Tampa Bay

All the years growing up, spending summer after summer with the family in Clearwater Beach only made me want to live in Florida. Even after the family vacations ended, I still found my way down to the Sunshine Coast at least twice a year. The friends I had found down in the Tampa area asked every visit, "when are you moving down here?" My answer was always, "someday!" I had a job I loved in Ohio, and a house to work on. Now, no job was keeping me, it's time to move! Things have worked out pretty well. With enough money saved up, I could rent out my house in Ohio and make the big move. I did it! On October 15th 2003, Scott, my best friend, and I packed as much of our stuff we could fit in a U-Haul truck and trailer. Moving from a big house into a small apartment meant we didn't have the space for everyting, so thank you to our parental units for storing some things for us for a while. I drove the big U-Haul truck pulling Scott's car, and Scott followed me driving my truck pulling the U-Haul trailer. This was a fun ride - NOT! We made it, through the breakdown and all!

Seven years on the Gulf Coast, seven years of pure sandy white beaches, seven years of hot-hot summers, seven years of friends that become family, and so much can happen in that seven years. Scott moves back to Ohio, I become heavily involved with a wonderful small group of Catholics wanting to start their own church, and also join a board of directors! My love of movies, independent films, and especially the ones of the LGBT genre, I started attending films shown by TIGLFF, the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. I soon applied to be a board member and after interviews and the annual voting of new members, for four great years, I was a member of the Board of Directors, TIGLFF (to CLIP then back to TIGLFF). My life in Florida took me through a lot of great times! Working for HSN in the Call Center - more specifically, the Learning and Development division of the Performance Support Services department. Training new-hires into the call center, training current call center employees moving up to new divisions or learning new systems, and having a wonderful time with wonderful people. About three years at HSN and I was begged, pulled, and talked-into joining the "Associates" at West Marine in their Largo, Florida Call Center, or the "LSC" (Largo Service Center). A former director of mine at HSN was now the LSC director and wanted my expertise on several projects he had in sight for the center. After some haggling, I left my Florida dream-job at HSN and went to work for West Marine. I really didn't know a thing about this company until I did a ton of homework (before making any decisions, of course) and talking to my dad. Turns out, this is a very large company, at the time one of the top three international boating supply companies with retail stores, online/direct sales division, and a world-wide presence. As of 2010, we are the only one left in this capacity. It was a very good move for me as it leads to my next and current chapter of my life.

The next Chapter - Monterey Bay... [read more]