~About Me~

l was born and raised in Italy in a 2100 year old town of 30,000 residents named Ivrea, near Turin. Turin is the home of the Holy Shroud, in the Piedmont region in Northern Italy. You may know Turin since it hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics!

I am a Cancer, which makes me exactly what I am... attached to family, traditions and everything in between.

I am the infamous "middle" child, the one always wanting and starving for attention... my older sister, Lorena, is 4 years my senior and my younger sister, Katia, is 8 years my junior. 

When I was 14 years old my family became really good friends with a lot of people that ran a radio station, and before long we all became Disc Jockeys ourselves. I was still fairly young when I started so I did the children's show for a while, and then I "graduated" to the dedication show, a very popular program. 

English is a true jewel to know in Europe, and makes it much easier to find a job, so, at 17 years of age, I came to the United States to visit my aunt and learn the language. Little did I know I would never go back... I didn't want to learn just a little bit of English, I wanted to become fluent to enhance my chances, so I went to Alamogordo High School for two years and even graduated. By the time I graduated High School I was 20 years old. I really liked living in the U.S., and although I missed my family and Italy, U.S. felt more like a home to me that Italy ever did. I never figured that one out!!! Possibly because here I felt 'different' and 'special', while in Italy I was lost in a crowd. Maybe it was one of those 'middle child' syndromes!! Who knows? I felt treated differently and better by people in general, and that gave me the confidence to make a life here.

At any rate, that's how I started my life as an immigrant. A life very rewarding at times, and not so great others. I found many jealousies, hypocrisies and regrets along the way from many family members and friends on both sides of the ocean. I always get the same question from them and people in general: "What's better, Italy or U.S."? I've always found that the person asking always wants me to answer that "their" country is better, but I've never been able to answer that question in one way or another, because it is terribly unfair and hard for me to make such a choice. Italy is my childhood homeland, and the U.S. is my adulthood homeland. I feel at home in both countries. I could live as an adult in Italy, but I prefer not to, I am too used to the freedom the US has given me. On the same token, if I had to relive my childhood, I would choose to relive it in Italy. I hope that answer everyone's question, because it is the fairest way to explain it.

I married Nick a few years later, which was the son of one of my aunts' friends. Together we planned on opening up our own Domino's Pizza store, but that was a dream that became impossible to achieve for many different reasons. When things didn't work out with Domino's, I took a position in management for Babbage's, a mall software retailer. I liked it right away, and I was planning a career in the retail software industry. I loved working there. I was working my way to a district manager position with Babbage's when everything started changing. The company merged with another one, creating new rules that kept changing over and over again. The marketplace was ever changing too, and customers were lured by the mega stores. Things were starting to look real bad, and I wanted to get out of a sinking ship. I had worked for the company for 4 years and I was sad to leave, but I felt I had no choice.

Unfortunately my premonition became true a few months after I quit. Babbage's went Bankruptcy. Of course my attitude, at the time, wasn't that great either, which only worsened everything. My son Alex was stillborn at full term, followed by a miscarriage, and I was very depressed, to say the least. Thankfully I had access to a computer, which made all the difference in the world. I met a lot of wonderful people this way, people that are my friends even today. The local support group was a God sent as well. It just made me feel less alone.

With the help of a great friend (and ex-Babbage's employee!) I started working at MicroAge soon thereafter. It wasn't easy, as a matter of fact it was very hard, but it was practically 100% mental work, something that I've never had before. For the first time I worked "normal" daytime hours with weekends off, it seemed like a dream. It probably seemed more so because soon thereafter I became pregnant with Nicky, and I enjoyed the sitting down a lot! :)

In late November our precious little boy was born, but not perfect. He was diagnosed with a very rare skin disorder called Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). His skin is extremely fragile (and that's an understatement), making it difficult to even just pick him up without creating a blister or cause his skin to peel off like wet tissue paper. We did not know it at the time of Alex's death, but we later found out that Alex might have had EB as well, and that might have played a major part in his demise. The miscarriage I had after I lost Alex was also most likely caused by the EB. Nature's way to "discard" (an awful way to put it, I know) the unfit for life.

Again, the Internet helped me get in touch with other parents of EB babies. Many of them had lost babies before like I did. EB is so rare that if it wouldn't have been for the Internet I would most likely still looking for another parent in my situation.

Nicky is a child that needs to be watched 24 hours a day, and one that needs tiring bandage changes, among other things. He is a difficult child, not only he's fragile and every simple task becomes a challenge, but did not sleep well for years. He eats ok, but he needs more calories than a normal child, so the g-tube was inserted when he was 3.5 years old. His diet primarily consists of liquids and mushy foods. The EB has left him with scars and If a cure is not found he will be vulnerable to skin cancer and other serious and possibly lethal problems. Yet, despite it all, Nicky's an extremely loving child, always ready for a kiss and a hug, a true treasure.

The relationship I had with my ex-husband, Nicky and Alex's dad, had always been on the verge of disaster, and it did not survive the hardships. I don't blame my sons for the dissolution of my marriage, I am mostly mad at myself for not wanting to see the evident signs of a relationship that was doomed from the very beginning. The hardships just made it all come out in the open. Nick and I were just too different, whoever said that opposites attract?? In everyday life you NEED to see eye to eye, otherwise one or both of the two people will end up sacrificing a lot or even their entire being for the other, and that is what happened to us. Nicky's dad and I remain very good friends. I have no ill-feelings toward him and Nicky simply worships his daddy, and I am very glad he does.

As it came time for me to go back to work after the separation/divorce, it was clear to me I wanted a position doing what I learned to do on my 2.5 years where I was a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom), I wanted to be a WebMaster. Of course, 2.5 years learning HTML on my own did not qualify for 'experience', so at first I took a position with Insight in their TCComputers' sales division, and thanks to many different factors, as soon as a position became available I was offered the move to the Web Team. After a year I convinced them to let me work from home so I could move closer to Stanford, so in January 2001 I said goodbye to Arizona, my home for 12 years, and said hello (again) to Southern California. I had lived here before, in 1988. They let me work from home for 9 months, but then due to budget cuts they had to let me go. 
The state of California does