It's all about ME

I grew up in a Polish neighborhood in Chicopee (‘violent waters’) Massachusetts, but now I live clear across the country in Olympia (‘it’s the water’) Washington.

I read my way through my childhood and teenage years.  A lot of my reading involved books about rabbits – there was The Velveteen Rabbit, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Rabbit Hill, and later Watership Down.  John Updike became my new favorite author when he wrote his series about Rabbit Angstrom (I know he’s not that kind of rabbit, but still…)

When I wasn’t reading I was digging in the dirt or hunkering down with my chin on the ground to see if my seeds had sprouted yet.  I planted zinnias and carrots – zinnias because they were easy to grow and carrots for me and the rabbits.  Today I grow lavender and Queen Anne’s lace – and bees.  If I’m not reading or writing or digging in the dirt I’m having tea with the bees.

But wait – there’s more!

I have a PhD in Nuclear Chemistry from the University of Chicago, which makes me (almost) a rocket scientist.

I love baseball.  It appeals to my inner statistician.  I live for the day when the Seattle Mariners play the Chicago Cubs in the World Series – and flying pigs buzz the field.

I once worked on a public art project that became a Crimestoppers Crime of the Week.  Our team of four women artists covered a Styrofoam salmon form with pennies and called it ‘Wishupona Fish.’  One night, thieves stole Wishupona away from its perch by the Transit Center.  We thought we’d never see it again, but ten months later it turned up in Denver.  Amid much fanfare and a blurb on the Six O’clock News, Wishupona swam back upstream and landed in Olympia on a cold January night.