Sunny Snaith

Comments:

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS SUNNY SNAITH?

SUMMER 1987: OKAMOTO, JAPAN (near Kobe). After Junior year at DHS, I left for Japan on a free trip from the government. Two weeks in DC (met Senators Sam Nunn and Wyche Fowler) and two months with a host family.

AUGUST 1987: TRIP TO HIROSHIMA, JAPAN. Rode the Shincansen (Bullet Train) to Hiroshima two days after the anniversary of the bombing.

FALL 1987 - SPRING 1988: PLANTATION, FL (near Ft. Lauderdale). Senior Year, living with my father and step-mom that year. She committed suicide in December ... long story.

MAY 1988: CARNIVAL CRUISE TO THE BAHAMAS. Lots of fun. Miniature estuary on forbidden area of Paradise Island.

SUMMER 1988: DECATUR, GA. Hanging out with Mc Smith and Kristi Burns over the summer.

FALL - WINTER 1988: BOSTON, MA. Physics major at Boston Uni. ... Boy, was that a bad idea!

SPRING - WINTER 1989: ATHENS, GA. Dropped out and moved to Athens, where I lived a bohemian lifestyle of waiting tables and going dancing with Mc at the 40-Watt.

SPRING 1990 - SUMMER 1993: STONE MOUNTAIN, DECATUR, AND NORCROSS, GA. Various word processing jobs. Started Software Productivity Company, training folks on WordPerfect and Lotus.

FALL 1993 - SPRING 1997: AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE, DECATUR, GA. Double-major in Astrophysics & Math ... I'm a certified nerd!

SUMMER 1994: UGA, ATHENS, GA. Summer Astronomy research. Got to go to a Shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center, FL, with a NASA briefing.

SUMMER 1995: UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING, LARAMIE, WY. Summer Astronomy research. Technical rock climbing at Vedawoo, WY.

AUGUST 1995: 15-DAY WESTERN ROAD TRIP: 5,000 miles on the rental car (unlimited mileage!) and 41 rolls of film (mostly 36-exposure). Denver, Chimney Rock, Mesa Verde, CO; Four Corners, NM; Four Corners, UT; Grand Canyon (N and S rims), AZ; Las Vegas, Valley of Fire, NV; Death Valley, Sequoia, Yosemite, San Francisco, Redwoods, CA; Crater Lake, OR; Craters of the Moon, ID; West Yellowstone, MT; Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole, WY; Rocky Mountains, CO.

SUMMER 1996: NOAO, TUCSON, AZ. Summer research at the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, two observing runs on Kitt Peak.

SUMMER 1996: ROAD TRIP TO SUNSPOT, WHITE SANDS, VLA, NM. The Very Large Array (those rows of huge radio telescopes from the movie CONTACT ... I crawled around in one), White Sands (Bombing range from the film INDEPENDENCE DAY), and Sunspot, NM.

SUMMER 1996: ROAD TRIP TO SAN DIEGO. Zoo and beach.

SUMMER 1997 - SPRING 1998: STONE MOUNTAIN, GA. Bookkeeper / Office Manager.

JULY 1998: ROAD TRIP TO CHAT GATHERING IN PITTSBURGH, PA. Met folks from around the world (UK, NZ) who hung out in the CapeCanaveral Chat of GeoCities.

SUMMER 1998 - SUMMER 2002: NORCROSS, GA. Business Analyst. Variety of road trips.

MAY 1999: ROAD TRIP TO BATON ROUGE, LA, MEMPHIS, TN, AND MAMMOTH CAVES, KY. Graceland was interesting. Corvette Museum.

JANUARY 2000 - JANUARY 2001: 13 months, 11 relatives die, including both fathers.

SUMMER - WINTER 2002: SUNRISE, FL. Renovating my father's townhouse, selling his stuff, and selling the townhouse.

SPRING - SUMMER 2003: REDMOND, WA. Visiting friends, deciding about physics grad school (NOT), and tutoring.

FALL 2003 - SPRING 2007: NORCROSS, GA. Professional Math Tutor.

SPRING 2007 - FALL 2009: FORT PAYNE, AL. Followed Mom to Alabama and had several office jobs, including Administrative Analyst. Currently laid off and spending WAYYY too much time on the computer.

School Story:

KARMA MAKES A COME BACK

Ms. M***** hated me before she ever met me.

I had domestic problems in middle school and had made poor grades in Gifted class so I was not automatically assigned to her AP Literature and AP World History classes.

After a week in lower-level classes, Mrs. Williams recommended I get a waiver into AP. Ms. M***** was overheard by a student as saying that I did not "deserve" to be in her class because I had not "earned the right" ... not a great place to start high school.

Now, I have tol admit that I was not a disciplined student: I did not know how to take notes well and struggled to make myself do homework. But I did retain most of the content covered in class.

Oh, and I was a horrible speller. A product of the phonetics generation, I was (FALSELY) taught that words were spelled as they sounded: Since I knew the word TOAST, I spelled most like MOAST; since I knew MAYBE, I spelled baby like BAYBE; since I knew AIR, I spelled there like THAIR. And I still struggle with the characters P p q b d g and 9 all being a circle with a stick on it.

Now, when it came to history tests, Ms. M***** took off one percentage point for each spelling error, regardless of how many times the same word was misspelled. On my Winter final I lost 30% on spelling alone ... not including any factual mistakes.

FINAL HISTORY GRADES: Fall 71% D, Winter 69% F, and Spring 70% D. I feel certain this last grade was a gift to herself, to pass me so as never to have me in her class again.

These grades dragged down my average throughout my time at DHS but relief was on its way ...

When I transferred to Plantation High in Florida for my senior year, they were on the semester system, so they took the 71%, 69%, and 70% and merged them into two 70% grades.

... and they were on the 60-100 system, so these 70s were C's instead of D's.

... PLUS, they added two letter grades for AP courses.

... So I ended up getting an A average in a class I failed one quarter!
So take that Ms. M***** !

You hated me and tried to squash me, instead of being a true educator who would have helped me with my spelling and dyslexia problems. But I prevailed, nonetheless.

And today I am a very good speller, always learning from the little red computer underlines, which gently guide my mind to spell properly without squashing my spirit.

Do you still see/talk/hangout with any classmates? If so who?

I email Andrea Bradner from time to time ... She's married with two kids and living in CT.

What's the farthest you've been from home?

Japan, Summer 1987

What is your favorite vacation spot?

I love road trips and scenic vistas ... Crater Lake, OR, was beautiful ... Squirrel's Nest at Unicoi State Park, GA

Places you want to go

Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), Mesa Verde (Colorado, revisit).

How old do you feel?

Varies between 2 and 92, depending on the day.

What would we be surprised to know about you?

I won a costume contest dressed as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark back in 1990. Amazingly, I made the bodice of the risque' dress from the same pattern as my prom dress (see photos).
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I was abducted by aliens back in 1999. I blacked out for several hours and woke up feeling drugged, with strange abdominal incisions. A later x-ray revealed a metal implant left inside me during the abduction.

Yeah, that's the ticket ... I was abducted.

(Sounds a lot more interesting than having your gallbladder removed.)

Biggest thing you would do different if you went back to your time at DHS

RELAX !!

Seriously, high school seems so far away and my petty problems back then, so small. I wish I had relaxed and enjoyed it more.

Famous or interesting people you've met

I went to Agnes Scott College with Jennifer Nettles of the band Sugarland. Met Senators Sam Nunn and Wyche Fowler on Japan trip.

States you've lived in

GA, TX, FL, MA, WY, AZ, WA, AL, JAPAN

Ever been on TV

Held up by Jimmy Carter on the news during his 1975 campaign.

What is your favorite Drink? Food? Sport? TV show? Movie? Music?

FAVORITES

EVERYDAY DRINKS: Water, Watered-down Apple Juice.

SPECIAL DRINK: Hot Chocolate Glasgow at Cafe Intermezzo, Atlanta.

ALCOHOLIC DRINK: Amaretto & Orange Juice.

ALCOHOLIC DESSERTS: Chateau Elan Peach Wine over Lime Sherbet (yumm) or Naughty Milkshake (with Irish Cream, Godiva's, Creme de Menthe, and Ice Cream).

FOOD: Muscadines and Scuppernongs (wild grapes native to the south and used in making wine at Chateau Elan, Athens, GA).

SPORT: Creative Procrastination.

TV SHOWS: Bored with TV these days.

CHANNELS: FoxNews, Sci, NatGeo, SyFy, USA.

MOVIES: Ever After, Independence Day, Narnia, Life is Beautiful, Titanic, Scream, Silence of the Lambs, 28 Days Later, 10 Things I Hate About You.

ARTISTS: Sugarland, Brad Paisley, Depeche Mode, Chris Rice, B-52s, Gary Allan, London Symphony Orchestra, Aimee Mann, Pet Shop Boys.

BOOKS: Ender's Game, Narnia, The Hiding Place, Pooh, Twilight, Please Understand Me, Designs for Coloring, Mere Christianity, Inventing Reality, Too Busy Not to Pray, The Tao of Pooh.

SECRET ALTER-EGO: In my heart of hearts I'm Laa-Laa, the yellow Teletubby.

SECRET CRUSH: Larry on the VeggieTales.

How do you see yourself in 10 years?

Lord only knows.

Any words of wisdom

SO SAYS SUNNY -isms
(funny sayings by me)

You only have to floss
the teeth you want to keep.

Computer glitches are gifts from God
to help us not worship technology.
So just say, "Thank you, Lord,"
and reboot to exorcise the demons.

You can keep the soft drinks --
If I'm gonna have empty calories,
there's gonna be some chocolate attached.

Saying "I'll never ..." is like asking God
to test your will versus His.

We're all born obsessive-compulsive.
Think about the games kids play.
Some of us just never grow out of it.

PhySUCKS!

You don't break the laws of physics ...
The laws of physics break you!

For me, organization is not a virtue.
It's merely a coping skill for dealing with
the frustration of not being able to find stuff.

Vidi, Vici, Veni.
(a lewd joke I made up in Coach Green's Latin class)

---

OTHER WORDS OF WISDOM
(I got these from someone else)

God's will is what I would want
if I knew everything.

Success is getting what you want;
happiness is wanting what you get.

If God tells you to do something,
you really only have two choices:
* Go to Nineveh.
* Go somewhere else and end up in Nineveh anyway,
covered in whale vomit.

There are only three kinds of Mathematicians:
Those who can count
and those who can't.

If there is a question that you would like to have added to this list please email Michelle.

Classmate(s) you had a crush on back then.