After High School, I traveled first to New England and then to California, came back and went to work as a maintenance man for a Holiday inn. Quit after working a year and meeting some lifelong friends. Went to work for a car dealership at Tyson's corner. Then spent the next 14 years in the car business. A few dealerships around Northern VA and then a private shop in Leesburg. Worked at Kline Chevy for a couple years. I didn't really date at first just hung out with a group of guys and partied a lot. There were a few maybes but no real girlfriend. I lived in Herndon for a couple of years and then rented a house in Annandale, met a woman there and dated her for about a year, she moved back to the west coast and I started dating another woman and that lasted just over a year. She wanted to get married and I was not ready, so she moved back to her hometown, got married and then came back to me a while later, we had a good reunion but she stayed married. I met a woman named Thelma and started seeing her, we hit it off and ended up living together for a few years, steady for several years, then off n on. Never married but were together for almost 11 years. Took some years off and then met my wife, we dated a couple years and then got married, I was 37. Had my daughter by the time I was 40 and stayed married 15 years. Most of it very unhappy. Would have ended it a lot sooner except for my daughter. I got an instant family when I married, two stepsons 8 and 10 Colin and Elliot, I was the evil step dad then but we are good friends now. They are 24 and 26, live together with their cousin in centerville. My daughter being born was the coolest thing that ever happened to me, We did a home birth, I took all the classes, even infant CPR. Had a Midwife, I didn't catch her but did cut the cord. She was born an old wise spirit, and still is today. She is my claim to fame and the joy of my life. It didn't change me as i was already an uncle about twenty some times and was used to, good with and very comfortable around babies. But there is nothing like having your own. She is a very self confident young girl, twelve and a half. Goes to a farm school out here in the county, they take care of animals as well as triditonal education. The farm owns a handful of horses and she is a total horse nut, one of her chores at the school is to take care of them, and she gets to ride. She is also a member of a local riding school, rides and takes lessons there.