This is all about YOU

[Lady Hobbs]

I thought it might be fun to have a thread that is all about us that is not in our profiles so that we can get to know each other better. We know about each others fish so why not know each other?

My name is Carol altho many of you have thought I was a man. :) I am 63 years old with 4 "kids".......Todd 43, Steve 40, Teri 39 and Corie who is 28. The later being two girls with boys names. I also have 5 grandkids ranging from 20 to 1 month.

I worked 34 years as a bartender and also did factory and waitress work for a total of 42 years in the work force. I went on disability 5 years ago due to several medical conditions. My screen name of Hobbs is not from the cartoon character but was shortened from my original user name of "Hobbles" as I have rheumatoid arthritis among other things but since I no longer hobble, it has been shortened. yeaaa

I believe I may have the distinction of being the oldest member of the forum. I think William should come out with a badge for that!! Perhaps a small tombstone to go next to my name? :):)

I am originally from Cadillac, MI that has a population of 12,000. A lovely little town south of Traverse City. I moved to Florida in 1990 returning to MI in 2005. I was unable to find housing on my return so now am 12 miles from Cadillac in a one-horse town of about 500. Actually the phrase "one-horse" town does fit as this is heavily Amish. Obviously it is the pits shopping here and even Cadillac has not one LPS store.

The area where I lived in FL is where Hurricane Charley come in and is greatly altered by that storm. Even my last visit to Port Charlotte last month is still shocking. My daughter is still there and has moved on after losing everything.

I was divorced about a million years ago and my ex and his second wife of 25 years live just down the road and we are all good friends. My second husband died 28 years ago. I live in an apartment complex and do wish the apartment would hold more fish tanks! But it does appear that I will have room for 5 so will be grateful for that.

Is this more than you need to know?

[Cichlid_Man]

Hi all!
Hi Carol! Interesting story!

About me...My name is Joe.
I was born in NY in 1952, making me 54 years old. I am retired since 2003.
I was married in 1979 and still with the same great girl!
I have a 23 year old married daughter, a 13 year old awesome son, my wife at age 48, and a DYNO-MITE granddaughter who is almost 2. I baby-sit her every day!!!
I moved to Central Virginia 15 years ago and love it. I am way back in the woods, all alone, surrounded by only bear and deer and assorted wildlife.

I am between the James and Hardware River so fishing is something I do often.

I made my living playing guitar and writing songs.
I played along with some famous folks, my favorite being Eric Clapton.

My other hobby besides fish is cooking.
I took several courses while living in NY, and although I didn't pursue cooking professionally, I feel I can keep up with the best of them...

3 cheers for Emeril!!

Love this forum!!!

[Lady Hobbs]

All this time I have been in the midst of a famous person and didn't know it. Your life and family all sound pretty darned wonderful, Joe, and glad you told us about it.

I love living in the woods. I just hate cities. Getting back to nature is really wonderful, relaxing and the best life has to offer.

Thank you for your super story.

[gwenkat]

Hobbs - we may have been neighbors. I grew up in Punta Gorda and as an adult moved to Port Charlotte. My mom was living there when Charley hit. She has recently moved to South Carolina to be closer to me and her granddaughter. I moved here in 1998 and love it. I like that there are 4 seasons here in SC instead of the 2? in FL.
I am married and have a daughter. She loves fish as much as I do. It was her fascination with Nemo that convinced me to start the 10 gallon last Christmas. We also have cats, dogs, and horses. Guess you get the idea that I live in the country.
I ran a K*B Toys for over 10 years before jumping into the corporate banking world. I was a supervisor, but decided admin assistant was more up my alley. Less stress.
I love to read and have a HUGE library of books. Almost 900 at last count. I just finished remodeling the library and now it houses the books and aquariums. When I curl up in the chair with a good book, my favorite cat, and can watch the fish - life is good.
Guess that about sums it up....

[Lady Hobbs]

Well, isn't that just something now. That's why I love to get to know people a tad better. You just never know about people, do you? Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte is no dynamite place to buy fish either. That one store on the Corner of 41 and Tarpon. ppfftttt And that place has a population of over 100,000 so guess I don't feel so bad now.

[Glasstapper]

Hi all! My name is Courtney, and I'm 25 years old. I'm in the Air Force active duty. I've been in for two and a half years so far. I'm stationed in Tucson, Arizona, but I am originally from the Lake Charles area in south Louisiana.

Before joining the military, I was a bartender and it was great, but not a very stable income like I wanted.

I already have 3 years of school under my belt, and I'll hopefully be graduating next year with my bachelor's degree in business.

I've never been married, and I don't have any kids, but there's plenty of time for that! ;)

I have one little brother who is 21 years old and engaged to a wonderful girl. My parents are divorced, but we all get along much better this way, and my mom has remarried to a very awesome guy.

My other hobby besides fish is I like to play the piccolo and concert flute.

Also, I'm happy to announce that I will be adopting a retired racing greyhound! His name is Jude, he's all black and very shy, but he will be ready to come and live with me in January. I'm very excited!

[jeffs99dime]

hi. my name is jeff. i'm 27 soon to be 28 and i live in nj. i was an active duty marine (recon) for 6 years and now i'm a carpenter (for the time being) soon i will be a police officer for a county sheriffs dept here in nj. my hobbies include playing drums in my band (classic rock, rock), sports, camping, hiking, kayaking, working on my truck, etc. and of course fish keeping. i have one brother who is 25 and is an english lit. teacher. when/ if i ever retire. lol. (that's pretty funny) i want to go into business with my brother teaching survival skills. eventually there's going to be an extreme need for it!! there's so many people who take so many things for granted such as having shelter, food and clothing and more. i'm a very outspoken person who likes to joke around and have a good time. so if i'm joking around, please don't anyone take me seriously. lol --jeff

[Lady Hobbs]

so if i'm joking around, please don't anyone take me seriously. lo

I ditto that! Joking is what makes life easier.

[kimmers318]

So far everything I have read has been very interesting....lets see if I can sum up the myriad of life I have managed to live in only 36 years in a short but sweet synopsis.

During high school I worked in homes for the MRDD...some of you might be familiar with The Hattie Larlham Foundation. I married right out of high school, and since he was in the army we moved to Georgia, where I continued to work at group homes, this time with adult MRDD. It was a very rewarding field that I would have loved to have stayed in but, the money isn't good.
After my divorce from husband number 1, I started working in factories because the hours and pay were much better. Tried an aerosol plant, and then a paper printing plant. Both were jobs I enjoyed, and probably would have stayed at the last one, but I got pregnant with my first child and they had rotating shifts which is impossible as a single mother. Yep, Dad ran off when I was 5 months pregnant. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise though because A) I had been told at 17 I would probably never have kids, and when I found out I was pregnant I realized just how badly I wanted them! B) I have created a life for myself with my daughter, and am glad I don't have to deal with the visitation and holiday issues that would arise if her biological dad had stayed in the picture.
Shortly after my oldest, Mikayla was born, I received my training as a schoolbus driver which began a career that lasted for 6 years that I absolutely loved. It turned out that I had a knack for keeping up on the latest changes, was an excellent driver, and dealt well with problem kids, so although sometimes it was stressful always being assigned routes that had problems on them, it was rewarding to know that I was getting thru to kids that gave everyone else a hard time! In the beginning I supplemented my driving income by bartending.
When I met my second and current husband, Tom, it was like a dream come true. He fell in love with me AND my daughter, she was part of the marriage ceremony, and shortly after the "I DO's" were said she asked if she could call him Daddy now! He has been daddy ever since. Our marriage hasn't all been good....we met and married so fast we spent the first couple of years fighting non stop...then came a couple of years of "co-exising" in the same household to raise our children. Lately, finally, after 7 years of marriage, we are managing to create a happy marriage. We probably both would have thrown in the towel sooner if it hadn't been for 2 things, the birth of my second daughter, Riley, and the fact that we agree on the most important aspect of parenting....kids come first. There is very little that we don't see eye to eye on when it comes to the girls, that it was easy to see that we needed to do what was necessary to raise these girls together. We now have 2 beautiful girls who are a joy to us.
I quit driving school bus before Riley was 2, it wasn't worth dragging 2 kids out at 5:40am for a job that barely covered the daycare and wear and tear on the vehicle. I started babysitting my nieces, and took in a couple of other children. All went well there until my father became terminally ill with cancer Nov 04. At that point I had to give up babysitting all children but my nieces because you never know when Dad will be hospitalized or just too ill and needs me. At that point I picked up various odd jobs in the evening and finally settled on bartending again at the local American Legion and VFW posts, and cleaning with my friend doing office cleaning at a local factory. The best thing about my jobs is that all of my bosses are friends of the family, and are like family to me and my dad (those that have been involved in veteran clubs know what I am talking about) so whenever an issue comes up with my dad there is absolutely NO slack about me not making it to work. They want me there for him. Life is crazy, but fun, and in the middle of all of this I managed to get addicted to the fish hobby and have got MTS going on!
We also have 3 dogs, a newfoundland, Marley, a golden, Naya, and a boxer, Teal'c who keep us on our toes. In the summer we spend time in the pool in the backyard....at our camper...riding our motorcyles....or partying with friends. Winters are pretty laid back.
I think that about sums it up...hopefully it wasn't TMI---too much information!

[Lady Hobbs]

I love everyones stories. It's amasing how many of us were bartenders. It's always nice to know more about someone than what kind of fish they have.

[Lindsay_D]

About me...My name is Lindsay.
I was born in Oceanside, California...on September 1st, 1989
I have no kids....
I moved to Bourne, Massachusetss 8 years ago and i hate it

I hangout with friends a lot

I work at a fish farm

I don't do anything else but work and sleep