Oh, bother.

Hrm. I've never been good at writing about myself. I blame it on that damned elusive muse.

For those who don't care about the history of me, you may want to check out a few other pages here that contain more on my current interests. I am an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and some of my interests there include sewing, tablet weaving, bobbin lace, and tourney list administration. I dabble in drop spindle spinning, period knitting, brewing, and have toyed with learning Scots Gaelic. Jack is a fencer, so I tend to follow the rapier community fairly closely as well. Links to web sites with further information on many of those activities can be found from the Society for Creative Anachronism page.

I also knit pretty regularly and have recently begun teaching basic knitting classes at my local Michael's store. I'm not sure how long I'll continue to teach there as the interest seems somewhat lacking, but then it's summer so it could just be that people don't think about knitting while it's warm out. *shrug* I've posted a few pictures of my works-in-progress and some completed pieces here. The hand-outs I use when I teach can be found from my knitting page.

I guess I'll start with the basics. I was born December 13 (a Friday), 1974 at 8:12 a.m. at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul, MN. My parents, only one of whom was present at my birth, are Jean and Curt Hinds. I also have an older sister, Dawn, who I pr'bly tormenting at least as much as the average younger sibling while we were growing up.

I grew up in a small, northeastern 'burb of St. Paul called by Mahtomedi in a yellow house on Elm Street (those of you paying attention are pr'bly starting to wonder about my homicidal tendencies). For those familiar with the Twin Cities and environs, it's near White Bear Lake, about twenty minutes from Stillwater and Hudson on I-94. I can't complain about my childhood or my upbringing. My parents were stern when they needed to be, but also supportive of both their daughters. They let us make our own decisions about most things, which I think is why I ended up more or less as balanced as I am.

I graduated from Mahtomedi Senior High School with honors in 1993. That August (the 13th, actually, also a Friday) I flew out to Ithaca, NY to begin studies at Cornell University. My intended major was Applied and Engineering Physics, but that didn't survive past first semester Chemsitry and second semester Physics. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I applied to transfer into the College of Arts and Sciences to pursue a degree in Government. My application was accepted at the beginning of second semester. I graduated with a B average in May 1997.

In the interim, I grew up. Which is harder than most of us remember in retrospect, but not as terrible as it seems at the time. My last two summers in college I went to Mississippi to see my sister, who had moved down there to live with Mike, my now-brother-in-law. I have the dubious honor of being responsible for introducing my sister and Mike via IRC during college, so when she moved to Mississippi and I needed to not spend my second summer in Ithaca, I started looking for camp counselor jobs down south. I worked for two summers at Camp Tik-a-Witha in Van Vleet, MS, the first as a counselor for teen-aged girls and the second as the water front director.

Somewhere between the two summers I spent at Tik-a-Witha, Dawn and Mike got engaged and decided to move back to Minnesota to get their Masters' in Education. So the second summer, they were up north planning their wedding. But it was still worth being there. I had a lot of phenomenal friends who really did a lot to keep me balanced and open-minded in an increasingly restrictive world. I also managed to acquire my dog, Jali, and I can't imagine what my life would have been like the last eight years without her.

That next summer, my dad, Mike, my then-boyfriend (and still good friend) Alex, Jali and I drove to Seattle. Or rather, Tacoma. Alex and I moved to West Seattle after six months and then to Capital Hill a year later. We both held several different positions during the three years we were together. He was (and still is) a shop carpenter for a couple theatres in Seattle (Tacoma Actor's Guild, The Intiman, and ACT). I started with a customer service position at Coinstar and then moved to a Records position at Bogle & Gates, a large law firm downtown. My move to law was designed to help me get used to the profession before taking the LSAT and going back to law school. I left Bogle & Gates after about five months (and about six months before a very bizarre set of circumstances resulting in the firm's demise) to work as a practice assistant for two family law attorneys at Stokes Lawrence. I stayed with Gail, the main attorney I worked with, for two years and while I loved working with her and Meryl (our paralegal), I quickly came to realize I didn't want to be a lawyer.

Which left me trying to figure out what I did want to do. After some stumbling around in the dark I settled on social work - policy and administration, not direct practice. It wasn't really so much settling as being struck dumb by how obvious it was. My primary motivation for wanting to be a lawyer was to help people. Trite, idealistic, but true. But lawyers, well.. don't. At least not in the way I wanted to. I wanted to effect change that would matter for society, not just one or two people. How does that happen? Well, in the US, it happens through social policy and social service organizations.

I applied to three or four schools of Social Work across the country and was accepted to them all. After reviewing their programs, I settled on the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. The reasons were numerous and varied and had to do with things like proximity to my family (and then soon-to-arrive nephew, Donovan), financial aid, and reputation.

The winter before moving to Chicago, Alex and I succumbed to the obvious and realized we made much better friends than lovers. Our break-up was for the most part remarkably easy and we stayed living together until I left for Chicago (7 months after our official break-up). Just for the record, we're still good friends, both attended each other's weddings , and I can't wait to get out to Seattle and meet Nathaniel, his son.

But I was restless that summer and wanted to be moving on with things. That was about the time I started flying to the Twin Cities to go to Society for Creative Anachronism events with Mikey and Pixel. The first of the ones that summer was Castle Fever in Oronoco, MN. Due to a series of random events, I ended up heading to the event sans Mikey, which left me with a sum total of maybe 5 people on site that I knew at all, and only a couple that I knew well. But it turned out okay in the end. *smile*

Castle Fever that year was rainy and damp and cold. And there were very few dry, comfortable places that could seat more than a couple people. There was one in particular, the Casa del Pimpo, that had adequate room for at least 30 (and eventually pr'bly as many as 50) folks, and the few people I knew were friends with the guys who owned it, so that's where I ended up for dinner. Dinner quickly turned into a party and the realm of Pimponia was born. I can't adequately do justice to the party by trying to describe it; you had to be there.

One of the guys who owned the Casa (as it's become to be called) was a tall, bald man with a great sense of humor and what I soon learned were captivating eyes. His name was Jack and we spent the bulk of the wee hours of the morning talking and getting to know each other. And that was how I met my husband. *grin* And it's all Mikey's fault.

Anyway, Jack and I started dating sometime later that fall when I moved to Chicago and started classes at SSA. We got engaged the following February, much to the surprise and astonishment of most of our friends and family. That summer, Jack moved to Madison, WI, so we could be closer. I graduated in June 2002 from SSA and moved to Madison as well.

I started working as a Researcher for Renaissance Learning, Inc. a week or so after moving. My job consists of about 50% project management for research studies we conduct (some in-house, some with independent evaluators from major universities across the country), about 45% data analysis, and about 5% writing. I like my job a lot, and I like Renaissance Learning and the folks I work with, which helps a lot in making those days when I feel like I'm going to pull my hair out by the roots worth enduring.

Jack and I got married October 19, 2002 in Ripon, WI. It was a record-setting ceremony (12 minutes including processional and recessional) presided over by Reverand Ron Arnold, a good friend of ours ordained by the Universal Life Church and therefore able to conduct marriage ceremonies. Rest assured, however, that the ceremony was completely civil as neither Jack nor I have any strong inclinations toward the major religions. I'm told the party was one of the best many people have attended, which is a nice compliment, but no, we won't be getting married again just to have another one. :P

And that brings us mostly up to date. Jack, Jali and I reside happily in our two story town house on the west side of Madison, even if it is a bit too suburban for our 20-something pride at times. Jali is going grey around the muzzle, but that's to be expected since we're pretty sure she's about 11 years old at this point. *shrug* Life goes on.

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