About Me

L.P. Altvater

Science, writing, and all that jazz.

What I’ve Done

I was able to graduate with a B.S. in Biochemistry after having to drop out not once, but twice. The first time for a medical emergency mid-sophmore year, and the second time was the economic crash of 2008. It’s a ton of debt, all on me, but I did it.

I found a job that actually has a pension and real health insurance, along with a real Roth account. Paid overtime, accumulative sick time. On paper, this would be a Boomer’s dream.

I was able to tour a newsroom at a local network and do the screen test for the weather broadcast.

I am in a decent relationship, though we’re starting to feel the fizzle of age. If this were thirty years ago, and I were a male, we’d almost be a sitcom family.

I have been able to move back to a coastal area of New England. I am minutes from the smell of the ocean and the sounds of the waves, and can hit the major cities (if I wanted to) within a day.

Physically, I am healthy. While I need to regain some activity after an injury, my primary disability no longer affects my day-to-day life, and has been that way for about 7 years. I no longer fear it will cause me to lose my job.

What I dream

The Main One- I have not completed a work of fiction enough for it to be reviewed, revised, and submitted to a literary agent.

I have never really had a hobby as an adult. I wake up, go to work, come home, clean, eat, clean a bit more, perhaps listen to a television recap, then sleep. I want to find something I love to do that makes me feel like I’m having fun, even if I’m terrible at it. It might be painting.

I have wanted for some time to start my own cookbook. I joke at work that I bake to a) relieve stress and b) to ensure everyone puts up with my quirkiness, because who wouldn’t for a fresh, homemade muffin? Perhaps that can be my subfocus.

Finally, follow through with a real diagnosis. I’m in my late 30s, and as a girl in the early nineties it was perfectly normal to be shy, a picky eater, and go through “phases” of only wearing certain clothes, or only talking with one person in the classroom. The possibility of autism has come up a couple of times in my past, but I was never officially evaluated for it, because at the time, I probably didn’t “check enough boxes” for a female. The DSM-5 is much more fluid with the spectrum now.