It's been a long and winding road, but here we are. This box used to talk about fortune cookies, but I've grown. I've had two jobs since then. I remember writing that at my old day job, during a quiet moment in the day. So, it was at least 4 years old. I grew attached to that fortune cookie summary. People complimented it.

Updating my LinkedIn summary once every four years has not been terribly successful. As new information pours in about who I am, there's bound to be some changes as we go along. I'm assuming an update every single day will do.

It all started, I guess, in Artesia General Hospital, where I was born, which I'm told was a glorious affair, wrapped up just in time for lunch.

We can fast-forward a bit. I'm in high school and my history teacher asks me to join the paper. She had a shrewd way and a knowing look–it felt portentous to me that she wanted me on the newspaper, and I guess now we know a little more about my motivations. The English teacher who wanted me on the speech team was much more straightforward about his reasons: Speech team was awesome, I was a pretty good writer, let's see how this could develop. I said no to the speech coach but yes to the paper–she flattered me with the vagueness of her assessment. She didn't say why I was great, just that it would be good for the newspaper if I were to join.

I learned a bunch of skills for laying out newspapers, most of which are the butt of the joke these days. Actually we could rewind even farther to the hand lettering class I took after seventh grade, but that would take too long. Anyway those particular skills–QuarkXPress, Adobe PhotoShop–got me a job in college that was sort of way better than any other scholarship-mandated job at school: I got to work in the design department. It was a time of accomplishment and frustration twinned with each other so closely I can't separate them out. (Can we discuss how a scholarship required that I do work unrelated to my scholarly pursuits? Can we discuss how the unrelated work has supplied much more of my income?)

(I haven't even begun to tell the story of dance and writing and all that. It breaks my heart to tell that story, it takes days and days and it's not even interesting.)

I guess we're getting to the heart of the matter: We're all too big for this tiny box, even if you account for resizing the window.

I mean, really. It's a bit absurd that we expect each other to be good at it. Most of us aren't capable of writing an incisive and interesting full-length autobiography, which would be much easier than trying to do the same in 500 words or less.

Besides, my favorite thing to do is emphasize exactly why I don't fit in whatever box I have chosen for myself. At my last day job I liked to pretend I worked in editing and design even though I was very clearly an event planner with occasional editing duties. As an artist I like to insist that I make dances, even though my dances don't match with the general public's idea of dance, and they don't match with dancers' ideas of dance. In general everyone wishes I would just admit to performance art but I stubbornly refuse. Not a charming personality trait, but it's what I've got.

All that said, here's what you came for, oh potential clients, recruiters and people I went to high school with:

I own a creative agency that builds great websites for arts organizations. My current quests: To find the right help, and to connect with the right clients. I believe in technology, community and art and all the ways those topics overlap. I believe in open-source solutions and will strongly advocate for them.

I am also a choreographer and performer with Mad King Thomas and a literary amateur, evidence of which is here. I like camping, cocktails, boardgames and reading.