Vance Boone

O.K. let’s just say that most of  the people I associate with now would be absolutely and utterly shocked that writing this Bio on myself would be so difficult.  I tend to enjoy telling stories, reliving memorable times, spurting off a joke here and there, and in general enjoy putting myself in the limelight. This, on the other hand, has been a bit hard and tedious for me.  Anyway, better late than never!  The reason I wanted to make sure I completed this is not because I accomplished a bunch of great things, or because I have a real prestigious career, or that there is much that I’ve done that anyone else hasn’t done.  What I would like to brag about most is that after all these years and all the stupid shit I did, that I am lucky in love and lucky in life.  As far as the love part, I married the most wonderful and understanding person in the world with my wife Heather, I have 2 amazing sons (Stephen 3 & Jackson 2) who fulfill my life like nothing I can explain, as a lot of you know kids can do, and my parents, my in-laws and my sisters family are all alive and well and nearby to share all these great moments with.  Some of my closest friends in the whole world and their families live here in LA or nearby and the times we get together are cherished.  With the life part, I presently have a job that I love, running all the food service for the Lab, I spend a lot of time with my family,  and I get to partake in the activities I enjoy the most (Skiing, Golf & Pool) as frequently as I like.    We all have a different idea of what happiness is, but when I look back over the past 20 years, I have no real big regrets and I can only think of a handful of days where I wasn’t pretty darn happy.  So, with that here is a little bit of what I’ve done with my first 38 years on this planet.

I view these 38 years in 3 distinct stages.  1. From when I was born to when we graduated.  2.  From the day we graduated to the day I met my wife.  3.  From that day till now.  All of these stages were important and fun in their own ways.  I don’t feel I need to do much explaining about the first stage, so I’ll begin with stage #2.

The first 4 or 5 years after High School have a few foggy areas.  Most of this time I spent as a model college student at New Mexico State University..  I did however, spend the summers and a couple of spring semesters working at the Hill Diner/Good Eats where I fell in love with the food industry.  Also, in 1991 I spent 2 months traveling  11 European countries.  Finally in December of 1993 I received a Marketing degree from NMSU, but not without making a short overnight visit to the Dona Anna County Jail the Night before Graduation.  Oh yea,  thank you again Travis for bailing me out just in time to get to the Ceremony.  Hopefully I’ll never get to pay back the favor.  Oh yea, and thanks to my Old Man for getting all the charges dropped.  Good times! Good times!  Enough about the Golden years, on to life with an education.  Directly after graduating I went to work at The Hill Diner where I spent the next 3 or so years working my way up the intense corporate ladder.  After reaching the top and realizing I wasn’t going to move up any further, I put in a 6 month notice, bought a 1-way plane ticket to Germany and in May of 1996 took off to try something new………….. daily beer drinking.  I spent a year working in a hotel in the middle of the German Alps making $6 an hour and living in an old Nazi Hospital turned in dorm rooms and for $50 a month.  I played golf, I skied, and I traveled all over southern Europe.  Yea, I also drank a lot of great beer and threw Darts in some kickass Pubs.  That year in Germany was a turning point in my life.  The people, the experiences, and the numerous hours alone in a foreign country pondering life gave me the personal tools I needed to get my life on track and be the person I needed to become. 

Stage 3 of my life started a year and a half after I got back when I met my wife at Karaoke night at the Canyon Bar.  She was back from Law School for Thanksgiving.  We were engaged in May and married in October.  We lived in Houston for year because that’s where she got a job but when Tropical Storm Allison came through and flooded our house and car it was time to look elsewhere, so we came back to Los Alamos where we have lived ever since.  We now both work hard and raise our 2 boys here in White Rock.