Ah yes, the dreaded “about me” page that every single blog or website simply must have, but which causes about 80% more existential dread than is necessary for something that most people will simply never read. If you, an actual human being, happen to be reading this, just know that I agonized about this thing until I got to a point where I just decided to wing it.
I was born and raised in New Hampshire, or as I prefer to call it, the right-side up Vermont. My parents were the equivalent of winning the parental lottery and encouraged me in sports and music. The music stuck best, and I’ve been playing saxophone since the third grade. Somewhere in high school, I discoverer poetry and began filling notebook after notebook with what could best be described as terrible verses. However, since I didn’t know any better, I kept at it because it was fun.
After being paroled from high school graduating, I attended the University of New Hampshire where I continued to engage in my favorite pastimes: music, writing poetry, and being socially awkward. Thankfully, music helped introduce me to a lot of people and with lots of time and practice, I became slightly less awkward and even somewhat fun to be around. Somewhere along the way, the Saxophi was created and unbelievably, this UNH Wildcat Marching Band tradition continues some 25 years later. I graduated with a degree in Communication which I’ve never directly used, but feel as though I embraced the “use every part of the buffalo” mentality in that I’ve used a bit of damn near every class I took during my time at UNH.
Upon my arrival into the “real world”, I embarked on what could be considered a rather interesting career path, accumulating skills along the way which always seemed to lend themselves to another task down the line. Some would consider this a bit odd, but I’ve enjoyed the hell out of it. For instance, my career as a graphic designer began with a cracked version of Photoshop 2.0 that a friend gave me in college, took a few turns through website design, a u-turn through an audiobook studio, and dropped me into my current job, which is the lead designer of Keep It Local Maine, a series of community magazines that I own with my wife.
Musically, I formed a band in my 30’s called Mama’s Boomshack that stuck around for six years (a veritable eternity in the music world). We recorded an album that you can still download and find on various streaming services that was engineered by a Grammy nominee and mastered by a multi-time Grammy winner. For several years, I was part of and then led the band at my church, which was enormously rewarding both for the impact it made on people’s lives and how it enriched my own with all the people I got to work with. Currently, I’m the lead singer and bass guitarist of a power trio called Tumbledown Saints, playing a mixture of blues, rock, funk, and originals.
Ah yes, and the family… who get mentioned last because I’m afraid that anything I can say about them won’t even begin to describe them well enough. Seriously, for someone who scribbles in a journal damn near every day and has spent the better part of his life playing with words, it feels terrible that I’m at a loss for words here… but they’re wonderful. My wife Kimberly has one of the biggest hearts you’ll find and is also ruthlessly loyal to family and friends. My daughter is the brightest and most talented person I’ve ever met. Years ago, my wife had mentioned that we didn’t have very long before our daughter was smarter than us. Half jokingly, I said we had about a week. In reality, it was about a month. She surprises me every day and gives me faith in the future.
All right, if you’ve read this far then allow me one more paragraph to shamelessly shill for the hobby that’s been weaving its way through this lovely narrative – poetry. I currently have two books out in the wild which you can purchase – both of which you can learn more about here.
Thanks for reading. Have a drink on me.
You’ve earned it.