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JAlex [ on the right ]

  I wanted to "introduce" myself, because, well, just because. 

This is the introduction I posted when the second Live Games forum
opened here at delphi.  Other than ages, not much has changed.  I've
found that it's difficult to change your background...ha ha.

I think I followed Joan here from TQ Trivia.  It may have been Id, but
it could have been both!  I was surprised to find so many other delphi
friends here.

"jalex" is a combination of my children's names, Jake (17) and Lexy
(20).  We also have a "new" daughter, Slavica (prounounced Slav-eet-sa),
who is also 17 and joined our family in March of 2003.

I am 47+ and unmarried. I was married the first time for twelve years to
the children's father. I went to Middlebury College for undergrad and
got a B.A. in Russian and German, minored in Psych and English. I have a
master's in law and diplomacy (M.A.L.D.) from The Fletcher School at
Harvard and Tufts and a master's in Economics (M.A.) from Harvard.  (If
Bill and Jack and the other incredible brains are reading this, I do
hope that their hearts withstood that paragraph.)

I lived in the Soviet Union for a bit and got my teaching certification
in languages based on that experience. I was with Gillette for several
years in their International Division in Boston, doing financial
analysis and programming, then transferred to their Montreal offices. I
had Lexy and  stayed home for about eight or nine years while the
children were little. I got divorced in 1990 and went back to work full
time.

I worked for years in transportation leasing (like trucks and trailers
and containers), until we sold that division to Penske.  Then I worked
for the Business Development Bank of Canada.  Now THAT was a scary place...

Through a series of mishaps, which is how important things in life
always happen (!!), I am now with a medical device company running
production and quality.

My current husband is a graduate of the Univ. of Toronto and is employed
as a firefighter with the Toronto Fire Department. I don't want to say
much about him, because whatever I say could not adequately represent
him...suffice it to say he's been married to me for seven years, and has
been suggested for cannonization because of that...

I went on the internet ten years ago because I love to meet people and
play games and I was isolated- at home with children as a divorced mom.
Working all day, and mothering all night...not that I minded it.  But
the internet opened up an incredibly vibrant and wonderful world for me.
I would rather cut off my right arm than forego this interaction.

My main hobby is cooking. I also love reading. I am reading my way
through the classics alphabetically by author and am only on the Ls!!!
(some of those books are tedious as hell!) I was an avid RPG player- the
Zelda series, Mystic Quest and Final Fantasy, and in the old old days,
Adventure and Zork.   RPGs bite these days.

My next hobby will be my own plastic surgery.

When I grow up, I'd like to teach teens and get a PhD in linguistics in
conjunction with preserving a dying language, like Estonian, or some
Native American tongue.

I'm rough around the edges, but a marshmallow inside!