Augie Who?
well what do you know? someone actually clicked a link to find out more about little ol’ me. i feel so special…
the preface:
i love my family more than anything else on the face of this earth. my wife is the most wonderful, beautiful person i know. my children are my life. i am still learning how important my brother, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmother, and even in-laws are to me. and my parents, second only to my wife and kids, are my best friends in the world. i owe them everything.
my faith is very important to me. i share the same beliefs as my parents and most of my siblings and only hope that the rest of them will one day re-ignite the love they once had for their faith. that, i believe, would make my life complete. i also love music, art, and geeky things like toys and computers. and now, the truncated history of augiewan…
the dirt:
i grew up in rockford, illinois, not too far of a drive from chicago. the strange thing is that i never really grew an affinity for the windy city until i moved to indiana with my parents. at that point, i was 2 hours away. poo. so there i was, a freshman in high school in a new state, surrounded by amish. let’s all say it together now, “culture shock”…
you know, i’m getting way ahead of myself. maybe i should back up a bit…
i was a terrible child. i cried constantly. i was hideous to look at as well. my head was huge. i looked like an alien. are you getting a nice mental picture here? can you understand why my older siblings wanted to smother me with a pillow? i also had (well, still have) gigantic ears. so of coarse, i endured years of teasing and banishment from the good-looking kids at school. i’m not bitter really, i know it’s a dog eat dog world out there and kids learn quickly that to survive, you find someone to pick on. it’s really a theory that runs throughout your entire life, it’s not right, it just “is”…
i only hope my own children fare better socially than i did in school. then again maybe i don’t, i feel i’m a better person after what i faced as a kid growing up. appreciating yourself for who you are and what you stand for is important. the older i get the more i realize that. but again, i’m getting ahead of myself. i’m bad at that huh?
so where was i? ah yes, the dreaded school years. not much to say really. i was a geek. i was bored throughout school. i had no real social relationships there, and i found the curriculum to be very boring. i was a huge underachiever. i could have easily been the top student every year, but i had no drive. the teachers i had were generally terrible. i acted up in class during the grade school years, and it was passed off as hyperactivity. i was just bored! i don’t know, i learned in an odd way. i could multiply fractions and decimals in second grade, but still had not memorized the multiplication table in middle school??? i had no patience in kindergarten to wait for the rest of the class to learn to write. i had already taught myself, so i wasn’t about to change and form the letters the “proper” way once the teach finally got around to teaching it to the class. i still start my “s” at the bottom, my “7″ at the top, and my “d” and “b” starting with a line from top to bottom, and then working my way back up with the curves, never lifting the pen. oh well…
so now i’m getting to detailed? oh, i’m boring you? fine. let’s skip ahead to high school. yuck, let’s not. i was still a geek. i went to northridge high school in middlebury, indiana. that should be enough information right there. small town, small minds. i just wanted to be challenged, but i guess that wasn’t in the cards. you have to know know there was something wrong when i could refuse to do any homework, and still graduate with honors…
i graduated, went from part-time draftsman at a custom lighting company, to full-time draftsman making part-time money. the work was fun most of the time. i got to work on projects for the city, red lobster, disney world, etc. i was still a geek and loved playing with the rudimentary computer network (circa 1991-1992). i met my wife-to-be, we got engaged, and shortly after that, got married. i still worked as a full-time draftsman making part-time wages (and no insurance) so i moved on. the next job was a good learning experience and while not perfect, it had health insurance. it also taught me that everything i had heard about the security and benefits of a union job was a load of bunk. the only part that was real was the union fees. a better job fell in my lap (thanks aaron!) making better money, so i took it and stayed there for 3 years. during that time, we had three kids, my oldest daughter and the twins, a boy and a girl. then i got stupid, went to work “way” too tired, and cut off a good part of my right middle finger. sucks to be me…
fast forward a bit and here i am. i’m still married to the same wonderful woman for 13 years. my oldest is now in jr high, the twins are in 4th and our youngest son is now in kindergarden. i have a family that i love. the finger didn’t grow back. i still have big ears. i’m still a geek. oh well, i wouldn’t change a thing.
oh yeah, i’ve been at my current job for 10 years now. e-commerce from back in the day before it was cool, and then uncool again. remember, i’m a geek. computers and i have a love hate relationship. i love them and i hate to not be using them. as i write this, i’m still refacing this site from it’s former ugly self. i can only imaging how cluttered with useless information it will be in a year from now. it’s scary really.
well, remember… if you had half the fun reading this as i had writing it, i had twice as much fun as you… 
augiewan
