About A Girl

Hi, there! I’m Jean. You might remember me from such 1994 Central Iowa anti-drinking campaigns  as “This Summer Think, Don’t Drink and Drive,” or maybe my short-lived newspaper column “Life As I Know It.”

What’s that? You don’t remember either of those. Hmmm, that’s funny. Well, then, we’ll have to start from square one.

I was born in a small Iowa town in the fall of 1975. I come from a large Catholic family of six brothers and sisters and more cousins than members in my graduating class. (That should give you and idea of just how Catholic my family is and just how small my hometown is).

I am the fifth child in my family. My siblings have played a huge role in my life – mostly influencing my taste in everything from The Cars to V.C. Andrews novels. Without them I would know next to nothing about pop culture. I would be a huge bore at parties.

Skip ahead about 40 years and here I am writing this blog. In between the being born and the blogging, I’ve been a reporter, a media specialist, and then a reporter again. For the last 10 years I’ve been a page designer for a group of weekly newspapers in Central Iowa. Since I work in print journalism, I figured I would need something to fall back on. That’s where this blog comes in.

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I remember my first story was a knock-off of the children’s book “Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.” It blew my mind that you could make up stories about it raining french toast. I was hooked.

But somewhere along the way, I got nervous. I didn’t think I could do it or that anyone would want to read what I had to say. I needed to find a “real” career.

Around this same time, I was obsessed with Jennifer Horton and Jack Deveraux on “Days of Our Lives.” They were reporters, so I thought to myself, “Journalism, huh? That seems like a sexy way to be a writer.”

So, yes, I picked my career based on a soap opera. My parents should have intervened.

But it was a good place to start. It taught me how to talk to people and how to tell a story. It also tried to teach me what TIFF means (I think it means Tax Increment Finance something or other. I always forget that last F), but I’m terrible with acronyms.

I am now ready to take the leap I should have taken 20 years ago and try my hand at being the kind of writer I really wanted to be.

If you and I are to have a relationship, there are a few other things you need to know about me.

First off, I’m married. His name is Shawn and he’s a wonderful man who also happens to be a human encyclopedia. He once auditioned for “Jeopardy!” and made it all the way to the screen test. He never got a call back.

I also have two incredible daughters.

Amelia is 12. She learned how to do the Roger Rabbit in ten seconds. I’ve been trying to learn it for the last 25 years and still look like a bouncing teapot when I attempt it.

Zoe is 8. She likes to dance, sing, write stories, and make the dishes talk when she’s supposed to be putting them away. She wants you to know that her one and only dislike is the log ride at amusement parks.

So, that’s me! I hope you like what you read here and stick around a while!