I am working as a computer systems engineer in a large data center in the Denver Metro area. Simone is mainly a Stay at Home Mom (SAHM), but works for a few hours a week in the local recreation centers of where we live.

I grew up in Germany and was moved around by my parents a couple of times before turning 14. My interest in the American Way of Life started earlier than that, but I do not really remember when. I think what really started my interest in the American Way of Life was the obsessive hate of my Dad against America. I am not sure where his hate was coming from, but we never had a really good relationship and this might have initially increased my interest in it back then. Home was not really home when I grew up. Fights, alcohol, abuse, … all the typical stuff that makes good ingredients for a troublesome life. I am still surprised that I made it through all that and turned out to be Ok (well, at least that is my impression - yours might be different).

When I was 18 I was able to travel to Canada and by accident to the United States. Whatever I had seen in movies, read about in books or magazines, or heard from somebody else - suddenly I was right there and it felt and tasted much better than I ever imagined. I was hooked and had only one goal that kept me alive. I wanted to live in the land of my dreams: The United States of America

Don’t get me wrong. This feeling and the love for America is not based on politics or stuff like that, but on the country itself, the freedom it (still) represents, its will and power to get something done, the “never give up” and “everything is possible” attitude, and by the (average, hard working) people I met.

Growing up in Germany (at least that is my impression) you get educated to avoid any type of conflict and to fit in. Your life was so predictable - almost like how Bruce Springsteen’s song “The River” starts off with. Get a job, join the Union, work in the same profession until you retire, and other very predictable stuff. I almost fell for that, but then again I just did not feel like it was a good fit for me.

In the mid 1990’s my wife and I started to participate in the so-called Green Card Lottery of the (then) INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) - a shortcut to be able to apply for a green card. In 1996 our application was selected and we were able to apply for a green card. We did receive the green card in 1997 and moved to the USA in 1998.

Here we are living our American Dream. Somehow it is a normal life, but then there is so much stuff that happens or that we do, that just does not fit the description of “normal”. And that is where this blog fits in.

Anyway - since May 2003 I am an American - and proud of it. Let’s get stuff done now. Read the Blog.