Poke Me In The Eye

My story is one that has been told a thousand times…an only child of ex-hippy parents in Northern California.

I was born in Santa Barbara, CA in 1974 to two crazy but very kind parents. Thankfully they weren’t fully immersed in the ‘60s experience and I escaped with little pre-natal drug use and a normal name.

Growing up we slowly moved our way up the coast…Oxnard, Santa Cruz, Sunnyvale, Menlo Park, Walnut Creek and finally Lafayette. But once I finished High School in 1992 I needed to break that California mold so I applied to the University of Arizona and amazingly…I got in.

My time in Arizona was a bit of a blur. I started with the best intentions (and, like all other freshman, was oh so happy to be away from the parents). But being at such a huge College with very few close friends from High School was rather lonely at first. My girlfriend at the time (who was a High School sweetheart at the University of California, Davis campus) encouraged me to join a Fraternity…and I did.

Now that was a life changing experience. Suddenly I was launched into a hectic social life and things really got crazy. Initially it was fun, then a touch annoying, moved toward settling, and eventually overtook my life. I was elected President of the Fraternity and within a semester I had flunked out of College and removed from the Fraternity roster. That’s a story in itself.

I loitered around Tucson for a bit longer and eventually left in 1995 (I think, it’s all still a bit of a blur). And with my tail between my legs I came back to good old California.

I moved back in with my parents for a bit and started working for a major bank’s call center. When you call your bank to find out what your balance was, or why they charged you $500 in fees…I was the guy you spoke with. Sure it wasn’t a glamorous job but it started me down my first career path…accounting.

A friend of mine in San Francisco was graduating College soon and wanted to down to San Diego. Sure! Let’s do it! And in 1997 (or was it 1998?) I did.

I moved down there with a couple friends from Elementary/Junior/High School and was absolutely loving it. I was starting to get further down my accounting career path…and soon found myself at the rank of Accounts Payable Specialist for an Environmental Engineering company. How impressive! I had a steady girlfriend, a nice apartment, and life was pretty good…sorta. I wasn’t making any money and was slowly selling off all my possessions to pay my bills.

But now it is 1999 and the Bay Area is exploding with money. The Dot Com revolution is in full swing and I was getting weary of my life down South. So I packed up my things and hit the road…back to the parents house and Lafayette.

After a couple brief stints working for a variety of companies in the Accounting field I found myself, amazingly enough, a Senior Financial Analyst for a major corporation. I was making incredible money, driving a cool car, living the Dot Com money making life.

But like all good things, it must come to an end too. I never really wanted to be an accountant, it just sort of happened. Sure I made great money but I didn’t really enjoy my days. So I quit.

Hmmm…that didn’t work out well at first. You see when you quit you have no more income. That makes things difficult. By this time I had moved into an apartment with, surprise, a friend from High School. I felt it was time for a risk so…I went to Culinary School.

That was, without a doubt, the best choice of my life. I was working tremendously hard (part time job and part time school) but loving every day of it. I was painfully poor but happy…and not only that, but I was good at this whole Culinary gig.

I started working for a fine dining restaurant as a food runner, then host, then server, then bartender, then administrative assistant…and once again opportunity knocked at my door. The Culinary school I was going to was working on a program to send students to a top notch hotel/restaurant management school in Switzerland.

I sold my car, begged my grandparents for money, packed up all my gear and did it. In July of 2005 I flew off to Bluche, Switzerland.

There are a million stories to tell about that experience but I finished up my management education there and was back in the Bay Area in January of 2006.

I came back to the restaurant I had worked before and was quickly promoted to Manager…and have been there ever since.

Now there is certainly a lot more to tell…spending a month in India, Boy Scouts in Hawaii, the crazy experiences in Europe, my grandparents (and now parents) farm in Santa Cruz, Fraternity life, etc etc…but I’ll save that for another day.