Hmmmm, my life in a nutshell.
I was born, second of three children, to a family of modest means. Both my parents (now deceased) worked in the theatrical arts. My father was a director, dramaturg, and actor. My mother was both an actor and director. I, wanting to avoid the academic life and poverty, steered as far from the theater as I could.
My first bout with college led me to a major in marine biology and philosophy. As I was working my way through college, I quickly became aware that I was unable to handle both school and work.
So, the short story is I quit and joined the US navy. I went into their nuclear power program back in 1979. I was one of 500 women who went into the program and also one of 50 who made it through. (Lest you think something great of me, this was the same attrition rate as for men).
After six years of that, I went back to school and got a Mechanical Engineering degree and a minor in Philosophy. I worked for 13 years in the commercial nuclear power field and spent some time back in grad school pursuing a masters in computational biology and a certificate in scholarly publishing and medieval and renaissance studies. (I never finished as it became RIDICULOUSLY expensive and I realized how shitty Arizona State University standards were.)
.I married my second husband when I was thirty-four. No kids, lots of animals.
My hobbies include historic costuming, gardening (horsebackriding-not anymore!), an' dollin' (softsculpture).