A (not so) Brief History of Dan
My Timeline:
- September 21, 1967: I was born in Plainfield, New Jersey. A few days later, I was taken home by my parents to our home in Colonia.
- December 12, 1968: My sister Debbie was born. This, of course, totally shattered my nascent faith in the universe
- November, 1972: After several years of vacationing there, my parents bought a house, and we moved to the island of St. Thomas, in the US Virgin Islands. For the next 13 years, I lived there, attending first the Montessori School on the east end of the island, and then (starting with 5th grade) All Saints School in downtown Charlotte Amalie. During these 13 years, we returned to New Jersey every summer to visit with family.
- Spring 1980: After 15 years of marriage, my parents divorced. Since pop ended up living about a five minute walk away, and he drove me to school every morning, I still saw him all the time.
- September 1985 through April 1988: After graduating from high school in June, I attended Seton Hall University in South Orange New Jersey. After slightly less than three years there (and three majors), I decided that I just wasn't ready to be a college student. So I left.
- April 1988: By this time, I had been working part-time for Walden Books in the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne. After quitting school, I switched to full-time, and was made Junior Assistant Manager. I lived in the basement of my friend Georges' family for a while (which we fixed up), and then in my friend David's house.
- March 1989: I transferred to the Monmouth Mall store, and was promoted to Senior Assistant Manager. I moved in with my father and stepmother who were living in Long Branch at the time.
- September, 1989: I left Walden Books, and took a job as a Manager with Software Etcetera, at the Seaview Square Mall in Ocean, New Jersey. This didn't last long (for various reasons), and by March of 1990, I was living in Linden, New Jersey (with my maternal grandmother) and working at Radio Shack.
- Easter 1990: I converted to Roman Catholicism. This is a long and involved story, which you can read here (if you really want to).
- 1991: I stopped drinking... mostly. I discovered that if I didn't, there was a good chance I'd spend the rest of my life living down inside a bottle of something (probably vodka), and that'd make it rather difficult to live my life.
- Summer 1992: At the age of just about 25, I officially 'came out' as a gay man. For some reason, this came as no surprise to either my father or most of my friends. They, apparently, had been waiting for me to do this for (in some cases) a few years. Why none of them ever said anything is beyond me.
- January, 1997: I left Radio Shack (finally) and returned to school to finish (also finally) my undergraduate work. I enrolled as a full-time Continuing Education student at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, where I majored in History and minored in Medieval Studies.
- May 20, 2000: I graduated with a BA in History
- June 2000: I took a job with Drew University (actually, there's a number of university graduates who end up working for the school for a few years
immediately following graduation. It's kinda weird). I worked in the Office of Telecommunications, as an assistant to the Manager.
- July 2000: Moved into a nice (read: affordable) 2 bedroom apartment in Summit, New Jersey, which I shared with my Drew suite-mate, Brian.
- July 2001: Brian's then-girlfriend (now wife) Katie moved up from St. Petersburg Florida, and moved in. Since this meant I would have to move out (too crowded), I moved into the vacant one-bedroom apartment upstairs. As an aside, at almost the same time, my sister moved from New Jersey to St. Petersburg. I think we won on that trade.
- September 2003: As you might have gathered (if you read the earlier linked article on my faith) I left the Catholic Church (and Christianity in general) to follow an older faith. This faith goes by many names, but the one I favour is Hellenismos. In a nutshell, this is the worship of the deities of ancient Greece. Someone I had met online led me to an organization (of which she was one of the founders) called Hellenion, and I joined.
- August, 2004: I flew out to Colorado (and then endured a five hour car ride) to visit pop and my stepmother at their new home in Crestone. An absolutely beautiful place (although once you get done looking at the scenery, you've pretty much done all there is to do if you're not into mountains)
- January, 2005: I was accepted into Hellenion's Clergy Education Program, with the ultimate goal of becoming a Priest of Apollon.
- March 2005: I left Drew University to take a job with the College of New Jersey. I work in their IT department, in the Help Desk. It's a very different environment than Drew (and a much bigger school), but not a bad place.
- May 2005: I moved into an apartment in Ewing, NJ. Prior to this, I had been commuting in to work at TCNJ from my friends Craig and Amy's place in Doylestown. Having an apartment in the same town as my job is MUCH more convenient than a 40 minute one-way commute!
- December 2005: I was accepted into the Master of Arts in Teaching program at TCNJ. Since I work full-time, that means I have to do the program part-time, which is a little difficult to do, because of how the program is designed. It should take me double the usual time to complete, which means that in the spring of 2009 I'll have a Master's degree as well as a NJ teaching certificate.
- July 2006: Due to disputes with the way Hellenion is being run, I left the organization, to devote more of my time to other projects. I'm still intending to be a Priest of Apollon, but I'm going to have to find another way to do so. I'm exploring alternatives.
- December 2007: Three days before our New Years Party, my doctor informed me that I have Type II Diabetes. Way to kill the new year Doc.
- 2008: Health changes (mostly for the better): Thanks to Weight Watchers, I managed to lose 12.4 pounds in the year. I also brought my sugar levels under control (thanks to diet, and medication).
- December 2008: Finished my Master's program. Now the job search begins! This will probably also entail an apartment search.
Hobbies and Interests
The following is a list of things which are of interest to me. I've got pages for most of 'em, so you can follow the links and see where you end up.
- I'm very into theatre, especially the musical variety. I try and see a show every year or two. Sadly, this doesn't always work out.
- Ancient Greek Religion. Especially in it's modern variant, Hellenismos. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm a devotee of Apollon.
- I'm an avid reader, preferring science fiction and fantasy. My favourite author is JRR Tolkien.
- I'm a huge music buff. I sing Tenor, and spent seven years (student and alumnus) with the Drew University Chorale, under the direction of Garyth Nair.
- I'm colour blind
- I'm a role-player. Not just the table-top variety of games, but online, and (once in a while) live action.
- I'm a rampaging medievalist. (well, I don't rampage often. I'm more the sedate type)
- I have Type II Diabetes
- For religious insight into me, click here.
- I'm very involved (For obvious reasons) in gay issues.
- Linguistics is another area in which I'm developing an interest. The evolution of language is fascinating to me.
- I love to cook, and am always looking for new, healthy ways of keeping fed.
Where else can you contact me?
There are a couple of options, if you really want to get a hold of me for some reason:
