Who is Emily Robbins? I’m 38 and live in Raleigh, NC with Lily (my black lab and the absolute best dog ever) and my awesome cats (Oliver, Sophie, and Maggie).
Having grown up on Long Island (in the dreaded “Five Towns”, no less), I fled as quickly as possible (college). Went to Middlebury College in Vermont – (class of 93, BA in Mathematics). Loved it there, but felt the need for city living without the rush rush rush of NYC, and my love of computers and mild weather landed me in San Francisco (moved there without even visiting but high hopes that this would be the right place for me, and it turned out to be the best thing I ever did – ended up in the Bay Area for 15 years and really loved it there! I had moved to the Oakland Hills in Feb 2005, 25 minutes outside of San Francisco and also LOVED IT – the Bay Area is such a great place to live!! Perhaps someday I’ll move back there.
I feel really blessed b/c the universe has guided me to where I am now.
After working crazy hours as a Software Quality Assurance Engineer for Borland International on a database reporting and query tool (ReportSmith), I ended up with RSI (repetitive strain injury) that put me on disability for over a year, left me with multiple level disc damage in my cervical spine in addition to bilateral ulnar neuritis, and limited the amount of time (esp. continual time) that I could spend on the computer. After realizing I didn’t want to stop working with computers, but that I was unhirable with the amount of breaks I’d need to take and days off I’d need during flare-ups, as well as much frustration with voice recognition software, I finally decided to just dive in and try and make a go of things on my own. What a brilliant move that was!
Now I’m self-employed (since 1996) doing Affiliate Marketing, SEO (search engine optimization), Social Media Marketing, and am the queen of finding high PPC keywords (and doing niche keyword research). As it turned out, I made several multiples of my former income while working less hours than I did for ‘the man’ and I absolutely love the freedom of being my own boss!
I moved to Raleigh to be near my family, who I love dearly. My parents had retired here about a year before I got here, and then my brother and sister-in-law as well as my adorable nephews Jacob and Joseph (aged 8 and 13) followed soon after. I had tried to convince the family to move to California instead, but since it never happened over the 15 years, I caved and moved back east a year and a half ago.
My email address: emily (at) emilyrobbins.com
Interests include (in no particular order):
SNORKELING, movies, music, dancing, painting, drawing, reading, arts and crafts, video games, xbox 360, wii, ps2, psp, the internet, spinning poi, turtles, dogs, cats, my iphone, DVRs, polymer clay, rubber stamping, digital art, juggling
If I could be anywhere right now, I’d be underwater somewhere tropical and warm with my phenomenal boyfriend Brian, snorkeling happily with a couple of sea turtles and surrounded by glorious brightly colored fish everywhere…