mkp's profile

View all favorite photos

Hometown

Chicago, IL

Places I've been

Lived in Forest Park IL, Minneapolis and Richfield MN, Eauclaire WI, Williams Bay WI, Mt. Prospect IL, Methan Greece, Crete Greece, Barcelona Spain, Palatine IL, Hanover Park IL, Schaumburg IL, Crystal Lake IL, Spring Hill FL, Gulfport MS--have traveled to nearly every state and also Jamaica, Canada, and spent 4 months on a freight ship as a passenger in 1970 - the Kleck.

Education

• University Illinois Chicago, Northern Illinois U, journalism/art - 1967 to 1974

Work

• Advanced Schools, Inc, Chicago, Service Center Director - 1969 to 1973
• Crystal Lake Times/Chicago Tribune, editor-in-chief/writer - 1993 to 1997
• Paddock Publications Daily Herald/Chicago Suburbs, writer/reporter and classified sales--on and off - 1967 to 2003
• Self--Ontext.com, freelance writer/editor/publisher - 1970 to 2007

More about me

I'm sort of semi-retired. As a freelancer, I get to choose my own assignments and work if and when I want. Live in Gulfport, MS and am really enjoying helping to rebuild a community that had so much woe with that blasted hurricane. I'm married to a renaissance man. I love the culture of nearby New Orlenas and Mobile. Hate being far from most of my kids and grandkids...but my daughter and one grandson live 1500 feet from me as the crow flies. Mostly military family and I could tell you stories about that...bad stories. You can see my work online at www.demystifyingdigital.com/blogs/DigitalGrandparent or www.womendaybyday.com or http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/maryan. I also write for a bunch of print publications -- have made a living writing for 35 years and I sell some photos along the way as well.

Activities

Swim as often as I can - left my home with pool in FL and am working to add one to my home in MS. Walk a lot. Go out to shoot photos along the Gulf as often as I can. I never do moonlight walks on the beach - mosquitos eat you alive. I paint with watercolor pencils and create little books and projects for my grandkids. I like boating. I travel to IL often to see family. I work a lot.

Favorite Charities

Hmmm...any that empower or enable women to grow stronger and more self-reliant. None on a national level - I trust none of them.

Favorite Music

Early Floyd. Janis. Zydeco. Love the album with L. Ronstadt and Ann Savoy - Adieu False Heart. Paul Simon, Art Garfunkle separately and together. Nilsson. Andrea Bocelli. I dunno - anything I can sing to. Music that is complicated.

Favorite TV Shows

Boston Legal - best show on the tube. Intelligent, witty and damn funny. Desperate Wives--mind candy. The View, I suppose, because I admire Whoopi. CSI Miami--no idea why except for the weird and garish colors.

Favorite Movies

Finding Neverland. Made in Heaven. Mosquito Coast. Anything with Harrison Ford. Witches of Eastwick. Shakespere in Love. Crash. Nothing with Nicholas Cage. Pirates of the Carribean (the first and third). Secret Window. Meet Me in St. Louis. Chicago.

Favorite Books

Little Women and anything Alcott wrote. Practical Magic and anything Alice Hoffman wrote. Replay by Ken Grimwood (awesome book). Strunk & White. Agatha Christie. To Kill a Mockingbird. Jane Eyre. Rebecca. Podcayne of Mars. A Gift Upon the Shore. Anything by Phillip Wylie. Lots of non-fiction.

Favorite Quotes

No matter where you go, there you are. "Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize you haven't fallen asleep yet." "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." --Gloria Steinem "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you."--Gibran "Oh what a tangled web we weave when something, something, Christmas Eve." --Jim Balushi

Favorite People

My kids/grandkids. Whoopi Goldberg. Chelsea Clinton. Stephen King - not for his books, but for his thinking. Charles Darwin for starting such a brilliant ruckus. Carol Burmeister, my best friend from fifth grade. Steve Martin - an all around talented human. John Hartford. My Grandmother, Florrie Braun.My first boss, Aaron Kozlov. My high school history teacher Robert Schellenburg.

Favorite Places

Garden of the Gods, Carbondale, IL area. Prairie Duchein, WI. Taliesen. Methan and Elounda, Greece. Riecka, Jugoslavia. Paducah, KY. Mt. Prospect, IL. McHenry County, IL. The Gulf of Mexico. Three Sisters Srpings. Weeki Wachee Springs. Washington, D.C. Vicksburg, MS.

Favorite Animals

Ernie, the Yorkie Poo. Elephants.

More "About"