5’4" with long legs, shoulder length blondish red hair, large blue eyes, and a smattering of the Irish curse of freckles. Since I refuse to actually scan in a picture of myself in the best thing to tell you is look up Botticelli’s Allegory of Spring (I look like the one in the flowered dress (Flora - the goddess of vegetation) though without the bulging tummy.

I believe I have a naturally upbeat disposition and people have commented my entire life that I’m always smiling. I read somewhere that 48 muscles are required to frown as opposed to a small number to smile so maybe its just unconscious laziness on my part rather than a sunny disposition : ).

I’m rather difficult to pigeon hole or label. In some ways I’m old fashioned and conservative; I dress-up for the theater and church and I always expect to be treated like a lady. In other ways I’m very liberal and opened minded and believe that everyone is entitled to make their own choices as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.

I have two younger brothers, one here on the east coast (actually he lives a 1/4 of a mile away) and the other basically located on the west coast (though he just ended a 3 month visit with and now he’s gone back California to go "walk-about" and is leaving to travel around the world in a week). My father’s deceased and my mother is still on the west coast. Both my parents were born and raised in Western Mass and I’m very close to my mother’s family. Holidays are a clan gathering with usually about 30 people. I don’t have any children. That was deliberate when I was younger but more circumstantial as I got older.

I’m living in the Boston area right now but I still feel somewhat uprooted. This is the first time I’ve rented anything since I was in college. I’ve been hesitant about buying because I haven’t been sure where my life was going next, but since there’s really nothing drawing me back to California I think I’ll be looking to find a place to buy in the next several months.

I love to cook (but for others - I’m not very good about cooking for myself except for making bread and pots of soup). I gave my first dinner party when I was 18 years old and belonged to a gourmet cooking group for years. I am interested in wine, and one of my favorite activities in California was to go up to the wine country every few months or so. Here I’ve found the wine tastings that the Boston Harbor hotel gives during the winter and have made it a habit to attend at least one every year. (The wine spectator’s 90 points or better tasting last year was fantastic)

Creativity

When I was a little girl I decided I wanted to grow up to be Isaac Asimov because he got to write interesting books on every subject under the sun. His short stories were wonderful and while I always felt his novels where somewhat stilted he still was my idol. I’ve made attempts to write two novels (historical fiction) and the second one is probably only 50 pages away from having a complete first draft. Of course it’s been in that state for close to 3 years now. I’ve taught creative writing through adult ed. and I was part of a writers group that met 50 weeks out of the year for 3 years several years ago. (We were all much younger and we thought we could hit the best seller list if we just stuck with it.) My current focus has been a little more left brain. I wrote and presented two conference papers last year and I’ve got 3 more in the works for this year.

Pets

I have one very spoiled female cat and one Siamese fighting fish now. (I don’t know how to tell sex on a fish - I assume it’s a male). I’ve had pets all of my life and can’t imagine a life without an animal (though my allergist still disagrees). Over the years my family has had cats, dogs, fish (we had a pet Oscar - they’re a member of the parana family), a parakeet, turtles, mice, a rooster (my brother’s) and lizards.

Marriage and relationships

This section could be a short blurb or it could go on forever. The details of the past (I was married for 10 years and I was reasonably happy; he wasn’t) probably aren’t as important as my view of the future. I still naively, trustingly believe in love. I’m old enough to have learned there are no guarantees in life and that change is the only constant but for all the pain there has been joy as well. Even though I have yet to find the one man who wants to share the rest of his life with me my life is richer for those who’ve touched it along the way.

Travel

I love to explore and vacation and I hate to travel. I’ve spent my whole professional career avoiding anything that would make me a road-warrior. Vacation trips are something else though. I’ve been to Ireland, Scotland, multiple trips to England, and I’ve done one quick trip through Scandinavia (Norway is beautiful). I was in Paris for a few days two years ago and I’d love to go back. I’ve also been to Maui, Kauai, Oahu, and the big Island (Hawaii). I’m really not much of one for spending all of my time on a beach (one of my ex-husband’s loves). I’d much rather see things and go places. Which is not to imply I’m a perpetual motion machine. My favorite short vacation is to get up to the mountains (camping or backpacking) and then become a lake-lump ( a term my girl-friend coined when she saw me sit by the lake for hours reading a book.)

My career has been a major focus of my life. To imply anything else would be hiding who and what I am, but it has been more love of what I do than ambition that has driven me. I’d say I’ve mellowed significantly since I first started out, and while I’m a long way from perfect I’m actually achieving some balance in my life that I didn’t have when I was part of the  rat race.  If you're wondering whether I tell the people at work about my beliefs, the answer is well sort of...  I have a reputation for being a "personality".  My co-workers and my clients know that I've tried to write a few novels, some people know I've taught Jungian psychology, and most know I was very active in starting a "non-mainstream" church.  They are willing to write off any of my strange behavior as just a normal part of my personality, primarily because I'm good at what I do and I confine my rabble-rousing behavior to work related issues.  What that means in English is that I'm firmly in the broom closet and intend to stay there even thought I always have a statue of Kwan Yin on my desk (go figure??)

Friends & hobbies

My life on the east coast has been in stark contrast to what I had on the west coast. There I had a very active social life with a significant number of very dear, very close friends. Here my life has been almost solitary; limited to just a few friends and extended family. I believe that the past few years have offered me a chance to explore being more introverted and that’s probably good from an overall life perspective since I’m naturally so extroverted.

Up until about 6 months ago I never watched television (my average was about 10 hours a year) but now I’ve become hooked on Babylon 5 reruns (it gives me an incentive to come home from work at a decent time) and the X-files.

When I’m not being a desk potato (about 99% of my life at this moment), I like to hike, play golf (limited to 3 par pitch and put - my drive stinks) and I’ve always wanted to learn how to sail. I’ve never been one for winter sports (growing up as I did where it didn’t snow), but I’m currently considering taking up ice-skating. I own a mountain bike and I retired my bowling balls when I moved east (too much smoke in the bowling alleys). Basically I’m a bit klutzy and definitely not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination (I have some minor life long health problems) but what I am is active and game to try anything even if I can’t do it very well.

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