Life
I was born and raised in the O.C. of Southern California, the home of Surf City, great skiing within a couple of hours' drive, and earthquakes. The latter I didn't particularly care for, but that was the price one paid for living in such a beautiful place. I never tried to ski, although playing in snow was fun, as was going up to Yosemite almost every year for vacation.
I grew up as a baptized Catholic, received my First Communion and Reconciliation, went to Catholic school (third, fourth, and fifth grades), left with my family half way through my preparation for Confirmation and "got saved" in the Protestant church, stayed and studied in it for 25 years, and earned my Bachelor's degree cum laude in Religion with emphasis in pastoral ministry from Vanguard University of Southern California (an Assemblies of God university, while it was still Southern California College) in 1996. In 2009 I came back home to the Catholic Church and have worshiped God as a Roman Catholic without regret ever since (admittedly, my present girlfriend/fiancée, who is also Catholic, had something to do with that too, but it was also the realization that all through my studies I was basically trying to be Catholic without the Catholic label—if that's the case, why not do it for real?). I find it interesting that some of the others I studied with in Bible college have since joined our Eucharistic tradition, becoming either Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, and mind you this was an Assemblies of God (how much more Pentecostal can you get!) university.
I'm eagerly awaiting my Confirmation and completing my journey into the fullness of the Catholic faith and become more active in the community of believers once that happens.
While living the life of Protestantism, I was actively involved in multiple churches as a worship co-leader and musician as well as acting as an occasional spiritual director. I also did a lot of hymn arranging and original music/songwriting, a small portion of which has been self-published.
Bullied
I was bullied in school daily from the second grade through all of high school. That includes the three years when I was in a Catholic school, when it was actually at its worst. It has affected my life in a number of ways and still does. Some of that you will encounter in my writing if you spend any length of time following my blog. I live with a psychological disorder called Arrested Development Disorder and have also been diagnosed with an autism-spectrum disorder (not full-blown autism, but I have various traits that are consistent with the condition, so I guess the best name for it from the manuals would be ASD-NOS, "autism spectrum disorder not otherwise specified"). I tell people that I have Asperger's Disorder, because the name seems to best fit the symptoms, and that's what people seem to understand better than "ASD-NOS."
From California to Florida
So how did I end up in Florida? I admit it—I moved for love. I met my now-ex-wife in an AOL chat room, married her eight months later, and after two years of watching her suffer in California (including going hysterical when the Hector earthquake struck in the middle of the night) I agreed to move her back to be near her family in Florida, and of course as her dutiful husband moved with her, leaving behind everything, like friends, churches, and a stable well-paying job.
Florida was culture shock—people replied to each other with "Yes, ma'am" and "No, sir" and life seemed to run backwards in the South compared to fast-paced, always-on-the-go SoCal. Put together the rapid culture shock of living like a fish out of water, the continued and constant meddling of the in-laws who lived a few miles away, my own mental illness (which wasn't diagnosed until 2005), being laid off from another well-paid, work-at-home job after seven years with the company, and even after being involved for a number of years with Marriage Encounter and adopting a baby boy in 2003, our relationship deteriorated and she filed for divorce in January 2008. It was made final less than a month later. I walked away from everything in Lakeland (family, a new house, and most tragically my adopted son, giving up my parental decision-making rights) and rented an apartment in nearby Plant City, sight unseen. My only remaining connection to Lakeland is paying child support.
I have yet to fully recover from the upheavals of 2008. After working for a single employer for seven years, I've been lucky to hold a single job more than six to nine months, and I have yet to even earn close to what I earned during those seven years (in fact, the assignment I just accepted is a 56% pay cut from those years). I've nearly been homeless twice, been in bankruptcy court, and live paycheck-to-paycheck when I do have a job because of my child support obligation (not that I'm complaining, mind you; if Florida is anything about support, they are straightforward about it, and he's still my son even if I never get to see him again).
Life, rebooted
I still live in the same one-bedroom apartment in Plant City. Somewhere in the aftermath of 2008, an old friend I knew from junior high school found me via social media, eventually by necessity (economy and other things) also moved from California to Plant City, and we now wait for the ecclesiastical annulment process to take its course so we can have a proper Catholic wedding and marriage.
What I write about
I write about a lot of things—life in general, goings-on, geekery, social media, but predominantly about faith and its day-to-day living out. Since as a soon-to-be-married Catholic I will never be able to become a priest, let alone a pastor, I apply my learning and spiritual disciplines through what I write in my blogs and through being active in the social media space with a decidedly Christian, if not Catholic, perspective. My combination of life as both Catholic and Protestant colors my views and opinions, although my hope is that readers will find that in the end, there will be a challenge to live the spiritual life in all its fullness, whether that's as a Catholic or as a Protestant.
I write fairly openly about who I am and about my life, but there are some topics that I don't address online (such as day-to-day at my job or more intimate family-wide issues) out of respect for my employer(s) and my family. Other than that, I'm an open book in the social media space.
