". Her music is extremely expressive and vividly discriptive. She is often described as being an "angry" woman, but I do not believe that this is true. She has the ability to express herself through music, and she expresses all emotions, not just anger. I have heard people compare Ani to vocalists such as Alanis Morisette, and this is such a distorted and unvalid comparison. Alanis was at one time a teeny-bopper pop star comparable to the likes of Tiffany and Debbie Gibson! Ani has always been authentic. She has lived her songs, they are an outlet, an expression of her own life, not just words that she is singing that were written by some chick from Baltimore or Cleveland that she has never met. She actually lived these stories! The subject matter of her songs ranges from pointing out the sad but true political perversions in our government to ("The Lost Woman Song" on the CD "Like I Said") a very descriptive story of a young woman making the choice to have an abortion and then facing the persicution of the Pro-Lifers, to ("Fuel" on the CD "Dilate") the mental "excavation" of the underlying "surfaces" of a New York City street. Ani takes issues that are real, (and not to pretty) that affect us all and puts them into her own well woven words. With sometimes a funky "Ska style" back beat, a soothing lullaby like melody, a violent screaming rage or a big band acompanyment, Ani finds just the right style of musical and vocal presentation to get her message across... I am including a link to just one of the many awesome Ani pages that are out there floating around, just incase I might have peaked your interest. If you are interested in checking out some of her lyrics, use the link at the bottom of the page!

To call someone a friend to me is like calling them a sister/brother, and I love my friends as such. You can tell a lot about a person by who they call a friend. As friends go, I have the best...

TINA-
My best friend...I met her in 7th grade while cheating off her history tests. She tought me a lot about
what true friends are/should be. We helped each other through the
"tough High School years", through the break-ups that we never thought we would get over, through the problems with parents not understanding, step-parents, and through anything else you can imagine. At graduation, we ran away from the rest of the crowd and did our own little celebration dance all by ourselves...(we were idiots, and you had to be there!) She has been by myside through every triumph/failure in my life for the past 13 years, and has supported me every step of the way...no matter how stupid I was at the time! I wish/hope everyone finds someone like her...oh and by the way, she IS single now and moving back into the area!(there will soon be a picture of us together on here) She got a job transfer/promotion, and I am extremely happy for her because she now has cash and only has to work one job, and for me because I am getting my best friend back!

LISA-
We met 2 1/2 yrs ago. The first day I met her she squirted Pine-Sol in her eye while mopping her floor and I was afraid I was going to have to rush her to the Emergency room! Well, She is not blind (thank God!) When around her, I turn into a stand-up comedian. She makes me feel good about myself, and I love her for it! She even does the fonky donky dance with me in the car!!! The other drivers might stare but we do not care!

Cindy-
I have know Cindy for about 2 years now. We met when I was a staffing agent for a local temp agency and she was a temp. We immediately became the best of friends. She is the type of person that can have fun anywhere... We could have fun sitting in the city dump! She just had a quality that very few people have, anything is fun as long as Cindy is there! She has recently moved to Phoenix, AZ and I am PISSED! I am taking donations to bring her back home though, so if you feel sympathy for this poor girl who really misses her friend... Please mail check or money order payable to me to the "Bring Cindy's Hoochie Mama Butt Home Fund"!

Jaime-
I met Jaime about 10 years ago through a mutual friend, and we immediately hit it off. (This to the left is a picture of the two of us on New Year's eve) She is probably one of the people that most impressed me. She has gone through a lot in her life, and has always come out of everything with her head held even higher that it was when she went in.
We now work for the same company and are surprisingly not sick of seing each other yet. (Thanks for helping me get on Jaime!)
She has a beautiful little red headded son who is 1 1/2 years old and a husband who is really great to them both. If you were to ever want to get the "real dirt" on me Jaime would be the one to ask... She is the "ALMIGHTY GOSSIP QUEEN!!!"

Jason
Well, to begin... I have known Jason for a year and a half. Jason is a real cutie and he knows it. His face could fit on the cover of any issue of GQ Magazine. He is probably the only person that I know who is a bigger ham than I am. He has a great voice and I love it when he sings Harry Connic Jr. songs, but what I love even more than that is his rendition of the song "Cuban Pete" Jim Carrey style! (the song from The Mask) He is one of the best cooks I know and I really miss his cooking! And the Tapioca pudding!!!! He has since moved to Arkansas for a job. (thanks to that damn oil price drop last year!)Hey if I raise enough money trying to bring Cindy home we can work on getting Jason home too!!!

Julia "Lia"
This woman has a bigger personality than me! She is a very outspoken and classy lady that I am proud to call my friend...Lord knows I'd not like to be on her bad side! She is very quick with words and is totally hillarious! She is going to have to pay for the plastic surgery I will soon need if she does not stop making me laugh all of the time! (smile lines!!!) She lives in Tulsa, OK but I do still get to see her because unlike Cindy the Hootch, she comes to see me! Julia can bring out the best in my personality... she is a very honest person, and I thrive off of her energy. I feel very lucky to be able to call her my friend. (Hey does anyone want to pay my phone bill????)