Friday, June 03, 2005

Who am I?

I'm single, an ex-Library Technician, and a current Web and Software Developer. I've been divorced twice, but had the privilege of having 2 really great kids by my first ex-husband who didn't deserve them :).

I grew up in the little enclave of Lynn Valley, North Vancouver District, tucked high in the mountains of the North Shore of Vancouver. Lynn Valley in the 1950s was a small, very green community. The population was a mix of logging industry labourers and young professionals. Suburbia encroached rapidly on the little community and today it's the home of the upper level professional. Much of the green is gone and large homes stretch right up the mountain encroaching on the turf of the mountain wildlife.

My family was typical of the times, my father, a mechanical engineer, my mother, a stay at home housewife with four kids. My older brother, whose talent was speaking and socialising is now in Executive Sales for a multinational company. My younger brother, had an exceptional memory and interest in the mechanical became a lawyer. My sister, who had an abiding love for animals is an Assistant Manager at an SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty To Animals). My interests lay in reading, mysteries, puzzles and the such. My first career was in Libraries, and my second career is in Software Development.

My father passed away when I was 12, and my mother joined the ranks of the single parents of the time who had no support or assistance from society at large when trying to work and raise their families. Luckily she had almost completed her degree in Bacteriology (in preparation for my fathers retirement, he was 26 years older than her) and was able to find well paid employment as a Laboratory Technician. She raised us alone from the time my brother as 16, I was 12, my younger brother was 8 and my sister was 5.

My life was that of the typical middle class girl of the era (except for my interest in snakes and bugs, which my mother found pretty offensive! ;).