ERIN CAREY

Born in a southern New Jersey commune famous for producing organic peanut butter, I soon found myself on the road entertaining people by age ten. My parents and I traveled through the deep south where I donned artificial facial hair, spiky wig, small tail and pretended to be part hedgehog. I worked out of a small trailer pulled behind my father's Chevy Chevette. For the small charge of two bits a gander, people would come in, point and laugh at me while I watched "Young and the Restless" on a 10-inch black and white TV.

As time went on and revolutionary entertainment like reality TV brought prefabricated phony entertainment right into people homes, hard working traveling entertainers like me were soon looking for work. After a brief stint as a professional lingerie league football player, I discovered that I had a talent for web design and development when I was hit in the head by an Adobe Creative Suite box while when it was dropped by the Orlando Sentinel prize blimp at a Magic game. Like Sir Isaac Newton, I was now destined for greatness.

I took that piece of inspiration and ran with it. Obtaining a degree in Interactive Media at International Academy of Design and Technology and soon after landing a position with Maverick Interactive, I honed my skills and went beyond front-end design and began full-on development. At that point I took a position as a Web Developer at OmniTicket Network doing work with companies such as Walt Disney World, Herschend Family Entertainment, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Universal Studios. Now, you can find me in my home office working for Leidos while mastering the art of communications and still working in the webs.

With my life as an entertainer behind me and my career established, a new chapter in my life has begun. I live in a permanent home that isn't on wheels, I no longer keep a bag packed and shoes in my car - I am here to stay! When I see a tent or drive though Plant City, I sometimes miss my old freak-show life, but in current line of work I have found something better than my life on the road.