I'm originally from the Chicago area. Until I was about 4, I lived with my parents in an apartment upstairs from my grandmother. When Mom was expecting my little brother,, we moved to a house in the suburbs, where my parents still live today. Grandma's house was near Midway Airport, and the house we moved to was near O'Hare. In other words, one constant in my childhood and adolescence was the sound of planes passing overhead.

I met my husband at Loyola University in my sophomore year. Since his major was art and mine was psychology, we didn't have much opportunity to take classes together, but we did manage to sign up for the same section of classical mythology. That was fun.

We married the summer after I graduated. He still had a year to go, and during that time I worked temporary office jobs. I applied to a number of graduate programs in psychology, and was accepted at Ohio State. Luckily, OSU also had a computer graphics program, because that was the career Demetrius decided he wanted to pursue. We always thought we would move back to the Chicago area after finishing school, but we never quite got around to it. All our stuff is here. I miss family, but I definitely don't miss Chicago traffic.

We now have a 18 year old son (who has Asperger's Syndrome) and a 16 year old daughter. Also a collie, a golden retriever mix, two cats, and a cockatoo. (You can see pictures of our pets here.) My favorite movie is The Princess Bride and my favorite book is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I am looking forward to meeting all of you in class, but in the meantime, I hope you will take a few minutes to send me an introductory e-mail.

Renee Lester, M.A.
rlester(at)aiam.edu