  I was born on Easter Sunday 1965 in Bridgeton, New Jersey, the
youngest of six children. My ancestry is English and Irish. In 1948 my father enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in post-World War II Germany. After completing his military service, he returned home to New Jersey and found work in a
factory. In the early 1950's he married and had four sons by his first wife, who died in 1962. He remarried the following year and 11 months later, my sister was born. I was born 15 months after her. Our youngest half-brother, Johnny, died of leukemia at a very early age.
Childhood
 In 1968, my father
moved the family to the island territory of Puerto Rico. I attended
kindergarten and elementary school, where I excelled academically. In 1974,
we moved back to the mainland and lived for a short time in Elmira, New York, before moving to Streator, Illinois. My older half-brother, Joey, graduated from Streator
High School and enlisted in the army to serve as a paratrooper in Fort
Bragg, North Carolina.
 In 1978, my father was
promoted to factory manager and moved the family to Tampa, Florida. I began
scuba diving at age 14 and received my certification in 1980. At age 16, I
began working at the Busch Gardens amusement park and taking ski trips with
coworkers to North Carolina and West Virginia. In 1983, I graduated high
school and was accepted to the University of South Florida, where I began
attending classes in the fall. My sister married in 1986 and moved with her
husband to Atlanta, Georgia. My parents later moved to California as my
father continued his career in factory management. I stayed behind in Tampa to
complete my education while working part-time for Busch Gardens.
Adulthood
In 1988,
I graduated from the University of South Florida and accepted a full-time
position in the accounting department at Busch Gardens. I resigned two years later to travel west. After
a brief stay in California, I returned home to Florida and found temporary
work, first in Tampa, and then in Crystal River. In 1993, I accepted a job as an Accounting Technician for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and moved to Miami. Three and a half years later I transferred to California and worked in Los Angeles while living in Venice Beach. I resigned in 1997 and returned to Florida.
 In 1998, I
found temporary work with the U.S. Forest
Service in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. By season's end, I accepted a permanent position with the
Social Security Administration in Florida and returned to Miami to work as a hearings
office clerk. Four years later I transferred to San Jose, California,
which is where I currently live and work, processing disability claims in an
administrative office.
My hobbies include learning to surf,
oil painting, and taking vacations to the Hawai'ian islands. My sister,
Robin, has remarried and has a son, Logan, with her husband, Jeff.
They live in Homossassa, Florida. My brother Joey lives in Jacksonville, Florida and has a
son named Jason.
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