Where do I start?

My family had moved out of our home and into the Ambassador Arms at the end of May, 1985. We were originally scheduled to leave Germany in March, but it made sense to at least stay until I graduated from high school. After graduation, I took a week-long tour of East Germany, and returned to the states on June 25, exactly two weeks after graduation.

To say I experienced culture shock on returning to the States is an understatement. In the three years I was in Germany, I’d only been back once, to see family and friends. I wasn’t a real military brat — until 1982, I’d never moved before (my father was a civilian employee of the Army). Moving to Germany was a lot easier than coming back. I can remember stepping off the plan in St. Louis and being hit by a wave of hot, humid air — it must have been 100 degrees.

I enrolled at the University of Nebraska that summer. I had plans of going elsewhere, but never really pursued them. I started working a retail job that summer to pay my tuition (I had some scholarship dollars, but not enough to last two years, let alone four (or five, or seven). I had intended to get my degree in Chemistry — Mr. Holmquist, you did have an impact on me! — so I jumped in feet first, taking calculus, computer science and chemistry classes as a freshman. I also took a few liberal arts classes — English literature, history, and German, since I thought I might have an edge. I didn’t, at least in German.

Sophomore year was more of the same — I floated through school, still intent on becoming a scientist. I came down with mononucleosis the spring semester, which was really my body’s way of telling me I was working too much, dating the wrong person, and not cut out to be a chemist. I dropped all my chemistry classes (thank God for medical withdrawals), and decided to refocus myself.

I ended up becoming a DJ for two radio stations; one, an alternative/blues station on campus, and the other, an underground, truly alternative "pirate" radio station in town. I’d always had a strong interest in music, and developed a taste for punk, hardcore, dance music — anything different. And spinning music led me to writing about music — I wrote some music reviews for the college paper in the fall of 1987, which really got me going in a new direction.

I dropped the retail job for a part-time job in food service, working in a speciality wine store and restaurant. I started to focus on getting a degree in English, and kept taking history classes, too. I put more time into the newspaper, and became a staff writer. I discovered good literature, ancient history, and having deep, collegiate conversations with friends and acquaintances over too many beers.

By this point, I was far enough along in school to know I was on the five-year plan anyway, so I got more involved in the extracurricular activities I seemed to enjoy as much, if not more, than school itself. I worked in two different restaurants my last two years of college, learning enough about food and wine to seriously consider cooking school. I went through the ranks at the paper, becoming a senior writer, then news editor, managing editor, and finally, editor-in-chief. I got heavily involved in desktop publishing and computers, and won some writing awards.

I was finally able to graduate in the summer of 1990 with two degrees — a BS in history and a BA in English. At this point in my life, I panicked about my future (what can you do with two liberal arts degrees and an interest in food and punk rock?), and enrolled in graduate school one week after graduating. I received a teaching assistantship in the Communication department, and spent the next two years of my life teaching two classes a semester — in news editing and desktop publishing — and taking three classes a semester. I did computer support work for the department on the side, and started learning more about computers and networking.

By 1992, however, I was burned out. I’d been in college for seven straight years. In my final semester of graduate school, I was offered a job as a systems specialist at a graphic arts company. I never finished my graduate degree, and I was making "real" money for the first time in my life! I was lucky enough to pick up a lot of real world experience in college, and the job was a perfect fit for me.

My job — for the next three years — involved selling, servicing, and setting up computer workstations and networks; really, anything the company required of me. The graphic arts industry at this point in time was undergoing monumental changes, and I was in the right place at the right time. I taught classes, gave seminars, and travelled a lot, since we had clients all over the country. It was a great time in my life — I was single, the travel was great for a while, but eventually, I got tired of being gone for weeks at a time and went looking for a change. During this time, I met my future wife, Lisa, for the first time; we wouldn’t start dating until 1996.

In 1995, I jumped ship and went to work for one of the Midwest’s first Internet start-ups. It was fun, and I learned a lot, but within a year the writing was on the wall — things were not getting started. With any small business, everything depends on money and management, and we didn’t have much of either.

So early in 1996, I took a regional sales job for an educational technology company working with Apple Computer, and sold computers and networks to schools. After a year, I was transferred to Denver to cover an even larger region after the company merged with two other regional firms. We were 300 employees strong with revenues of more than $40 million a year, but six months after the merger, and two weeks after my wedding in October, 1997, the company imploded.

My wife Lisa and I, after coming back from our honeymoon in Hawaii, were a little shellshocked by this. We were in a new city, with not a lot of friends, just married, and I was out of a job. I did some consulting work for a while, but ended up working for a communications firm in Denver, designing and selling wide-area voice and data networks, and selling thin-clients systems and network security packages. After a year, however, I started to get that oh-so-familiar feeling that things weren’t going well, and left. A week later most of my support staff were gone.

I started my own business, UpgradeStuff, in November of 1998, operating out of a spare bedroom in my home in Denver. With a silent partner and a few thousand dollars, I set up a company distributing processor upgrades and enhancements worldwide. In July of 1999, Lisa and I moved from Denver back to Omaha — both of our families are there — and leased some real office space and a warehouse, hired a couple of people, and started to grow the business. After changes in the market, and gradual exhaustion, I decided being a working stiff wasn't so bad, and am now employed (gainfully!) as a sales rep for a networking equipment company in Omaha.

On May 23, 2002, after a rough pregnancy, Lisa delivered twin daughters - 10 weeks early. Catherine Jean and Lauren Ruth Manning (identical twins) survived some very long weeks in the hospital, but at 2 years of age and counting, are going strong!

Dave