Several computers later, and a brief quandary as to whether to pursue fashion design or computer programming as a career, I’m pleased to report “none of the above”.  I’m currently employed with Expedia, in the marketing department, handling the operational aspects for our database/email marketing team.  Prior to that, I worked as a contract employee in the Seattle tech industry, most recently at Microsoft in the Xbox division.  As a result, I’ve earned sufficient gamer-geek creds for “Coolest.  Job.  Ever.”  Officially, I was the Associate Site Manager/Content Coordinator for Xbox.com handling various content and project management responsibilities for all things Xbox Live.  I worked with everyone from executive, product development, marketing, PR, and account managers to publishers and vendors in order to get our content published on the website. 

I was born and raised in Longview, WA, a place that has two unique claims to fame.  One, it was the “first planned city” (the only other one in the US is Washington, D.C.).  Second, the band Green Day wrote a song about the town.  I begin my career path working in a bookstore and handling most of the computer-related and newsletter creation tasks.  After four years, I got hired at a small computer shop doing tech support and inside sales.  I’ve always been in love with big cities and the idea of moving to Seattle was a constant nag.  Fortunately, I had a number of friends and acquaintances.  One in particular gave me the contact information of a technical recruiter.  Maybe it was serendipity, or perhaps because we were still in the dot.com boom, I landed a one-year contract at Microsoft in 1999.   I worked on both MSN Search and Encarta Encyclopedia as a Software Test Engineer.  Over the next few years, I would land contracts at Adobe, MS, and local start-ups, increasing my skills as a tester.  In 2002, I was recommended for the beta coordinator position for the upcoming launch of the Xbox Live online gaming service.  It was the first step into where I wanted to be career-wise… Project Management.

Fast Forward to the present, where I am now attending Washington State University to finish my degree in Management Information Systems, while juggling full-time employment.

You may not have guessed it, but some of my hobbies include gaming.  My current favorites right now are D&D 3rd edition, City of Heroes and World of Warcraft for the PC, Animal Crossing, Osu Tatakae Ouendan, and Age of Empires for the DS Lite, Final Fantasy Tactics on my Game Boy, card games, board games and more.  Other things I enjoy are gadgets, gizmos, knitting, dancing, anime, music, single malt scotch, and my favorite color is blue.  I’m not married, but my boyfriend and I are very committed to each other.  He’s a computer technician/support analyst, and shares my wacky outlook on life.  We have a Russian blue cat named Zelda and someday we hope to add an english bulldog to the family.