Welcome to TotalHermit!

I've started this blog to help me cope. I'm trying to work out some things in my life and hopefully, those who read this might be able to help me out or at least empathize with what I'm going through.

My Background

So, I'm about to turn thirty next week. I'm from Tennessee by way of New Hampshire. I think of myself as a New Englander because that's just the one place that I've lived that I most identified with. I love the people, the accent, the lingo, the history, the Northern Atlantic Ocean, the seasons and the colonial facade of New England. I've lived in about 14 different places in my life and it's important to me to identify with one place instead of being a mix of all of the places where I have lived. It keeps me sane.

I am a veteran of the United States Coast Guard. I spent four years in the service doing everything from search & rescue and law enforcement at a small boat station to administration and record management. I was stationed in Buffalo, NY, Petaluma, CA, Norfolk, VA and finally Boston, MA. I joined in 2001 when I was eighteen and had just graduated from high school until I was 21. I was honorably discharged in 2005. I liked the military structure and discipline. I didn't like the stress level (I joined just 2 months before 9/11) and the high level of terror. I was one of very few women in the USCG and it was very hard to completely trust a lot of the men that I was supposed to rely on to keep me safe.

I have an associate degree in computer networking and a bachelor degree in data communications. If you'd asked me what I wanted to go school for ten years ago, I never would have said computers! But I guess that's where life took me! I met my husband on the first day of my first class at college so I guess I was meant to go there.

My husband and I have been together for almost seven years, married four next month. We are best friends and share a love of all things geek. If there's a convention for it, we're into it!

I have two children. One eight year son, Cooper, from a previous relationship. My husband and I have been co-parenting him since he was two so my husband is his only "daddy". He's in the third grade and was recently diagnosed as emotionally disturbed. We're debating on getting a more thorough diagnosis for possibly Aspergers Syndrome. I will most likely post about our process a lot as it is a big issue in our lives. We have a two year old daughter, Prudence. She couldn't be any more different from her brother. She's the most easy-going child I have ever met! She doesn't cause any trouble for me. She just plays with her Elmo and her Kitties and smiles and laughs! That's our Prudence!

So that's me! I hope I can use this blog as something cathartic and maybe help others that are going through some similar stuff!

Julie