Comments:
After graduating from Hamilton College in '87, I moved back to the burgh for about 9 years. Worked some odd jobs, writing, sales, then finally became a financial planner (w/ Acacia Group & Allegheny Financial). After a while, I realized I wasn't doing what I wanted, so I pitched that and went back to school. I got my Masters and Ph.D. in political science from the Univ. of MD in 2003. I met my wife (Ana), who was in the same program, and we married in '03. She finished her doctorate just before me & got the first job offer. We relocated to Iowa and taught political science at the Univ. of Northern Iowa. We moved briefly in '08-09, when I took a Visiting Assistant Professor position at Centre College in Kentucky. Our first son (Ronan) was born there.
After a year off, my wife went back to work, we moved back to Iowa, and I took time off to be a stay-at-home dad. I went back to work the year our second son (Eamon) was born, so my wife could take the year off. Then I went back to stay-at-home-dad duties, when she went back to work (her job was better paying and we wanted one of us at home while they were young). I'm going back to work part time teaching at the university next fall ('14), when our elder starts kindergarten. I'd frankly rather stay home with the boys and work on our acre growing food (we have quite the garden), but one income has been a bit tight even here in small town Iowa.
In fall of '12 I was diagnosed with a type of lymphoma and had to undergo some very nasty chemotherapy. It is all gone for now. The cancer will almost certainly come back repeatedly, but the treatment is fairly effective at knocking it back even if it can't cure it. The prognosis is that it is manageable for several decades, and there are a number of good treatments being developed that should improve that and be less nasty.
The cancer and the kids has given me a new focus on keeping in shape and enjoying being with them as they grow up. We have an extensive organic garden and orchard, and both my wife and I are avid gardeners. Besides fruits and vegetables, I've been doing a lot with native plant gardening and habitat restoration, and we are slowly turning what was an acre of lawn into food garden, flower garden, and woodland garden while trying not to scare our lawn-loving neighbors too much.
We don't get to the Pittsburgh area often, and haven't been back to Mt. Lebanon in a long, long time (my parents moved to near Ligonier, and my brother lives in Johnstown).
