Week 1: Introduction... Can, Open, Worms, Everywhere...

Friends Logo. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

(used this because I couldn't use the "Can, open, worms, everywhere" meme

from that episode, and yes, it is one of my most favorite shows and yes, I quote from it often)

Well, this is a loaded question for me. I am 37 so I have done a lot of living and it is all pretty crazy, not Maury crazy, but maybe Springer crazy. I usually tend to way over share when asked this question because to me, my life story is the only thing that is remotely interesting about me. Nothing life inspiring, but it's definitely crazy. So, you asked for it...

I was born in Macon, Georgia. Raised by a single mom. No southern belle here, more like Ouiser from Steel Magnolias. Fast forward to 1994, 16 year's old, mother remarried and drug me KICKING AND SCREAMING to Oklahoma. Thrown into a Creek traditional culture family. Learned how to stomp dance and still go to this day. Was pretty smart, valedictorian, but it was in Dustin, OK and I only graduated with 3 other people, so not so impressive after all, LOL. Went to college, met my first husband and we married at 18. Divorced by 19, married again by 21, pregnant at 22. I had my baby girl in July of 2000. She was 9lbs 14.8oz and I wear that number like a badge on my sleeve. Ask your mothers kiddies...and I had no pain medication or epidurals. Yes, I was stupid...girls, trust me, take the drugs! Fast forward to 2004, 26 years old, divorced again, single mother, dead end job at a newspaper. I started going back to school for my degree in CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) part-time at night while I worked full-time during the day for 4 years. I graduated in 2008 with an associates in Drafting at the age of 30. I had also gotten remarried (that's the third one for those keeping count) in 2006, but this one was a keeper! Got pregnant, on purpose this time, and had my baby boy in March of 2009. I also learned in 2009 that who I had spent my whole life thinking was my real dad, was not my real dad. Who I thought was my real dad was never around, but after 31 years of thinking one way, it was a little life changing...had a mini-life crisis, but I'm over it...maybe. Still happily married though...9 years going strong :)

(Image Information: Personal photo of my attempt at a family picture from May 2015)

So, in 2013 I decided that I was tired of working office jobs, which I had to because the economy had taken a turn for the pooper after I got my degree and no one was hiring drafters. I went to UCO one semester for interior design and decided that it was NOT what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. SO, after some soul searching, I realized I wanted to be an archaeologist, and had since about the age of 9 or so, but I had thought it was just for old, rich, white men. I couldn't have been more wrong. I am three semesters in and have a lot more to go, but I have definitely found what I was meant to do.

I have been thinking lately about what to do after undergrad and am looking into getting my masters in the History of Science and Medicine and researching grimoires and alchemical manuscripts and how the scientific revolution from alchemy to chemistry transferred into the new world. I'm also interested in the correlation between English witchcraft, Native American medicine, and African American Voodoo. I am also interested in getting my masters in biological anthropology and focusing on the death and burial of different North American cultures. I am specifically interested in the 'abandoned bones' of the insane asylum and enslaved communities of the past. I have also toyed with the idea of being a bioarchaeologist. Basically, I have no idea :)


Favorite Author: Stephen King, JK Rowlings, Deborah Harkness...
Favorite Book: Anything by Stephen King, but I really like Insomnia and The Dark Tower series and all of the Harry Potter books and the All Souls Trilogy by Harness
Favorite TV Shows: Currently binge watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Charmed, Supernatural, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead (met Norman Reedus in October, 2014), American Horror Story, The Vampire Diaries (Meeting Ian Somerhalder in October, 2015), The Originals, Arrested Development, Family Guy...
Favorite Movies: The Lost Boys, Practical Magic, Steel Magnolias, The Crow, Clerks II, Dumb and Dumber, Labyrinth, LOTR, Harry Potter
Favorite Music: Tool, A Perfect Circle, Slip Knot, Korn, Seether, Breaking Benjamin, Snoop Dogg, Chevelle, The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Prince, Eminem, Queen, STP, Nirvana (I did grown up in the early 90's) and many more, but I won't bore you with the whole list :)