In December 2006, I graduated from Concordia University in Portland, Oregon. I received a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree. As part of my senior year, I decided to take voice lessons for senior credit. My teacher was Konstantin Kvach. He was magnificent. 1 person likes this post. Like Unlike

Yesterday in Portland, the weed pollen count was very high. I was out in the community teaching a client how to get around town in the Portland transit system known as Tri-Met. By the end of the day, my sinuses were plugged up badly, my eyes were itching like crazy, and my ears were full. […]

I bought my first car when I was 18 years old, shortly after I graduated from high school. I know that was fairly late for most people, but I did not learn how to drive until after high school. My parents didn’t have money for lessons and I couldn’t take them at school. My father […]

When I was about seven years old, my stepbrother would take me around to the neighbors and bet them that I could spell any word they asked me to spell. Fortunately, his friends weren’t scholars by any means, so I never got asked anything I couldn’t handle. One of them asked me if I could […]

Between the ages of 5 and 9, we lived in Norwalk, California on Oracle Street. It was an interesting place to live. Across the large street was the California State Hospital for mentally ill patients. We would often get late-night visitors at our back door, inmates who had escaped and climbed over our brick fence. […]

It seems to run in my family on my mother’s side that children begin life small and very thin. All of my cousins on that side of my family and all of my aunts–my mother’s sisters–were so thin as children and adolescents that people thought they were undernourished. It is also a trait of these […]

In 1980, I was working at a warehouse job. I went out to the dock to receive a case of cash register tape. I was standing on the dock and a truck driver was handing it up to me from the ground level. I felt a twinge in my back, but continued working the rest […]

I’ve always had an affinity for people and the things they deal with. My mother thought of me as mature beyond my years, and it’s probably true. I still was a child when I needed to be, but I’ve had a sense of social justice and tolerance that would have made for a good social […]