OK, things seem to be working now. The initial post didn't show up, so I did a test (as you can see below) and both published at the same time. Woo hoo for me!

I promised an intro, so here we go. For those of you who don't know me (or not that well), I am a 32 year old residence director at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. I work with students to make sure they're getting what they need/want out of college (at least the legal things), and to help them out if there are problems. I also get to work with them when they're apparently the cause of a problem, but through a student-run system. So it's a step removed, less adversarial.

It's not a bad job, though the hours can be a little crazy. It's not for the 9 to 5 crowd. I'm usually in a meeting on Monday nights, sometimes Tuesday and Wednesday nights as well. I'm also on call during non office hours for a week at a time. So I could get called at 3 a. m. for something. But it hasn't happenned yet, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

So you may be wondering why my web page is on a Boston University server when I don't work there. Well, I used to. I also was a student there, for many more years than was wise. Not sure why they haven't cut me off from my email and web stuff, but they haven't. I figure it's a small refund for the many, MANY thousands of dollars I spent there on education.

I live on campus, in a residence hall, which isn't as bad as it sounds. It's a relatively quiet building, and the residents don't come pounding on my door. There's even a deck off the back, which will come in handy when we're finally able to use it.

And by "we" I mean me and my girlfriend, Sarah, who lives with me. In a historical note, it never seemed like I'd ever say anything like that. No, not the lady killer, me. Met Sarah at BU, things worked out, and here we are. She also works for BU, in Personnel, dealing with non-retirement benefits (health, dental, insurance, and the like). Interesting fact: I'm 9 years older than she is. Which I'm sure some of you will find creepy. Too bad.

My immediate family consists of my brother Myles and sister Maureen. Both older; I'm the youngest. Both of my parents have passed, my mom in '98, my dad just about a year ago. Mom had cancer, dad a variety of liver ailments (which we think included cancer given how things went, but we didn't feel a huge need to check). I also had another sister, Cathy, who was about a year and a half older than me, who passed away just before I graduated from high school. There's a disturbing trend among the Coen family to pass away early. Both my paternal grandfather and my dad's only brother died when they were in their early 60s, though at the time my grandfather died (mid to late 1960s) it wasn't unusual for that to happen. They both died from cardiovascual things, which at least tells me what I should focus on as the aging thing continues.

On a more life-affirming note, both Myles and Maureen have 3 kids, two boys and a girl each. They're all between 4 and 9, which is much more managable than the time they were all between six months and six years.

So that's the fam, and they'll come up from time to time. More later on my weekend of weddings just past.