Amal Ratnaike:
CLASS OF 1980
International School of BangkokClass of 1980
Bangkok,
Glendale Community CollegeClass of 2000
Glendale, CA
California State University NorthridgeClass of 1997
Northridge, CA
Glendale Community CollegeClass of 1994
Glendale, CA
Ruam Rudee International High SchoolClass of 1980
Bangkok,
Amal's Story
Life
My priorities are simple: 1) contented sobriety, 2) fulfilling marriage, 3) useful occupation. I am very grateful to have all three simultaneously.
I was 17 years old when I came to college, and it took another 17 years to graduate. In between, I did a variety of jobs. Nude Art Model, L.A. County Health Dept. Vaccine Monitor, handyman, Real Estate Agent, handyman, Alcohol/Drug Counselor, Community Liason for Alcohol Abuse Prevention, handyman, and College Instructor. After each career change, I returned to what I'm instinctively good at, which is fixing stuff.
It's not glamorous, but I'm most at ease being a handyman. My customers pay me well, praise me frequently, and genuinely appreciate my analytical and creative abilities and quality of workmanship. Some loyal clients have patiently waited for weeks till I'm available, rather than call someone else.
My wife, Carole, is an Environmental Engineer and works from home preparing Phase I reports for commercial lenders. When she gets very busy, I help her research information about properties at the Building Dept and various other agencies. Occasionally, we do a Phase II, which usually involves coring through concrete or asphalt and taking soil samples at various depths and having them analysed in a lab. This can be back-breaking work, so I've devised several tools to facilitate this process.
Although we've been married almost 18 years, neither of us wanted kids, so we spoil our dogs rotten. When we adopted Toby he was a frail one month old puppy that barely weighed 5 ...Expand for more
lbs. For the next month we took turns taking him out to "pee-pee" at all hours of the day and night. He used to sleep on a pillow in the bathroom, but he would cry pathetically when woke up all alone. So in the interest of sleep we brought him into bed with us. We all slept better after that.
Now that little thing is 3 years old, and still sleeps under the covers. Actually, he's not that little anymore, and sometimes he sticks his head out to rest it on one of our pillows, so we look like three peas in a pod. He is a stunningly handsome Great Dane/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix that weighs 90 pounds and takes half the bed.
Misty is a 25 lb fluffy white soft-haired terrier who adopted us last year. Our neighbor found her wandering around outside without a collar, and asked if it was our dog. (They're not exactly twins!) We took her in, and nobody claimed her, so she stayed. She is a spunky one year old rascal who was never intimidated by his size, and frequently bosses him around.
He's such a gentle giant that he rarely growls even when she literally snatches one of his squeaky toys or a large bone right out of his mouth. If she's lying in front of the doggie door he will not go through, but alerts us of his distress by alternately moaning and whining progressively louder. She has already tought him several bad habits like digging holes in the yard and rudely demanding to be fed or taken for a walk.
They are so physically different and yet are such great buddies that they constantly amuse us and remind us of cartoon characters.
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