St. Kate the Short

Not quite the girl next door.

I was born as Katharine Elizabeth Weizel, on July 31, 1973. So yes, I am what you might call a "young'un." I'm originally from Bowie, Maryland, the city that nobody has ever heard of. It's a great place to live, only minutes from Washington D.C. and tons of universities, theatres, and other sights to see.

As a teenager, I attended Central High School, which was about three miles away from the Washington, DC border. I was a pom-pom girl for three years (could you tell?), and also edited the literary magazine. It's at Central that I decided to become a teacher. The school was very small, and my graduating class had only 126 students -- the smallest in the county in 30 years!

The Smithsonian Institution is just one of the local DC museums that has lots of Web goodies to share. This is the place that brought us the National Air and Space Museum (with that yummy astronaut ice cream!), the American History Museum (with the Fonz's jacket, Archie Bunker's chair, and Dorothy's Ruby Slippers), and the original Smithsonian Institution "Castle."

My original home church, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, has set up a new page in Bowie. They also link to this helpful Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod site. It makes for interesting reading if you're into comparitive religion, history, or faith in general. My current church is St. Peter Lutheran Church in Schaumburg, IL.

In 1991, I graduated and went off to my undergraduate alma mater, Valparaiso University. It was there that I received my Bachelor of Arts in English degree with a minor in Theatre and Television Arts (Acting). Valpo is a nice school whose claim to fame is the World's Largest Collegiate Chapel. It's also where Joel Hahn (aka Aardy) and I met, during my freshman year. Yes, you can fall in love while studying Calculus. Trust us. The scarier thing is that Joel found used copy of that same calculus text in a library book sale...

While a freshman at Valpo, I joined Phi Omega, a local social sorority that returned to its roots by taking on the original name of Delta Chi Epsilon. The sorority affiliated with Alpha Delta Pi in 1998. Therefore, I am also an ADPi! You can visit the Eta Psi chapter site to learn a little more about Valparaiso's sorority life.

I began calling myself "Kate the Short" in an internet .sig file beginning in March of 1993. As I'd recently gotten into Dungeons and Dragons, the name was both a parody of fantasy names and a nod to my diminuative stature (60.5", or Five Feet, One Half-Inch Tall). In July of 1995, the denizens of the X-Men comic book newsgroup rec.arts.comics.xbooks dubbed me "Saint Kate" for performing three "miracles": getting a troll/idiot to calm down, taking on part of the FAQ, and raising myself from the dead (I got a new account at the University of Chicago after my Valpo account died upon graduation). It's fun being a Short Saint. -grin- I still keep the links page for the FAQs for comics newsgroups, as well as the rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks FAQs.

I was a Chicago Girl for two years; it's a great city. If you are interested in a visit, check out these cool Chicago links. The windy city has tons of stuff to offer, including its famous Chicago Dogs, da Bulls, the Sears Tower, and lots of wind. Lots and lots of wind. You can also visit the Yahoo! Chicago site and get more information about the Windy City, or visit the Chicago Metromix site to plan a trip downtown.

I attended the MAT program at the glorious University of Chicago. The campus is done up in gorgeous neo-gothic architecture, which made me feel like I was back in England hanging around some of the Cambridge Colleges. As a bonus, it was right down the street from the Museum of Science and Industry. In June of 1997, I finally was awarded my degree: Master of Arts in Teaching (English). Let me tell you, it was nice to be out of school as a student for a while!

Just before I began student teaching, I proposed to Joel. That was way back in January of 1996. We finally got married in July of 1998. Read all about our wedding.

A little after the wedding, I accepted a full-time position at Lake Park High School, as an Instructional Assistant for the Project Success program. I stayed there for two years.

We moved to Schaumburg, IL, in May of 1999. Owning a townhouse is often like owning an apartment-- you pay extra to have others do a bunch of maintenance work for you, and you have neighbors whose music can be heard through the walls. Overall, though, it's a great place to live!

In 2000, I accepted a one-year library media position at Roselle Middle School. I liked it so much that I decided to go back to school again and get my Master of Library and Information Science Degree from Dominican University. I finally graduated in May 2003, after two and a half years of classes. Took long enough!

Since August 2001, I've been employed as a library media teacher at Jewel Middle School in North Aurora. (Go Jaguars!) I really enjoy helping students find good books to read, learn how to produce projects on the computers, and understand how to locate, use, and understand information from any and every source available. It's the best job in the world!

Please leave your comments before you go, so I can improve this site in the future!

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Last updated: 2003-05-28