[Jan in MD]

I have been a floral designer for 31 years. The majority of the time, I managed a retail flower shop, did wedding consulting, etc. I just stepped down from a job I held for the past 10 years to go to a smaller shop with no responsibilities. The owner is a bit of a loon and that can be a bit hard to take, but a friend I've known for over 20 years works there also, so we usually laugh it of together. I'm making the same hourly wage I was before without the headaches of hiring and training and making schedules, ordering flowers and supplies, etc.

Up until a few years ago, I also taught floral design at a Community College- taught for about 6 years. The money was nice but it interfered with my main job somewhat since it was so intense. I had really full time, and then some, responsibilities running my store and worked tons of hours and just about every Saturday. The new job lets me have almost every weekend off, which is nice.

I have had my birds for about 10 years now and I also help re-home/place birds in need of new homes- an unofficial thing I do on my own, not as a "rescue" per se. I generally place about 20 or so birds a year. Just found a wonderful home for a male Quaker this week- they are already in love with each other!

No real formal education since I married young and had two children right away- was married 11 years. My sons are grown and on their own- one single, a lead developer for Microsoft, the other married with 4 kids, a project coordinator for his father's company.

My husband has his own company- security/card access software that he developed himself. He is wonderful with all of my birds- he loves them and happily understands my "madness". He always says to folks, "Have you met my wife? She's insane." Then asks me, "So how many birds do you have, Sweetie?" He's a cutie and is 11 years younger than me! Wahoo!