For the voyeuristic among us:
Originally from Fremont, CA. I was interested in science early on, but had awful science teachers in high school and took a lot of persuading in college to change back to a science major. After 5 years of trudging through, I made it out of UC Irvine with a bachelor's in biology in 1995. I had a lot of research experience in an evolutionary biology lab, which led me to realize that I enjoyed research but preferred other fields. I gained a lot of tutoring experience in biochem and organic chem, which led me to realize how much I enjoyed learning about those fields, as well as teaching.
And therefore, I wound up immediately going to graduate school after college -- something I would not recommend. I did research more tailored to my interests at UCSF in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry PhD program (now Chemistry and Chemical Biology). My thesis project involved elucidating the function of a protein (potential enzyme, potentially in a metabolic pathway?) found in E. coli; I did a lot of benchwork and was also abe to use the early bioinformatics tools. As the years passed, I grew more frustrated with research and enjoyed teaching more. (In the end, there was not enough background/supporting research for this particular project, but I was stuck in the position of needing to work on it for financial support at the time...) As my project got nowhere for years on end, I cut my losses and dropped out during my fourth year (1998) and got the "consolation prize" master's degree.
Meanwhile, before I returned to teaching, the economy was great. I worked for a pharmaceutical company and had a hand in this, worked for a handful of internet companies doing nothing related to science, got married, and got a full-time teaching position.
Eventually, as I was putting all of my paychecks toward rent in order to live in California, we made a change and found a house here (random move, driving trip, "hey, let's look at houses" and made a bid on the first one we looked at -- that's where we live). Since, I've floated through schools teaching mostly chem but also some biology. I had a hiatus working in a UW research lab as well, but I can't be that isolated.
Some of you also know that I have a "side job" that I'm trying to figure out how to make more my primary job -- I lead fitness classes several hours a week all throughout the north Seattle/south Snohomish county area. I'm not one of those dancey aerobics types -- more the spinning/strength/pilates type, but I've been known to be dancey if you list the right price. And I guess it's now known that I "make" music -- which I've done to some degree for almost 30 years, but I play with two local bands (I play jazz, but really can't stand listening to it). I also write/sing songs and occasionally get brave enough to play them in coffeehouses. There are some really, really old clips if you go to brookeyool.com.
Anything else? I've run several marathons and want to fix my feet enough to do another before the end of the year. Other than that... it's been a work-heavy past few years! I like bad humor, just for the halibut, but maybe I'm being shellfish.