About

About me:

I am a 53 year old woman, mother of 2, who’s back in school due to a divorce which derailed my life. I went to school to create a ‘better me’. I’ve found that I love learning and I plan on continuing in school so that I don’t get Alzheimer’s like my Momma has. I don’t care if I am 100 years old when I get it, but I want to eventually earn a Ph.D. in something…not sure just yet what that will be.

I live in St. Petersburg, Florida and I am disabled and work part-time for Follett Higher Education Group. I am an Accounts Payable Clerk at the St. Petersburg/Gibbs campus of St. Petersburg College’s Follett Bookstore. I have been employed at this position since December of 1999. I would like to change jobs, but the economy isn’t making this change easy.

My degrees:

May 2000 – Associates of Arts; General

May 2005 – Associates of Science, Computer Technology with MOUS Certification (I never was actually certified by Microsoft because of lack of funds to pay for the exams.)

May 2009 – Bachelors of Applied Science in Technology and Management

These were all earned at St. Petersburg College, in St. Petersburg, Florida.

I have started my Master of Arts degree in Library and Information Science at University of South Florida; my first semester was Fall 2010 and I took LIS 5520-Foundations of Library Information Science. Currently, this Spring semester 2010, I am enrolled in LIS 6603-Information Sources and Services and LIS 5315-Instructional Graphics. The pieces of the puzzle in this process of becoming a Librarian are sketchy at best at this point in time…it’s all such new information for me, I have no understanding of what I’m undertaking. I am a new student!

My Hobbies:

I enjoy:

• reading the Bible,
• fishing,
• Facebooking (too much time wasted on games!),
• reading,
• cooking,
• spending time with my children doing ANYTHING!,
• gardening,
• walking on the beach collecting shells (I don’t get to do this often),
• traveling to see my brother and sister in Texas (don’t get to do much of this either),
• watching GOOD movies,
• talking with my fiance,
• doing anything with him is enjoyable for me,
• studying (exploring new areas of information),
• tattoos ( I have 10, but want more!),
• learning about Native Americans,
• helping people if I can in any way,
• fellowshipping with my church family…
• and visiting my Momma at Menorah Manor (this is a bittersweet kind of thing because I hate watching what Alzheimer’s is doing to her!).

I have one brother, who is 18 months younger than I, and one sister who is 8 years younger than I; they both live in Texas with their spouses.

My brother Tom, has two girls; Sarah who is pursuing her Juris Doctor at Baylor, and Laura, who is pursuing her Bachelors in Engineering at University of Texas at Austin. His wife, Deborah is a Preschool teacher and is working on getting her certification. My brother has his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Biochemistry and teaches at Houston Community College, but his passion has always  been for research. He has had difficulty finding grant money to do so. He is about to blossom I think, but not in the way that he has thought his life would go, he’s being directed to a ‘different path’.

My sister, Sally, has two boys and one girl; Nathan, who is 11 and wants to become an inventor, Phillip, who is 9 and ‘likes to destroy things’, and Olivia, who is 6, and just likes to be alive at this young age. My sister’s husband, Randy, works with AutoCad creating equipment for farmers which are then manufactured in the shop where he works. He wants to open a deli, serving breakfast and lunches and loves to cook. Sally is an artist with no ‘formal’ education except a high school diploma. She was apprenticed by a local St. Petersburg, Florida artist (Robby Robinson) and now teaches art to kindergarten through senior high schoolers at a private Christian school in Plainview, Texas. She is very talented and loves to share this with others by teaching youngsters to explore their creative being.

My father died when I was 11 years old…this changed my world since I was the firstborn and he was our primary caregiver. My Daddy was a U.S. Navy veteran who served during World War II; I want to find out more about his life in the service of our country, but I currently have no organized time spent doing this. Louis Vida, my father, was full-blooded Hungarian, the youngest in his family and the only one born in the United States. He was the youngest of 6 children (? not sure of this fact), and he struggled staying employed, he never had a ‘career’ and was taking classes at St. Petersburg Junior College when he got cancer and subsequently passed away from complications of his surgery. He had sleep apnea, something that wasn’t understood well back in 1967 and his heart stopped for over 7 minutes during surgery to remove the lung cancer. He was a smoker.

Momma is 81-years old  now, she was born on November 28, 1928. My Momma, Ruth Anna-Gene Witzig Vida Copechal, was a registered nurse who worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital at Bay Pines, Florida. Earlier in her life she spoke of writing a book (but she never got around to doing so) entitled, “The Men I’ve Spent My Nights With” and it was going to chronicle the veteran’s that she cared for as a nurses lives as they became involved with her as their nurse. She now has Alzheimer’s and is in a skilled nursing (Menorah Manor) facility here in St. Petersburg, Florida. This is a very difficult disease to deal with in every way.

My children, Chelsea, who’s 21-years old, is going to graduate in the Fall 2011 with her Bachelors in Business majoring in Human Resources and her husband, Nathan, is 22-years old, will be graduating this May 2010 with his Bachelors in Church Ministry with a minor in Criminal Justice. He is pursuing a career as a St. Petersburg City Police Officer. They will be moving to Florida on May 8th, 2010. My son, Evan, who is 19-years old is completing his first year of college at Valley Forge Christian College; he is pursuing his Bachelors in Pastoral Ministries and wants to become a Pastor of Youth to begin with, but he will be equipped to become a full Pastor. He wants to be high in Church Leadership. I am so proud of my children!

I’ll add more as I think of things…