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Relationship

Married. Interested in meeting people for networking

Work

• Myself, http://elainechaika.com - 1972 to 2010

More about me

I retired in June 2008 after working since I was 14.  Since, even before that, I always had housework and other chores to do -- I started washing the dinner dishes when I was 5 -- it has been quite a change to be able to call time as my own.  Since retiring, I've catalogued my book and movies collections, organized all my files, have started scanning all the family pictures into my computer,  made a cookbook for my children with all their favorite recipes, built a family history website, and launched a consulting business to use all the insights, knowledge, and skills gained in the past 43 years studying how people interact. I am not bored.  Boredom is not an option in my life.

 

I have been happily married for almost 50  years, to Bill, and have 3 grown sons and 5 grandchildren, one of whom we adopted and raised, our daughter Rebecca, who just finished up her degree requirements and is braving the art scene in San Francisco.  It's quite a change, not having a child at home.

I garden (flowers), read a lot, watch movies, shmoooze with friends, and bake a lot.  I love dogs -- actually all animals, but especially dogs, and have 2 Maltese.  They are real characters.  I am also a Lincoln buff and a Civil War one, naturally. They go together.  I am also a writer, and, as a departure from my scholarly works, I have just completed a novel, which is in press.  I love to meet people and find out about them, their histories, their likes, their interests.   

The only things I never discuss is the validity of any religious beliefs or partisan politics, unless I know the person really well. I do not like discord.  I am very liberal in politics, but have conservative friends, and I believe in the religion I was raised in, although not so literally as when I was younger. I have friends of all religions, incuding Muslims.

Activities

I love to walk the old streets in the historic city I live in, looking at the old houses and buildings, some of which date from colonial days. Providence was founded in 1636 and there has never been a big fire, nor did people knock down the homes of the original settlers. It contains the largest National Historic District in the country. Walking entails climbing up steep hills, so it is exercise.

Favorite Charities

Providence Animal Rescue League ASPCA Rhode Island Food Bank Planned Parenthood

Favorite Music

Opera Folk/Rock from the 60's Rock from the 70's and 80's C&W (guilty pleasure) Classical, starting with Baroque

Favorite TV Shows

Rescue Me 30 Rock Mad Men

Favorite Movies

Too many to list. A few examples: Taxi Driver, Days of Heaven, Miller's Crossing, Eastern Promises, The Fisher King, Neverwas, Enchanted, The Lady From Shang-hai, Double Indemnity

Favorite Books

An impossible task. Ive 've lived in books since I taught myself to read when I was 3, so here's a representative titles: The Brothers Karamazov (Pevear & Volokhonsky transl.), A. Lincoln, Lincoln's Greatest Speech, The Guns of August, The Effects of Light, all of Jane Austen, Wicked, The Raj Quartet

Favorite Quotes

If you live long enough, you get old

Favorite People

Abraham Lincoln Barack Obama Bill Chaika Joodie Perlow (a friend) Anyone who helps feed the poor, rescue animals, genuinely works to soothe those whom the world has caused suffering

Favorite Places

Newport, Rhode Island The woods of Maine (as they were in the 1950's) The Bay area in California Jerusalem Italy, The Nile

Favorite Animals

dogs wild creatures whose habitats are being destroyed mice

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