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Relationship

Married. Interested in meeting people for friendship and meeting people for networking

Hometown

Louisville, KY

Places I've been

Costa Rica, Jamaica, London, Edinburgh, Paris, Cardiff, Santa Fe, Boundary Waters, Alaska, Hawaii

Work

• Self-Employed, writer - 1998 to 2009

More about me

I was born in the South but my parents were from Pennsylvania, so I don't feel like a true Southerner, although I appreciate the culture, especially the food. My heritage is English, Scots (via Jamaica) and Welsh.

My family consists of my husband, father (age 91), several excellent step-siblings and the in-laws. I have no brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles or children. Probably the pivotal event of my life was my mother's death when I was 14 and she was 49. My life was relatively difficult for many years after that, and I'm just now, after 45 years, at peace about it.

I earned degrees in English and journalism from a large Midwestern state school. While in school I worked as a waitress and a secretary and helped organize a union for secretaries - one of the first in the country. Since college, I have worked as a writer and editor for an association and a Fortune 500 manufacturer in Chicago. Ten years ago I started my own writing business, specializing in corporate communications.

I've been married for more than 20 years. He's my best friend. We are opposites in many ways but agree on the basics - religion and money, for example.

I love music. I have been known to burst spontaneously into dance. My husband says it's my Jamaican roots, but when I get together with my five best friends from high school, we all do it, so it is a learned behavior. There is nothing like being with your oldest friends to make you become unselfconscious. 

I also love plants, gardening and landscaping. I should have listened to my mother and studied botany. When I retire I want to become a Master Gardener.

Favorite Movies

any submarine movie (Hunt for Red October, Gray Lady Down, etc.), Close Encounters, Alien, Independence Day, The Blues Brothers, Christmas Vacation, Fellowship of the Ring, The Piano, Dangerous Liaisons, The Green Mile, Finding Nemo, Ice Age, Cold Mountain

Favorite Books

Bel Canto, Beloved, The Liars' Club, Year of Wonders, Undaunted Courage, Lake Wobegon Days, The Name of the Rose, Something Wicked This Way Comes

Favorite Quotes

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission." - Eleanor Roosevelt "If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning." - Catherine Aird "When you start off telling those who disagree with you that they are not merely in error but in sin, how much of a dialogue do you expect?" - Thomas Sowell

Favorite People

my husband, my friends, people who speak their minds gently but firmly; from history: Margaret Sanger, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington

Favorite Places

the Lake Michigan shore, Jamaica, New Mexico

Activities

gardening, attending musical performances and plays, reading, fish keeping, walking, playing the piano, watching the Chicago Bears, playing golf and tennis

Favorite Charities

Heifer International

Favorite Music

opera, Baroque, Cajun and zydeco, reggae, soca, Celtic

Favorite TV Shows

Criminal Minds, Big Bang Theory, Medium, My Name is Earl, Lost, Jeopardy, Intervention, Mad Men, NFL games

Favorite Animals

fish, cats, owls, hummingbirds, frogs, dragonflies, fireflies

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