I am just as vain as everyone else with a personal website, so here is a bit of background information on me. I was born in Chicago, Illinos. My brother got polio a few months before the vaccine came out. He was 4 and I was 2. When I was 5, my father died in his sleep. It totally changed my life, needless to say. I went to Hoyne Elementary School. Every day, I would walk home for lunch which was normally a grilled cheese sandwich, Jay's potato chips and chocolate milk. I would watch Lunchtime Little Theater with Bozo the Clown on WGN Channel 9. I used to play with my Barbie dolls and make up games since my brother was in and out of the hospital so much
When I was 12, my mother, brother and I moved out to California because winters in Chicago were too hard on him. Our first full day in Los Angeles, my mother asked us if we wanted to go look for apartments or go to Disneyland. Guess which one won! We found an apartment in the San Fernando Valley, which made me a Valley Girl, fer sure. I was boy crazy and loved the Beach Boys and the Beatles. Back then I was pretty innocent in those days. Honest. I attended Grant High School in Van Nuys and was an okay student and had a lot of friends and a few boyfriends.
I started college at UCLA. My first day there I applied for a transfer to Berkeley , to be with my high school boy friend. Of course, we broke up before I got to Cal, but I am still glad I went there, even if I didn't graduate. I was there just after the People's Park fight started, but still saw my fair share of demonstratons, mostly against the Vietnam War. Tuition when I started was only $100 per quarter!! I dropped out before I flunked out. A little problem over a man and one of my girlfriends. That is where I met Fred, the man I was married to for 25 years. A few years later, I went back to college and I graduated from Cal State Chico with a B.S. in home economics of all things. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
In my married years, we lived in many places across the United States. We lived all over California, then moved to Chicago so that he could go to Northwestern University for his Masters Degree. We next moved to Minneapolis, where my daughter Evelyn and son Greg were born. It was there I began my love of the game hockey, which I still follow today. I was a stay at home mom who kept some sense of sanity through volunteering. You name it, I did it. PTA. Junior League. Art and symphony organizations. I chaired various committees, sat on different boards and tried to be a valuable member of whatever community I lived in. Next was Memphis, where Lowell was born and I learned how to smock. the only sewing I liked. Then it was back to the Twin Cities, where my children grew up, I did TONS of volunteering. My marriage started falling apart sometime after we moved back to Minnesota. 1996 was the second worst year of my life. It started out with a death, then cancer, divorce and ended with another death. That is the short version.
I left Minneapolis in 1997 and went I to Portland, Maine for a year, trying to adjust to my divorce. I next moved to Raleigh, NC, where it was my intention to go to Meredith College and earn a paralegal certificate. However, after two months in the program, I realized I was not cut out for the legal profession, and dropped out. In 1999, my middle son, Greg, got sick from cancer again, and during the time he was fighting it, I moved to Prescott, flying in and out of Minnesota on an almost monthly basis. On July 7, 1999, my life once again changed in a tragic way, when my son, Greg died from cancer.
I've now lived in Arizona ten years, and have become quite active in my community. Prescott is a beautiful town but it's growing much too large and getting too crowded. I am a past president of The Monday Club, which is part of The General Federation of Women's Clubs, and is the oldest women's club in Arizona. I was a board member of Child Haven Crisis Nursery for 5 years. I was involved in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, taking classes for enrichment purposes and was Council Secretary for five years. I volunteered at the local hospital's gift shop for a while, too. I'm on the West Yavapai Guidance Clinic Foundation Board and a Trauma Intervention Program (TIP) volunteer for almost 2 years.I've made some wonderful friends there and think we should never stop learning and growing.
Like Maynard G. Krebs said, WORK? Yes. I have a job. I used to work at Yavapai College. For two years, I was working part time in the Elderhostel Office. I've gotten to take lots of interesting drives all over Northern Arizona as part of the job, besides working in the office. Currently, I am employed by Ameripsych as a Family Support Specialist and it's a very challenging job.
I am trying to create a life for myself here, as you can see. I am currently enrolled at Grand Canyon University in their Master's of Professional Counseling program. I still miss Greg more and more each day. In a dream before his 27th birthday, he told me to get a tattoo and exactly what he wanted, so I did. I still can't believe I did that! Much less twice, the second one on the tenth anniversary of his death. I take each day as it comes and try to be the best person I can be.
Traveling has always been one of my favorite pastimes. From going to Michigan City, Indiana for ice cream as a kid. I have made several cross country trips. Give me a map and I'm happy. Alaska is the only state I've never been to. Canada is another one of my favorite places. Toronto, Ontario is a beautiful and exciting city. with lots of interesting neighborhoods. The Atlantic Provinces are breathtaking. I would love to live along the coast of Nova Scotia. I even traveled to Australia.
I also love to read. So please check out my reading list which I recently created. I love the ocean, and sitting on the beach. I am trying to start painting with watercolors, though I don't have much talent. Same with writing. Please check out some of my Random Thoughts on various topics. I am loyal to my friends, and try to be honest and fair. I only ask that my friends treat me the same way. I have given up on finding a man to share my life with and am accepting and learning how to be alone. While no one who knows me believes it, I am basically shy. I like collecting things, and I have at times collected stamps, Steiff animals, cookbooks, postcards and now I mainly collect Swatch watches. People are either collectors or they're not, and oh how I wish I had never found Ebay I am also a hopeless romantic who cries over old movies. A few of my all time favorite movies include The Women, Slapshot and A Thousand Clowns. I'm proud of the fact I basically taught myself HTML and created this website over ten years ago.
There's more to learn about me if you care to continue. Please visit the rememberance site
I created for my son, Greg. I added a growing list of Women's Resources. And a list of fishing sites, as I have taken up fly fishing, even though I haven't done it in years. You can follow my progress in my fishing diary. If
you like my writing, please read my Random Thoughts pages. I've just added Sharon's Reading List so
you can read the same books I do.
There is a page devoted to my children, my friends, a list of my favorite links and my awards. Or
check out Sharon's Selected Site which was devoted to finding the most interesting sites on the Web. I've taken a break from that. Feel free to wander around in my life as I have very little to hide... well, I don't think so. Or go back to the start for a cookie.
