Eight Random Things

I've been tagged by Beth for another meme. I'm supposed to list eight facts about myself, and then tag eight more lucky bloggers. I put it off for the holiday weekend, but that's over now, so here goes:

1. I have an unusual educational background. Oh, my education was normal enough through high school, and even part of college, but at some point it skittered off the tracks a bit. I'm a dropout. A PhD dropout, that is. After four years of graduate school, all the required classes, passing the comprehensive exam, and doing some research, I got tired of how damn long everything was taking and quit. I had a MS Physics degree so I went out and found a job. More than a decade later at age thirty eight, I went back to school full time and got a second MS - this one is in Medical Physics. I think I'm probably done with school, but you never know... one day I might get a hankerin' to finish that PhD.

2. I'm on my second career. This is somewhat related to #1 above. I spent 12+ years living in Massachusetts working as an optical design engineer. It was OK, but when I decided to move back to Atlanta, I knew I would have trouble finding work doing the kind of engineering I had the most experience with. That is when I decided to go back to school. I chose Medical Physics because I was looking for something I could do using my physics background. Georgia Tech had a brand new masters program in MP, so I signed up with the first group of grad students. I've been working as a medical physicist for about two years now, and I like it better than engineering. It will take me at least another two years of working and test taking to attain board certification in this field.

3. You probably already know that I read a lot of science fiction. You may not know that I have a goal to read all of the Hugo and Nebula Award winning novels. (Stand-alone novels, anyway. I'm skipping the ones that are part of a series, unless it is the first one or I have read the other books in the series.) I've read 33 Hugos and 20 Nebulas. I've still got a long way to go, but I'm discovering a lot of good books and authors this way, especially some of the older sci fi from the 50s and 60s.

4. I was a band geek. I played oboe in concert band (one of the geekiest of all the instruments). I was also in marching band, and you can't march with an oboe. After playing cymbals for the first football season (boring for those of us used to playing melodies), I joined the flag corps for the remaining high school football seasons. It was partly because it was fun and partly because of the uniforms; not as slutty as the drill team uniforms, but WAY cuter than a band uniform. Perfect! In college, I played oboe in concert band and orchestra, and piccolo in marching band (not very well, I might add, but back then at Tech they didn't care - if you were conscious on game day and could march while holding an instrument, you were in). I spent my last year in the GT marching band as the 'ADADM' (Assistant Dumb-Ass Drum Major).

5. When The Empire Strikes Back came out, I loved it beyond the point of obsession. I must have been too young to get a fan crush on Star Wars when it came out, but Empire really struck a chord with me. I saw it countless times, read everything I could get my hands on, joined the fan club, bought a metric crapload of trading cards and books, and basically wished I could live a long time ago in that galaxy far away so I could ride around in space ships and fight in space battles.

6. I inhaled. I don't any more. 'Nuff said.

7. I'm divorced. That's right. I was married to someone before I was married to PDM. I made a very bad choice and it turned out to be a horrible mistake. It took years to dig out of the hole I ended up in afterwards, but now things are much better. PDM and I are best friends and we're well-suited for each other. We like a lot of the same stuff, but not so much that it gets boring. I don't forsee any more divorces in my future. If you are single, my advice is to take your time finding the right person and don't get married if you don't - even if you think it is 'time' or you want babies, or a big wedding, or whatever it is that seems so important. Also don't ignore that shy person who doesn't seem like your type (I met PDM many years ago and did just that) - if you dig a little deeper, you might find that they are exactly your type.

8. Today is my birthday. I took a vacation day and Mom is coming over to help me celebrate. I like my job, but I like not working even more.

I tag thewritegirl, wa11z, jim, dave, kat, bc, taylor, and ctheokas to do the meme if you want to. If not, that's cool too. If anyone else wants to do the meme and didn't get tagged, consider yourself tagged now (make it a baker's eight).