I am Irish descent. Need I say more? The Blarney Stone and The Troubles are in my blood.
Santa Barbara was my home for a loooong time, and there I was something called a "Publications Analyst" (read re-writer, ghost writer, and editorial factotum) for the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Prior to that, I was a schoolmarm... taught English in high school, college, and adult education. And also taught Logic, lol, as Debate Coach for our trophy-winning high school debate team.
Before that I was a reporter out of the western bureau of Newsweek.
Now, I am a free-lance Journalist, Editor, Writer... and have sundry encounters with Spades.
I was born in New York City, and raised all over the country by a lovable, peripatetic mom. Was married a time or two; when (after my first marriage), I became sole breadwinner for my first two kids it was a dicey endeavor with my lack of money and schooling. Sooo, I took a look at improving my education and earning power.
I obtained a couple of college degrees (B.A., English; M.A., Journalism), a long road before the entitlements prevalent today, but which gave me incredible experience in a wide variety of businesses, from construction to advertising, working as a secretary, answering service operator, paralegal, and model to earn money to live on and support the kids. I tried the study of Law; completed first year and passed
the Baby Bar.
But found I wanted to have a career that gave me more time with my children, so I went after a couple of teaching credentials. Teaching gave me hours like the kids'.
Had three more kidlets when I wed again, to bring the total to four sons and a daughter, but lost my husband to cancer and one son in an auto accident some years after that.
I moved to the Land of the Redwoods a few years ago where I occupy the top branches of the tallest redwood tree I could find, from which I view the breakers on the coast,
read and write voraciously,
compose verse. . .
, , , and create websites.
This page was last updated on: November 25, 2004
And sundry encounters, too,
with windmills...
tilting at them can plunge you
down into the mire...
or, sweep you up into the stars
(paraphrasing Cyrano de Bergerac)
after all, "...a man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"
"Welcome to My World"
Vocals by Jim Reeves
^
|
|
|
home sweeeeet home!
". . . it does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
Samuel Adams
To live amid beauty, whether natural or man-made, is to discover a Survival Tool for the soul.
Perhaps because of my debate background, I often allow myself the role of Devil's Advocate.
Historically, it is the Devil's Advocate who, as a loyal member of an organization, has the job of marshaling arguments against positions taken by the group to which he belongs.
He is absolutely loyal and his task is to provide opposing concepts, no matter how trivial, so that the group may evaluate its assumptions, be prepared for challenges to them, or alter policies and positions which may need revision.
You may use the player's controls to adjust volume or turn off the music.
North California lighthouse, a painting in acrylics by
