Hello, I'm Darcy. If you have read any of my adventures, you know that I am a rather opinionated scientist at heart. That is now, but given my childhood and rocky start to adulthood, my life could have turned out much differently. I started out with parents I just couldn't identify with. My father was an alcoholic and my mother . . . well, let's just say she wasn't the strongest of people. Even as a child, I understood that I was different from them and wondered if I was really their biological kid.

 

Anyway, I finally escaped from that sad upbringing and found myself in college on a scholarship, where I discovered the beauty and rationality of science. Unfortunately, my personal life overshadowed the academics for awhile because I entered into a marriage that was doomed to failure. Before it ended, I suffered deep emotional trauma and made mistakes from which I could never recover. Quoting myself here, "Let's jump off that thought train before it gets any further down the track."

 

With a Masters in Biochemistry finally in hand, a reasoned approach to denial learned from my shrink, and a penchant for physical fitness, I landed a job with Shrinden Pharmaceuticals and soon advanced to a management position. While I was good at my job, the best thing about it might have been the travel, which afforded opportunities for short-lived romances that saved me from having to build long-term commitments.

 

If you're getting a picture of a smart but troubled woman, you have it about right for that phase of my life. Oh, I failed to mention an important aspect of myself. I'm a thin five feet ten with long thick blond hair and very blue eyes--a bit of a stereotype, and to say that men are attracted to me is an understatement. That has led to more than one unfortunate episode. 

 

In the next installment of my blog, I'll provide some context for my first adventure--a cruise around the Caribbean and Cape Horn, South America. That is where everything changed for me and for people I encountered along the way, who are now dearest to me.