(It's past my bed-time so I will write this in more than one sitting.)

I was born in a manager...do you really want to read this? How about my resume, that would be better eh? I guess not, you are still reading this... (sigh)

I was born in the summer of love to city that now has all one-way streets downtown, It was cool having my parents home - wait, I wrote this somewhere else - I need to remember where I left the that block of text.... here it is..

I am Christoffer Carstanjen (Car - ston-yen) Oldest of four from two marriages and son of a ceramic craftsperson and a former early-childhood school trained, turned book-keeper.

So, what's so special about me? I would have to say that I am involved with many ideas and things, that might not be the norm, but for some reason, became the norm. I wouldn't have it any other way!

I grew up in a small city in Connecticut, just an hour's drive from NYC. I lived in suburbia USA, with my fair share of bullies and friends. We were the only family who worked at home. It was kind of cool to see the folks at home so much, but drove my parents nuts! That could explain why we played in the backyard against our will.

My Parents split and I moved up to rural Connecticut to a town: population 1,400 (that's even with the NY summer folk). I liked it there - small, able to get away with lots of stuff. I can't figure out how kids now-a-days are going to have fun if they are constantly watched over...which could explain a little bit about the rise in violence.

I went to a small liberal arts college, Paul Smith's College, The College of the Adirondacks in New York State. A great place to be if you aren't a total city dweller. It's two year (soon to have four year programs) set-up was just enough time to stick around. If any college curricular program is going to be longer, the college will need to improve the campus facilities to keep people from going stir-crazy. The administration has plans.

In all , I loved it! Paul Smith's College is a great place to get an associates degree in Hospitality and Forestry fields. Go check it out! Find out when Winter Carnival is in Saranac Lake, and just go...lot's of skiing!

Then, I went to work - one stop was Hawaii. I applied for a job before hand and no one was willing to hire a stranger from 5,000 miles away even though I am a good cook. However, it really is who you know, for I have very distant relatives that put in a good word for me. I have both rejection and then magically appeared acceptance letters from a few places. I choose a place in West Maui which I opened a ritzy restaurant which was very successful. The restaurant did so well, it drew too many customers from the other restaurants owned by the hotel. In turn, the hotel cut back the pretty extensive hours on my restaurant thus dropping me, (union-labor) the last hired person. Oh well, things like that happen. I did have a great time there, hiked all over the place, learned the real culture and see the side of Hawaii the tourists don't.
 
 

Next, I worked for a major food service company. They are a leader in all sorts of contract services, floor cleaning, food service management for schools, prisons and universities (are the last two the same?). But unlike running your own service, at your school, major food service companies needs to make the money to send back to corporate headquarters, which may mean less bang for your buck; then again, it may not. The company can get great discounts for food and the like, due to its sheer buying power, that it may make up for additional fees you pay. It's a two-way street. I worked at various food service establishments, mostly as a food service manager, for they didn't want to waste my management techniques on food preparation. Frankly, I don't think they wanted to pay what I wanted if I was a chef for them.
 
 

One cold gray Utica, New York morning, I decided that change was good. I applied to colleges to go on and get a Bachelors Degree... With that in mind, off to UMass I went. Worked my way in college. With so much job experience, I was doomed. I couldn't get a waiter's job or a cooks job for that matter, over-qualified.

I finally settled for a real job as a store manager for a Bagel Bakery Chain. Awesome bagels right out of the Oven. After I left, I was truly turned into a bagel snob, I didn't want a frozen bagel again.. The bakery stores were run very tightly and made very decent money for the owner (not for me), who had to reinvest it as fast as possible to help fulfill the goal of creating mega amounts of stores for the private franchise. He was so tight with the money...we used bleach instead of detergent on the floors (not a good idea). I would go out and buy a real cleaner like Lestoil and literally dump it full strength on the unsealed tile floors. The dirt would lift out of the pores like a mud/clay mask on a human. It was great and make it look sharp! I still see a few managers left over from when I was there, they don't look too healthy or happy.
 
 

From there, I got married, had 2.3 kids and all my hair has fallen out - Not!

I dabbled in real estate, got my license, even taught the real estate course as a substitute lecturer at UMass. I opened up two great businesses and turned a passion into profit. I missed the comfort of working for an employer and the benefits and went to work for a private school that is going full-tilt with technology.