About Me...Welcome

- I grew up as the daughter of a Protestant minister, and I converted to Catholicism in 2006.

- My upbringing was extremely unhealthy, sometimes abusive, and shares the traits of fundamentalist Christian cults.  While we were not a full-blown religious cult, there were definitely some very bad things that happened, and I'm still working through that, especially as it relates to my family relationships and my current religious practice.  It's one of the main reasons I blog with anonymity.

(Spoiler Alert: Ari Mack is not my real name.)  

- My husband and I are both classically trained musicians, and we met in music school.  He still works in the fine arts.  I used to work in the fine arts, but in recent years, I have risen through the ranks in higher education and work as a database administrator/code writer for a specific software program in higher education.  As a magnet on our refrigerator explains, "I used to be an artist, but I couldn't handle the 'starving' part."

- We live in one of the largest cities in the US, which has more residents than my entire home state has.

- We have zero children at the moment and practice NFP.  Between the two of us, there are 8 nieces and nephews, 4 in-laws, and 5 siblings.  I love the feeling of a big and loving family.  We hope to have children of our own someday.  

- I'm an INTJ to the max (although I have a few traits of the INFJ personality).  When I first read the Meyers-Briggs assessment of my personality, it was as if someone spied on the contents of my brain and then wrote it down for the world to see.  My husband is an ENFP (sometimes he crosses into INFP territory also).  Our union is sometimes described as a "perfect match" by some Meyers-Briggs practitioners.  We were really amused to find this description of an INTJ/ENFP love match: "An INTJ will get into a relationship when a hell-bent ENFP follows you around for a long enough period of time that you eventually just accept that you're dating," and "An ENFP will get into a relationship when you find someone just unattainable enough to intrigue you for a significant period of time."

- Between 2012 and 2013, I worked 4 different full-time jobs, 2 different part-time jobs, moved across the country, sold a house, and began sexual harassment proceedings against a former employer.  It was a year full of change, both expected and unexpected, wanted and unwanted.

- I credit therapy, the Catholic practice of confession, and the 12-step program as the beginning of my healing from childhood wounds.  It is very much an ongoing process.