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Just a few links here.
I'm originally from Bowie, Maryland, the city that nobody has ever heard of. It's
a great place to live, only minutes from Washington D.C. and tons of
universities, theatres, and other sights to see.
As a teenager, I attended a high school that was about three miles away from
the Washington, DC border. I was a pom-pom girl for three years, and also
edited the literary magazine. It's in high school that I decided to become a
teacher. The school was very small, and my graduating class had only 126
students -- the smallest in the county in 30 years!
In 1991, I graduated and went off to my undergraduate alma mater, Valparaiso
University. It was there that I received my Bachelor of Arts in English degree
with a minor in Theatre and Television Arts (Acting). Valpo is a nice school
whose claim to fame is the World's Largest Collegiate Chapel. It's also where
Aardy and I met, during my freshman year. Yes, you can fall in love while
studying Calculus. Trust us. The scarier thing is that Aardy found used copy of
that same calculus text in a library book sale...
While a freshman at Valpo, I joined Phi Omega, a local social sorority that
returned to its roots by taking on the original name of Delta Chi Epsilon. The
sorority affiliated with Alpha Delta Pi in 1998. Therefore, I am also an ADPi!
The Eta Psi chapter closed in 2004.
I began calling myself "Kate the Short" in an internet .sig file beginning in
March of 1993. As I'd recently gotten into Dungeons and Dragons, the name
was both a parody of fantasy names and a nod to my diminuative stature
(60.5", or Five Feet, One Half-Inch Tall). In July of 1995, the denizens of the
X-Men comic book newsgroup rec.arts.comics.xbooks dubbed me "Saint Kate"
for performing three "miracles": getting a troll/idiot to calm down, taking on part
of the FAQ, and raising myself from the dead (I got a new account at the
University of Chicago after my Valpo account died upon graduation). It was fun
being a Short Saint. -grin- I no longer keep the links page for the FAQs for
comics newsgroups.
I was a Chicago Girl for two years; it's a great city. I attended the MAT program
at the glorious University of Chicago. The campus is done up in gorgeous
neo-gothic architecture, which made me feel like I was back in England
hanging around some of the Cambridge Colleges. As a bonus, it was right
down the street from the Museum of Science and Industry. In June of 1997, I
finally was awarded my degree: Master of Arts in Teaching (English). Let me
tell you, it was nice to be out of school as a student for a while!
Just before I began student teaching, I proposed to Aardy. That was way back
in January of 1996. We finally got married in July of 1998. You can read all
about our wedding if you really want to.
A little after the wedding, I accepted a full-time high school position as an
Instructional Assistant for a tutoring program. I stayed there for two years.
In 2000, I accepted a one-year library media position at a local middle school. I
liked it so much that I decided to go back to school again and get my Master of
Library and Information Science Degree from Dominican University. I finally
graduated in May 2003, after two and a half years of classes. Took long
enough!
Since August 2001, I've been employed as a school library media specialist at
another middle school. (Go Jaguars!) I really enjoy helping students find good
books to read, learn how to produce projects on the computers, and
understand how to locate, use, and understand information from any and
every source available. It's the best job in the world!