Karen Sanders:  

College: Went to Napa Jr. College 1 year, then Univ. of Pacific 1 year. Majored in music theory & composition. My composition teacher had us throw dice around to pick random numbers and called it writing atonal music. It sounded awful, so instead, I was turning in compositions that sounded like music. He said - you write too pink. I told him - you just throw dice around. I felt I was wasting my money and didn't go back. 1974 - Went to work at McClellan AFB for 2 years. My boss was planning to promote me into a buying position which would have been an excellent opportunity, but I had been dreaming of fulfilling my desire to be a musician and promptly quit in 1976. 1976 - Went on the road as a musician for the next 10 years. Played all over the U.S. Played keys, sax flute and sang lead vocals. Played hotels and casinos. I have many crazy road stories and met a lot of interesting and even some famours people during that time. OK, so I never got famous, but at least I can say I followed my dream, so I have no regrets. 1978 - met Ralph Campanale and we dated for several months. You remember Ralph, voted Most Likely to Succeed. His father was my mother's surgeon at that time. He was going to med school and becoming a surgeon like his dad. He had his whole life pretty much planned. He was going to become a surgeon and move to Idaho. I believe that's exactly what happened. I continued on with my own dream as a musician. 1984 - met Anthony Oglesby in 1984 in Colorado while on the road and married him. He was also a musician and we had a band together on the road for 2 years. We did a tour of the Far East in 1985 for Dept. of Defense entertaining the troops. 1986 - got off the road and got a "real" job as a legal secretary at a big law firm in Sacramento, CA. I found something that gripped my attention, this new fangled thing called a computer. I went back to college nights and obtained a degree in Computer Science from U.C. Davis. A few years later, I started teaching in their certificate program for paralegals as a second job. All the while, I still played in bands on the weekends. 1993 - Was hired to be the IT Manager for the Federal Defender's Office - Eastern District of California. Our most infamous client was the accused unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. I was teaching at UC Davis until that case came along in 1996, then ...Expand for more