About Me
I’m Jen. Thanks for stopping by my crazy little piece of the interwebz. I hope you’ll find it amusing, informative, and sometimes poignant. And I hope you’ll come back again and again. I promise to make it worth your time. Because I know your time is precious.
I live by the online rule of, “If I don’t want my family/fiance/friends/boss/Dalai Lama/etc to know this about me, don’t put it online.” I’m a pretty open person, and there’s really nothing about myself that I feel the need to hide, so that’s not really a big problem. But if you’re looking for the intimate, gory details of my life, well, this isn’t the place for you. In light of that, please README.
Who is Jen? That’s a good question. It’s one I work on pretty much every day of my life. Right now, I’m a 31 year old girl (yes, I still call myself a “girl,” not “woman. I feel young, and “girl” doesn’t offend me. And please don’t ever call me “ma’am.” It makes me feel old.) living in St. Louis, MO with Tiberius, my 80 pound half Black Lab, half Spazz mix, Emmy, my 35 pound Cute Puppy, and my fiance John. I’ve been told that I have become “one of those dog people everyone hates.” But I’m okay with that, and so are my dogs.
So, what do I do? Let’s get the boring part over first. (Boss, if you read this, I mean boring in the sense that the people reading my blog probably don’t care about software installations. Not that my job is boring. Quite the opposite.) I work in IT creating software installation packages. You know when you buy a new program, and you click on a file called “setup.exe” that automagically installs it to your computer and makes everything run? I write that setup.exe. Only I do it for internal-to-my-company applications, so you’ll likely never see them. And that’s the majority of what you’ll see me say about my job here. This site isn’t about my 8-4. It’s about what I do any other time besides Monday through Friday, 8-4.
My most ardent love is writing. What do I write? My current focus is urban fantasy novels. I originally thought I’d be a young adult author, but then National Novel Writing Month 2008 came around, and a fabulous story poured out, one with characters who demanded it be a series, and it’s much better than the first novel I ever wrote (the young adult one.) I’ll talk more about that on my Writing Evolution page for those who are interested in the metamorphosis of this writer. I also write the occasional poem, the even more occasional short story, and essays on life. In fact, some of those are even published here.
I also love motorcycles. I currently ride a 2006 Honda Shadow Aero 750. When I’m on my bike (her name is Veronica) is the only time I can completely shut down my brain. Any other time my brain is going a million miles a minute, thinking of everything I have to do, bills, work, you name it. It never shuts up. But when I’m riding, it’s just me and the road. My brain is silent. I am happy. It’s that simple.
Early in 2011 I started taking yoga classes, and fell in love. I’d taken a few classes many years ago, but didn’t stick with it. This time I’m sticking with it. It’s relaxing, and I feel good, physically and mentally, after every class. I go 2-3 times a week, and am amazed at the changes I’ve noticed in my body – strength and flexibility – after only a few months.
Finally, I’m a bit of a science geek. I can’t spout off facts and figures and trivia (my brain doesn’t work that way), but I find the world in which we live fascinating. Especially space. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. (I also wanted to be a cake decorator, teacher, and veterinarian.) I really hope that the average person (read, not millionaire) can make it to space, if not the moon, before I die. I figure they’ve got about 50 or so years, more if I’m lucky, so it might happen.
If you’re still here, thank you! Please let me know your thoughts on my website, or anything else. Send me random factoids about whatever tickles your fancy. Pictures of your animals. (I ADORE cute animal pictures!) Anything. Let’s get to know each other, and when I am a New York Times Bestselling Author, you can say, “Hey! I knew Jennifer K. Sights when she was Just Jen.”
