JIM'S BIO

And now for a little about me... I'll try not to bore you with the gory details, but I've done a lot of living for a 30 year old gay man

I was born on September 5, 1967 to Albert James and Kathleen Ann Pirigyi, Sr. As I am a Jr., over my father's objections, Kathy decided that their newborn son would be called Jim because she wanted no confusion over names. Kathy and Al were a young couple. Al was a senior at Rutgers University in Mechanical Engineering while Kathy had graduated from high school in June of 1967. They didn't have much other than the love and support of both of their families. I'm quite proud of what they have achieved today considering what they started out with. It's a large part of my make-up.

These are the places I have lived, basically in chronological order.. Some of these I've lived in multiple times due to Al being transferred.
New Brunswick, NJ (1967-1968)
Schenectady, NY (1968-1971, 1978-1980 & 1989)
Windsor, CT (1971-1978 & 1980-1986)
Newark, DE (1986-1989)
Greenville, SC (1989-1991)
Lynchburg, VA (1991-1995)
Washington, DC (1995-1996)
Burtonsville MD (1996-1997)
Baltimore, MD (Present)

As I stated, I won't bother you with the gory details, but suffice it to say that I'm accustomed to moving around quite a bit.

I graduated High School from Windsor High School on June 20, 1985 with High Distinction (actually 6th out of 347). I had decided while I was young (9th Grade) that I wanted to study Chemical Engineering. I decided to attend the University of Delaware in Newark, DE (one of the premier universities if you're going to study chemical engineering). I was an Honor's Program student and fully enjoyed my stay in Delaware. I've met some great people and still keep in touch with a few of my friends from school. I moved there permanently after my parents bought a house in Newark as investment property

I graduated from UD on May 28, 1989. I think it was one of my family's proudest days as it looks like I will be the only one of my generation to graduate from college on my Mom's side. On my Dad's side, I'm the second. At the time I graduated, I didn't have a job, so I moved back to my parent's house in upstate NY (where they had returned to while I was still in school). I didn't give up searching for a job, but instead took the time to travel to Europe for four weeks. As this ite progresses, I may add a page just for the trip. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me and I'm glad I did it.

Upon my return, my job search got kicked into high gear. In September of 1989, I got an interview with an Engineering Consulting firm in Greenville, South Carolina. As I'm not really a cold weather person, this was ideal for me. Unfortunately, Hurricane Hugo came through the state right before my interview. Boy, did I think this was an omen. And it was, but fortunately in a good sense. In November, I started with Fluor Daniel in Greenville, embarking on a nother phase of my life. I was quite a distance from home and knew no one there.

Everything was going great. I was doing interesting work and having a lot of fun making new friends and traveling around the South. Unfortunately, all good things myst come to an end. On May 20, 1991, exactly 18 months to the day after I started with the company, I was told that I was going to be laid off from Fluor Daniel at the end of the month. This caught me in a state of shock. I thought that they'd lay off other people before me since I was relatively cheap compared to some of the other working there at that time, but apparently this wasn't the case. I was a bit panicked and decided that there were two courses I could take.. either be pissed off about it or do something about it. I decided that I needed to do something about it and started looking for a new job...

As this was during the recession in 1991, I didn't expect to find employment all that quickly. With the help of some great headhunters, I had several interviews, one of which turned into a new job. I was going to be on the move again, this time to Lynchburg, Virginia working for Babcock & Wilcox in their Naval Nuclear Fuel Divison. Yes, I was going to be working with nuclear material. This isn't something that is normally taught in the Chemical Engineering curriculum, but it was going to be a challenge. I was going to be working on a project which would take me to San Diego, CA, Irvine, CA, and Oak Ridge, TN. Things went well for a year, then the project was cancelled. I didn't know what was going to happen, but everything turned out well. I continued on in Lynchburg and started working on some other projects. Eventually things started changing in my life and Lynchburg stopped being as attractive as it once was.

As B&W is a government contractor, there is a lot of paperwork involved.. in addition to being a nuclear facility. I was doing a lot of this work for myself and other people and not really retaining control over what waws going on. This began to tick me off incredibly. That fact and the fact that my life was changing in ways that are described in another page, I decided to make another job change.

This time, I decided to make a change for myself and to an area I wanted to go to. My efforts were concentrated in the Baltimore/Washington corridor. I'm a big Orioles and Redskins fan, plus it's close to my alma mater. These are not any semblance of the reasons that I decided to make a change. The reasons I decided to move are many and detailed. Discussing those would require another page. After a few months of searching, I found a job with a small consulting firm located in Reisterstown, Maryland which is in the Baltimore suburbs.

Things went well until the Blizzards of 1996. Being cooped up in a small place and with a 50 mile commute one way, I decided to leave and moved to Burtonsville, Maryland, just outside the DC beltway. There were, of course, other circumstances which helped in my decision to move. Burtonsville is where I currently live. To me it would be the best of both worlds. My commute would be cut by half and I'd still be close to DC to get to the things I liked about the city.

At then end of March, I moved to downtown Baltimore in the Mt. Vernon section. I’m very close to the Inner Harbor and love living in the city. It’s been a great deal of fun living here. AND the commute is fantastic!

Right now, life really couldn't be much better. I'm happy in my job as it's challenging and my personal life seems to be getting into some kind of order, which it hasn't had for a little while. I wasn't sure how I'd be approaching my 30th birthday. Would it be with fear and trepidation? Or would it be with joy and excitement? I think it's the latter and not the former. My 29th birthday caused me to reflect on what was happening in my life. I made a conscious decision at that point to make some changes and they've turned out pretty good. Now, if I can only pass the exams I need for my Professional Engineer's license, I'll be happy

I haven't updated this page for a while. Quite a bit has happened since I did last update it. I turned 30 years old by going to bed by 10PM so I could catch an early morning flight out of Newark to Phoenix. I had a great time visiting a friend out there and saw him again a few weeks later while I was out there for a training class. I met a great guy who lives in Seattle at this point, but is looking to move here to be with me. We have quite a bit in common, but enough differences (including age.. he's 45) to make life interesting. I'm nervous and exicted at the same time. I've been to Seattle three times to see him and had lots of fun each time. My job has changed so that I'm doing a lot of traveling to Arkansas, not necessarily a place I would choose to go to, but you go where work tells you to.

I've also experienced coming out to my family this past year. I have a whole page about that process. If interested, you may find it using the link below.

Coming Out to Family

I will try to update this page a little more often in the future.

Home Page

This page last updated on: 02/02/98