MeMeThis is me. I've already given you a bit of info about myself, but I'll try to give you a few more vital statistics. I was born on 25-Feb-1974 in Pocatello, Idaho. I was moved around the state of Idaho quite a bit until I was seven years old, when we finally settled down just outside of Boise. I stayed there through high school, and I got my diploma from Boise High School in June of 1992. From there I moved down South to Pasadena, California to attend the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as an undergraduate. I graduated from Caltech in June of 1996, and from there I moved on to graduate school at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. I received my masters degree in mechanical engineering in October of 1998, passed the doctoral qualifying examination in August of 1999, finished all of my coursework in December of 2001, passed the doctoral preliminary exam in May of 2002, passed my doctoral final exam (thesis defense) on April 7, 2003, and deposited my thesis two weeks later. It's been a long and arduous process, but I am finally Dr. Sulfridge. Now I just need to get a job...
Currently, I am 29 years old, and after an extremely successful eating habit change which started on 28-Apr-2001, I have lost about 70 pounds (as of 25-Apr-2002) and I currently weigh 161 pounds. I have brown hair and brown eyes, I am 5' 7.5" tall (that half inch is important when it supplements 5 feet seven inches). I am Catholic. I am on the Conservative side of the political spectrum. I love to read hard Science Fiction (and see it in the movies on the rare occasions that it is done there). I like to hike. I enjoy skiing (both on snow and on water). Above all I love to discover, learn, design, and build. That's me in a nutshell.
OK, so that's not the whole picture anymore... In July of 2002, I met a beautiful, wonderful woman named Melissa, and since then she has grown to become the single most important person in my life. I can't imagine trying to describe myself anymore without seeing her in the picture. I am completely, totally, and hopelessly in love. What a wonderful feeling!
Jeralynne and Ted AmburnThis is my big sister Jeralynne. This is the only picture I have of her and Ted together. She tends to have an aversion to cameras. She's called Jery by her friends, but she's always been Jeralynne to me. She was born 3 years and 1 day before me on 24-Feb-1971. She's a really cool person, and she taught me a lot while I was growing up. She got married (the silly girl eloped!) in March of 1999 (at the Chapel o' love or some such thing) to Ted Amburn. Tragically, Ted died in November of 2002 due to complications from his diabetes. A day later, Jeralynne gave birth to their daughter, Abigail Rose Amburn. Jeralynne and Abigail currently live in Boise.
Gloria, John, and George KoppThis photo was taken and King's Island amusement park in August of 2001, and also includes John's son be a previous marriage (in front), and John's sister. Anyway, Gloria is my little sister, born almost two years after me on 1-Dec-1975. While we were growing up I couldn't figure out what a little sister was good for, but now I think she's a pretty cool chick, not to mention she did me a big favor by taking the pressure to go into military service off my shoulders by doing it herself. Don't get me wrong, I love this country's armed services, but I believe my talents lie elsewhere. She, on the other hand, makes a kick-*ss soldier. In fact, she loves the Army so much that she got married to it, er I should say to a Major in it in June of 1998. His name is John Kopp.
After graduating and receiving her commission and training, she and John were shipped off to Germany for three years in March of 1999. They surprised us in June by announcing that they were going to be having a kid. The little fellow, George Morgan Kopp, arrived almost a month early on 24-Dec-1999. They finally moved back to the states (albeit in North Carolina) in May of 2002.
Steve and Rose SulfridgeThis was my dad. He was a really dynamic and outgoing guy who is more responsible than any other single person for making me who I am today. He held a variety of jobs thoughout his life: music teacher, restaurant manager, purchasing agent for the state of Idaho, salesman, and private mail shipping contractor. He excelled at every one of them, always leaving on his own terms. But to me, his most important job was Dad. He got me interested in the way the world works when I was very young. He had an amazing mind for mathematics, the genes for which I am eternally grateful for; and he was a very good do-it-yourselfer. I learned a lot from helping him out on various projects while I was growing up. He got me started in little league when I was in kindergarten, and he even coached for me when I was in third and fourth grade. He always pushed me to excel in academics, but encouraged me to look over the horizon to other things as well. He encouraged me to sign up for the football team when I was in eigth grade; something I never would have done on my own. I ended up liking it so much that I wound up on the starting line, and continued in this position through my Freshman year in high school.
I should also say that he shared with me his love for music. He got me started playing the saxophone when I was in the fifth grade, and I continued playing in the school band all the way through high school. But while I was in high school, my dad also kept me focused on the importance of going to college. I'll never forget a time in my senior year when I was feeling especially lost and overwhelmed waiting to receive responses to all of my college applications. He found me crying in my room, and he sat down with me and we just talked for a long while. He told me how much he loved me, and how proud he was of me for working so hard. He was so reassuring that to this day I still remember feeling all of that weight falling off my shoulders.
That was my dad.
On September 26, 1999, barely more than a week before his 52nd birthday, my dad died of a sudden heart attack while chopping firewood in the Boise National Forest. That was, without a doubt, the worst day of my entire life. Every time I think about that day, even now, the tears always well up in my eyes. They say that time heals all wounds, but this one is so deep that I know I will need to continue healing for a very long time to come. While it does get a little easier to think about him as time passes, I'm quite certain that the wound will never completely heal. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him.
I miss him.
Meanwhile, my mom has been working hard to put the pieces back together since that tragic day, and she has been doing a very good job of it. Twice since George was born, my mom has had to take care of him for extended periods of time while Gloria and John were both deployed, and I think that those experiences have helped her to move on. She still lives in Boise, and she and Jeralynne are looking into getting a house together sometime in the near future. I'm really praying that things work out for them both.
