Hey there!  Here's me!

Well, well, well! So, you are as curious at the cat, hmmm? OK you asked for it!

I live in Westfield, Massachusetts. A place too big to be a town, too small to be a city... if you go west a little bit, alongside the river, following the winding road, through a bunch of little "hilltowns", you end up in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, a very old, rounded-down portion of the Allegheny/Appalachian chain that runs the length of the Northeast. (right where that big ripple is when you look on the map) It's so incredibly beautiful!  Sometimes we just drive around looking.  There's something beautiful around every corner, it seems.  Even getting lost can be a joy, for the new things to see! 

Go south a mile or so, and it's all corn fields and tobacco fields. About 40 minutes south is Hartford, CT.  North you run into the trees again, and pretty soon you're in Vermont, and of course, 2 hours east up the Mass. Pike, you're in Boston, 2 hours west and you're in Albany.

We live in an area with a lot of little farm stands, farmers markets on the weekends, and craft fairs all summer long. There's not a lot of money floating around though, although you can find a lot of fancy new houses going up, it's mostly folks who don't spend their money here, or work here either. Hartford, mostly, and some shuttle commuters to NYC, and Boston. Cost of living here is 40% cheaper than living in Boston, but most local jobs are in manufacturing, general labor stuff. Used to be better when there were a lot of folks getting government contracts to make parts and things. The most common small business around here is machine shops. But a lot of them are shutting down now, with budget cuts and all...

I'm a single mom, age 36 (until next June!), my son, Nathaniel is now 8, after his birthday in July. I've always been a single mom, just seemed to work out that way... I work with a lot of single mothers who are struggling to wear "all the hats" at once. We juggle the job, the loneliness, the house, the bills, the after-school activities, the kids, and it gets overwhelming sometimes. I help these moms learn to cope, and discover the strength that is hiding within them.

Have I always lived in Massachusetts? Well, it seems that way sometimes, but, no. When I was a kid, we moved a lot, from Scotia NY, to Schenectady NY, to North Ridgeville OH, to Stow MA, all by the sixth grade! Folks used to ask if I was a military "brat", but I wasn't, I was a "GE brat". My dad worked for General Electric and every time he got a promotion, we moved! Eventually after years of moving myself around during and after college, I decided I needed to pick a place to live, and it turned out to be Westfield!

What do I like best about this area? Hmmm, it's beautiful, and crime is relatively low. The center of town has a Green with a fountain, and most of the business owners in the downtown area know me and my son on sight. Folks are pretty friendly, and I don't have to lock my car in my own driveway. It's so old fashioned, but I love it! My friends are here, and anywhere I want to go, is within driving distance. We can go to Boston to see the marathon, or the Children's Museum, or the Quincy Market at Fanieul Hall, or buzz down to Hartford for a rock concert, or up to Northampton for some jazz at the Iron Horse, or down to Manhattan to see "Tommy", or pick a spot and go pick wild flowers on the side of a local road.

I have a lot of training in psychology, worked for years in the Human Services industry, with mentally retarded and physically handicapped folks. I've also done a lot of work with therapeutic counseling. I also spent a lot of years fooling around with computers. I learned Fortran programming, can use most Windows applications, and can program in HTML, and DHTML, and JavaScript, and I can use JAVA and CGI, but I can't write those yet... I love to give talks to folks and teach them things, to help them learn and grow. It's terrifically exciting to watch the sparkle in people's eyes as they learn about things and realize strengths and skills that they have inside themselves! For a "living" I design, and write the script, for web sites. I have fun...

I'm a Christian, seems as if I've always loved Jesus! When I was little, I used to read all the stories I could find about people who did wonderful things because of their love for Christ, and I wanted to be like that. My dad got me my own bible at age 8, and I read it all the time. He once came in to tell me to go to sleep, it was way past my bedtime, but I was still reading a chapter in my bible, and he walked out, shaking his head and laughing, saying to my mom, "How can you yell at a kid who's reading the bible!" I spent a long time away from the Lord in my college and a few years just after that , but I found my way back through the help of some dear friends, (and accepted Jesus into my heart at a Sunday Service at a business meeting of all places!) and the Lord has been my strength ever since. If I get lost or afraid, He's still there holding me safe. I might slip and slide sometimes, but as a friend once said, that's the great thing about being a Christian, God always forgives you, no matter what fool thing you go and do! I love that poem about the "Footsteps", that's my life! Well, I don't thump the bible at people or anything, but my faith is important to me, so it is a part of who I am.

I like a bunch of things, don't we all? Some would be: reading, most anything - fiction, sci/fi, computer stuff, history, philosophy, psychology, anything but drippy romances! Walks at night, sunshine sparkling on my eyelashes, Anne Rice books, throwing rocks in the river, long drives to no particular place, playing computer games like Ravenloft, Diablo, Heroes of Might and Magic, The play "Cats", Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Anne McCaffery, Marion Zimmer Bradley, tickling little kids, laughing a lot, Star Wars, being barefoot, schlepping in my bathrobe until after the second cup of coffee Saturday morning, working in the garden, playing Playstation when my son isn't messing with it, mostly Final Fantasy 7, and Wild Arms, painting impressionistic pictures, laying on the grass looking at fire works, cooking someone's favorite dinner, presents, picking blackberries, baseball, hockey, basketball, soccer, just not on tv! Christmas, birthdays, sending cards to people, writing letters, feeding ducks, complimenting strangers to see them smile, sailing on any kind of boat, a good strong cup of coffee any time of day, jasmine tea in the evening, making cookies, building a house out of Legos, doodling, ice cream, making jewelry, Star Wars, the Titanic movie, the band "Rush", Celine Dion, Leeann Rimes, Metallica (when I'm in a bad mood), Native American art and stories, exploring caves, Star Trek, helping people, shiny rocks on the ground, hot tubs, new places to visit, pizza, crying at movies, being spontaneous, listening to it snow at night, singing on swings at the park, writing bad poetry, singing to the radio, listening to my little boy tell himself stories and sing to himself when he plays. I love teaching people stuff, just about anything. Science to kids, self-esteem to teenagers, coping strategies to single moms, how to write a mission statement to business people - I love it all! I'm just a font of all kinds of trivia, and I like to find out about all kinds of things, you never know what I'll be interested in!

I don't like: bugs, brussel sprouts, arrogant people, beets, mushrooms, mean people, being late, folding laundry, (actually, I hate all housework!), bigots, racists, liars, when people I love are sick or hurt, when the cat eats through the bread bag, driving on ice, people who scream at me, "slice and dice" movies (but a good old Dracula or Frankenstein movie is great!), men who won't tell you "what's wrong", know-it-alls, rap music, telemarketers who won't listen to you saying NO, when the batteries wear out, being laughed at instead of with, being ignored, when the computer won't listen to what I tell it to do, and people who don't keep their promises.

My current favorite quote is from Gene Krantz, head of Mission Control during Apollo 13,

"Failure is not an option!"

Well, that's enough of that!

(updated 11/21/98 10:05 AM)