Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 18:03:52 -0800
From: tia@pacbell.net
Subject: Hi Tink - here's my Bio

Hello Everybody,

I wrote a very short introduction when I first signed on and all the
wonderful Bio excersizes popping up have encouraged me to take on this
exersize, so here goes...


(maybe this will explain where all my morbid, crazy poetry comes from :)





  In 1969 alot of groovy things happened. Woodstock (of course), America
landed on the moon, while the world watched, and Tianna Angela Duran,
later known as Ti to most, and Tia to the rest, made her entrance into
the world.  I wouldn't say that my arrival on the planet was nearly as
phenomenal as the rest of the things that happened that year, but for me
it was a life altering experience.

  I was born to a woman-child of the sixties. A true sterotype of the
time.  She was a flower child, Hippie, and at one time - she even thought
she was a Hobbit (go figure). I therefore, was a love-child, born in a
time when peace, love and phsychadelic drugs were a way of life for most
my mothers age.

  I was always being tossed from one relative to another when I was
young.  I lived with my mother for maybe 6 years out of my life.  She
would give me to my grandma when she couldn't handle the responsibility
of raising me, while she went off to "find herself". As the years went
on, my mother needed to "find herself", alot.

  I was a good kid though. I think my mother was really lucky, because
with the lack of supervision I had, I could have run amuck. I didn't. I
was in by dark, did my schoolwork, made my brother and sister dinner (who
came along when I was 7 and 10) and stole money from her to pay the
bills.

  By the time I was 13 I had had enough. My brother and sister had been
taken away from me (by my stepdad) and I was left alone with a mother who
was never really there. When she was, she wasn't there mentally. So I put
myself in a foster home. Yes, I walked down to the local police station,
after my mother had beaten the crap out of me in a drug induced rage, and
turned myself in.

  I went through three different foster homes before I found one that I
could live with. I stayed in "the system" for two years, then went to
live with my grandma. Poor grandma, I had turned into a very angry young
girl by then and unfortunately my grandma saw the brunt of it. I started
skipping school alot, to hang out with my loser friends and basically I
thought I knew everything.  Then my grandma kicked me out.

  I realized then that I needed to do something to take care of myself,
which wasn't really new to me.  I moved in with a friend, and at 16, I
went to school in the morning, had a job after school, and partied all
the time. I then quit school in the 12th grade (stupid huh) and worked
full time. By then I was an assistant manager for Contempo Casuals (an
upscale clothing store - at least it _was_ at that time :).

  At 20 I had my son Joshua - by this time I was married and my marriage
was falling apart. I left my husband, got my G.E.D. and went on to
College. I worked a full time job, went to school full time and missed 2
years of my sons early life. I had a live-in nanny and I left my son to
her. I woke up one day, looked at my baby, and wondered what the hell I
was doing. I was doing the same thing my mother was, although it
manifested itself a little differently. So, I quit school, (couldn't quit
my job :) and started to teach my son English. (He had a Spanish speaking
nanny).

  I then threw myself into my work.  The pursuit of a better position
became my obsession. ( I always seem to have an obsession of some sort -
work, school, whatever - my alternative to drugs) And life went on.

  I met the love of my life - and lost him. I met the next best thing and
he lost me. I now have a beautiful little girl Hayley, who is almost 2
and Joshua, my son, is almost 7.

  All through my life, I have written. Writing, for me, has been such a
release, an escape from the problems at hand. A way to get out my
frustrations.  When I was 14, I had some poetry actually published - a
publisher was visiting my school and liked my work. I write short stories
(most are unfinished), I write poetry (seems like alot, lately) and I'm
working on a novel.  So, has this been more than you wanted to know? LOL.
I bet it has. Oh well, so now you know my life story.

  In closing, I'd just like to say that I'm alot more focused in my life
now.  I have a great job, I've turned into a good mother, and I'm a good
person. I still have things I'm working on - like not trusting anyone and
then trusting too much - and I'm learning how to deal with life in a
healthy way, something I've had to do on my own, since I was never shown
by example. I think I missed alot, growing up the way I did, but slowly,
I'm learning the essentials.

Tia