Naomi Owens:  

My first job was in the summer of 1990. My sister, Tammy and I picked fruit for Spring Hill Orchards and Farm Market in Geneva, OH. We worked with a younger guy, who I wish I could find to catch up on things. I can't remember his name. (I wonder if Spring Hill still has the records?) He and Tammy and I threw rotten blueberries at each other and listened to guitar ballads on the radio. Fun times. At age 15, I entered a program for students who wished to attend college early. So, as a junior and senior in high school, I attended Lake Erie College full time. I studied biology and chemistry and German. My husband, Jim and I met at church in 1995 and started dating in 1996. It was a cross-border love affair, as he often drove from his home in Edinboro, PA to where I was living at the time, Madison, OH. He spent many a late evening driving through snow and ice to see me. In 1997, I attended school in Berlin, Germany through the Institute for European Studies. I lived in Berlin for 6 and 1/2 months and did an internship at the Berlin Botanical Gardens towards the end of my stay. On January 1, 1998, Jim and I married at the Old Tavern (actually a restored historic landmark with a ballroom upstairs). And so we started our new life together. Jim and I moved to North Olmsted, OH, where I worked in the IT dept. of Dreher Business Products doing user support and computer networking. Jim commuted to Tower City in Cleveland to work for Sherwin Williams as a UNIX administrator. As I always loved plants, esp. herbs, Jim and I moved to Longmont, CO, so I could study he...Expand for more