I’m Karen. That is my real name; it’s easier for me to remember that way. I was almost called Susan Ellen (and this was way before Dallas was popular), as my mom really liked that name, but it really didn’t go with our last name so she ended up calling the dog Susie instead. Since Karens abound, I’m also known as KarenD, and once, when I worked in an office with a Karen B. and a Karen E., I became Karen #3, to avoid the confusion caused by “D” and “B” and “E” all sounding the same when shouted over cubicle walls. Of course, we often got confused about who was which number, so I probably should have just changed my name to Lulu or something equally unusual so I’d really stand out.
I turned 40 in March of 2002. I do not yet consider myself middle-aged, as I plan to live to be 107 at least. I think I have a pretty good chance of doing that, especially since my maternal grandmother reached her mid-nineties (no one was quite sure about her age, including her, since she’d lied about it for so many years).
I’ve lived in the United States my whole life, near Chicago, Illinois, when I was growing up and in Michigan since I came here for college. I’m in the Detroit metro area now, living in a typical subdivision in a typical suburb with my husband, Mr. Karen, and our guinea pig, Bubba.
I work for a small software company, to be known here as Purple Systems, as an application developer. I used to be an account manager, too, but gave that up quite happily. I’ve only been a programmer since 1999; before that, I was a corporate accountant, and before that, a CPA and auditor. During the transition from accountant to programmer, I took six months off and did consulting work for six more. I like my current job better than any I’ve ever had, because Purple Systems is a very democratic place, and decisions are made based on what makes sense rather than what policy is or what’s been done in the past.
When I’m not working, I’m often doing something related to quilting. Sometimes all I can fit in is going to a quilt shop or quilt show or reading a quilt magazine, but whenever I can, I make quilts. My favorite part is designing: deciding on a pattern, choosing fabrics, playing with all the options. I love color, and quilting is a way to indulge that love. When I first started, I was all practical about it and only planned to make bed quilts, but in recent years I’ve made mostly smaller wall pieces and baby quilts, which give me a chance to try out more combinations of color and pattern than I could if I had to commit to a big quilt every time. Besides, we only have two beds in our house.
Outside of working and quilting and the typical stuff like seeing movies and eating out, I like to travel. Mr. Karen and I believe in using all our vacation time every year and using it to go places. We spend the biggest piece of our discretionary income on travel, by far. We try to take at least a couple ski trips out west each year– once you’ve skied on real mountains, it’s very hard to get excited about the little hills here in Michigan– supplemented with one long and several short non-ski trips. 2003’s big trip is Tokyo, the one in Japan.
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