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[edit] Kristin Wenzel

Kristin Wenzel is 24 years old, a Capricorn and lives in Seattle, Washington with her best friends Erik Hulslander and Ian Adams, and his cat, Postmaster P. Her biggest loves in life are art, music, technology, and her website, CyberGeisha.net, which she has continuously owned and maintained for over six years. Kristin is a devotee of Apple Computers and uses a Apple Macintosh Powerbook G4 1.5GHz notebook computer running MacOS X 10.4.3. She is a lifelong Mac user, and proud of it.

Kristin Wenzel was born at 4:45pm on 16 January 1982 in Seattle, WA at Group Health Hospital, located on top of Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA, only a few blocks from her current residence. She is the oldest of two, and her parents are Rick and Pat Wenzel. Her brother, Michael, is 18 months younger, born 3 September 1983.

Until the age of 7, she grew up in the town of Mercer Island, WA and attended St Monica Catholic School until grade 2, after which her family relocated to the town of Woodinville, WA. During the construction of the family home on a 5 acre plot of rustic, wooded land shaped like the state of Nevada, she learned a lot about home construction firsthand under the watchful eye of her father. On 1 September 1989, she started Grade 3 at Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary, as well as taking part in the QUEST Program for Gifted Children. After spending a year in a rental home, shortly before grade 4 began, young Kristin's family moved into their custom-built, not-quite-finished, castle-like home where she spent her primary school, middle school and secondary school years. After Grade 6, unhappy with school (aside from the one day per week she spent at Ben Franklin Elementary for QUEST) for the previous three school years, Wenzel was accepted to NorthStar Junior High, an "alternative school" run by the Lake Washington School District and located in Kirkland, WA on the campus of Lake Washington High School. With a small, personal, creative atmosphere and many unique and intelligent students, Kristin thrived and met many new friends, ultimately leaving NSJH for Lake Washington High School, where she participated actively in Theatre, Chorus, Japanese Language and several other clubs and projects, though often staying distant from other young people, instead choosing to take a job at Starbucks Coffee in Redmond, Washington, and attend classes at Bellevue Community College through the Running Start program.

After graduating from Lake Washington High School in 2000 with honors in Japanese Language, Music and Fine Arts, Kristin left her first job to attend Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, where she met some of her dearest friends including Dina Elenbaas and one of her former love interests, Martin "Wiggles" Petelinz with whom she shared an apartment following the 2000-2001 school year. However, she was forced onto Academic Suspension after she had an emergency Tonsillectomy in Winter 2001, and couldn't finish the Autumn 2001 semester. This led to a rocky scholastic period, and after spending Winter and Spring of 2002 attending Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, Washington, she decided to spend Summer studing Japanese Language at The Yamasa Institute at the Aichi Center for Japanese Studies in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. After her return in Autumn 2002, Wenzel moved to Everett, WA, and attended Everett Community College, pursuing studies network administration and web development, as well as working for Tully's Coffee in Bellevue, WA. By Spring 2003, she was readmitted to WWU, and she moved back to Bellingham, WA in September 2003, and at the same time, accepted a part-time job at The Black Drop Coffeehouse.

Sadly, Spring 2004, she decided to take an academic hiatus following a quarter of poor grades and a half-assed approach to education, which she saw as symptoms of being "burnt out" academically and unable to handle the physical and mental demands of her job as a barista. The following year was spent in an attempt to find herself and what it is she would like to pursue as a career. It was also a time of great struggle, financial difficulty, and clashing with her best friend, Erik Hulslander, with whom she shared a tiny one bedroom apartment in Everett, WA after her roommate, Erik, lost his job at AT&T and neither he nor she were able to find employment until Hulslander procured employment at WDS in Kirkland, WA. However, The two moved to Belltown, Seattle, WA on 31 October 2004. On 1 November 2005, at the end of their lease, they, along with Ian Adams, moved about a mile away, to a larger and nicer apartment.

Currently, Kristin works at Link Conference Services in Bellevue, WA with her roommate Erik, doing tech support. She enjoys her job. Previously, she supported herself as a fashion model, as well as a freelance digital artist and computer consultant, and a web designer for a local espresso machine company. Planning to return to school, she is trying to sort out what it is she would like to study, though the fields have been narrowed to Astronomy/Physics, Architecture/Interior Design, Industrial Design, Pharmacology, due to a lifelong near-obsession with science, regardless of her tendency towards art and linguistics. Recently, she has also considered studying to become a Makeup Artist for Cinema and Television at Vancouver Film School, but is still in the process of researching the program and occupation.

In her spare time, Kristin enjoys artistic endeavors of all sorts, including drawing, painting, pottery, scrapbooking, sewing/costume design, fashion design, quilting, sculpture and music. She hopes to learn glass beadmaking and glass blowing in the near future. Additionally, she is a digital artist, web designer and network administrator. After four years of spinning synthpop, EBM, J-Rock, alternative, electronica, gothic and industrial music as DJ Sayaka, with Mix Master Waif at Freak Manor in Bellingham, WA, she provides lead vocals for Foreign Policy, a synthpop-industrial band comprised of Wenzel and her best friend and long-time roommate, Erik Hulslander, who is the lead singer of Bit Rationale, a band he formed with his friend Devin Anderson, a talented pianist and film composer.

On 30 April 2005, she began seeing Ian Adams, a fellow Mac user and friend of several years, when he asked her out at the MacOS X 10.4 Tiger release party. Upon mutual agreement, Ian Adams and Kristin Wenzel decided to end their relationship on 6 June 2006, prior to Adams' plans to relocate to Vancouver, BC for the purpose of attending Vancouver Film School to become a film director. They remain friends and will remain so for the forseeable future.

Kristin Wenzel is either more, or less, than the sum of her parts; a juxtaposition of a craving for the spotlight and an overwhelming desire to be left alone. She is a loyal friend but slow to trust anyone, and thus prefers digital communication far more than old-fashioned face-to-face contact.