Craig Boisvert:  

I left Pomona and stayed with my parents working at part time and odd jobs (Master Model maker, Photo Processing, picking down kits at Frostline). I trained in Troy, OH and went to work at Hobart Corporation where my dad worked for 27 years. I got to work on commercial food equipment for almost 2 years (some KitchenAid repairs too) and right after that I came out to my parents for the first time. It wasn't received well at the time. My Mom was a Methodist and my Dad was a catholic so they told me it was only a phase... I would get "better", just date some girls! I got tired of my last job at Chad Manufacturing in East Denver so I quit and moved to L.A. to live with my sister Brenda and her boyfriend (now husband) Will. All that jewelry making I did in the basement (never worked in fast food through high school, made too much money making jewelry) came in handy when I got a job in the San Fernando Valley doing jewelry work for a small chain of three stores starting in 1982. Left there in 1985 and worked for a jewelry manufacturer for two years until I couldn't stand L.A. anymore (got chased down the freeways several times and had to sleep with my gun...) it just got too stressful. I moved up the coast to Lompoc, CA to work for a small retailer doing custom work and repairs. I won the AGTA Spectrum Award in 1990 and left that small store to be hired at Serengeti West as the jewelry designer. During those times up until 1988 I dated five psycho red-headed girlfriends in a row because I'm a glutton for punishment, and I had to find the one that would turn me straight. Didn't work. In 1998 when a free "monk kit" that came in the mail (no relationship for 10 years, it comes automatically) came an eaten-out stomach lining, depression and suicidal tendencies. My dad had been struck by a cement truck doing 60 and had brain damage. My mom was having...Expand for more