About Me

My name is Kendra. I’m currently 33 years old. I was born in Gadsden, Alabama, and raised in Mobile, Alabama, home of the first American Mardi Gras and the infamous leprechaun in a tree. But now I call the suburbs of the nations capital (i.e. Maryland or as some locals say it Muralyn) my home. Initially the high cost of living, the cold winter, the traffic and racial diversity (compared to Mobile AL) were a bit of a culture shock for me. But now the pain of high costs and traffic only make me want to scream and throw stuff about once a week instead of daily, and I love the diversity. The cold still makes me want to scream and throw stuff from November through about April but at the same time my tolerance for the extreme heat and humidity of the south has dropped significantly. And my appreciation for gorgeous sunny days on which the high temperature is not 98 degrees has increased. However, I will still take a hot day over a freezing cold day any time. Something about not being able to take out the trash without putting on a coat and hat will probably always bug me.

I attended college at Florida A&M University and somewhere between hanging out on the Set and learning how to do the squirrel I got a bachelors and masters degree in Industrial Engineering. I got a master’s degree primarily to postpone the transition from the relative comfort and familiarity of the academic world into the daunting unknown of the working world. Not that I had never worked before. I did internships and a co-op and held several regular old jobs before I graduated but the whole time I worked those jobs I always knew they were very very temporary. (There is a slight possibility that I called your home at some point trying to convince you that your life would be vastly improved if you had AT&T as your long distance provider.) I would not trade my HBCU experience for anything, although if I had it to do over again I would make sure I really savored every football game halftime and step show because at no other point in my life will I get to live that experience as a young adult with no responsibilities other than making good grades and not throwing my life away by running off and eloping with a drug dealer. Now I spend approximately 40 hours every week trading my free time for a paycheck and trying not to get fired for occasionally reading other peoples blogs during work hours. (Disclaimer….In case anyone in a management position from my unnamed employer happens to be reading this I’m only kidding I work VERY hard at my job and really really appreciate my paycheck…end disclaimer)

I could describe myself as a nerd. I really like to read, play scrabble, do crossword puzzles, do those sudoku puzzles (I’ve also added kakuro puzzles to my nerdy repertoire) and surf the Internet. I also like shopping for ballet flat shoes, drawing, learning about the history of random stuff, and taking pictures of often unwilling subjects (which is ironic because I hate unposed and unwanted pictures of myself).

Politically I could describe myself as an independent with strong democratic/liberal leanings. But I am so against the whole partisan political system that I refuse to just register as a democrat. I hate the way that political parties seem to dumb down politics in such a way that people can vote without having any idea what the issues are. Not that I am not guilty of voting based on a combination of random factors like which candidates name sounds the friendliest in moments of political issue ignorance. Sometimes it’s kind of tough to get educated on all of the issues in every election. (I’m referring to the smaller local races of course). Which I guess could serve as one defense for the two party system that I hate so much. For the most part I’m pretty distrustful of the whole political process but I want my choice counted so I try to always vote. I am actually pretty distrustful of a whole lot of large institutions and I’m pretty sure that will become more evident over time as I write my opinions on various topics.

What else can I say about myself. Oh I don’t like rice. People always look at me like I have two heads when I share this so I thought I’d get that little tidbit out in the open up front so there aren’t any surprises later.