I lived an unusually normal childhood. My parents have always been crowd-shy so I spent most of my time growing up in small out-of- the way places. One of the places that I still identify with the most is a ranch that is located in central california. We really didn't live there all that long... my family has lived in eleven different houses, but we've lived in the same place since I was in second grade. So you can see we moved a lot when I was little. I grew up with my mom for a best friend.

The reason I remember this ranch so much is that is was there that my "dryad" roots are buried. The Ranch is this beautiful, usually golden, oak savannah. My parents and I used to go hiking a lot, and the more often we went, the more I started realizing how *alive* oaktrees are. My fanciful imagination would see shapes and personalities in them. The ugliest and most gnarled trees were always the ones that I called "fairy trees." At least my parents said they were the ugliest. To me they were beautiful. Whenever I go back to this area I feel such warmth in the trees. Nothing measurable, or tangible... but just sort of a feeling of goodwill.

I grew up at a tiny, private boarding school called Midland where my parents taught for over 20 years until they moved on (in 2000). It was a wonderful place to be as a child. There were several other faculty children my age to play with, and the campus is quite removed and safe, so that my mother didn't have to worry about us too much. I went through California public schools for elementary and junior high, and for highschool, I attended Midland.

Midland is a trip and a half. It's this little, totally out of the way school across the street from Michael Jackson's ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley, CA. While it is a very academically intense college prep school it is also a place to learn who you are and how to rely on yourself. Each student has a job that helps upkeep the school in some way. This does two things--It keeps tuition costs lower than almost any other boarding school and it teaches the students responsibility. The funny thing is, it WORKS!. Because of this, I know how to fix all kinds of problems with toilets, can replace some types of windows, know how the Dewey Decimal System works (not that anybody uses it anymore...)

However, after a while such a closed environment will get to anyone, so when my senior year rolled around, I decided I needed something BIGGER for college. I chose UCSC and they decided that was okay with them. I was off to become a bananna slug!

I can't tell you how amazing the campus of UCSC is... You can get lost (and you WILL if you take the footpaths) in the Redwood forests on the way to class. And if it happens to be an early class, you may very well see a deer or two on the way there! Freshman year, I lived in this weird little apartment on campus at Kresge with 6 other young women. It was a challenge. I spent a lot of time in the art studios and reading for whatever lit class I was in. I also discovered Red Wines. YUM.

My internet interests and gEeKliNesS were well-founded, beginning in my sophomore year, about five years ago. I was a b-GeEk! and I discovered Mudding.

Remember fInGeR fiLeS (aka .plans)? I had one of those... I think finger files are even niftier than web pages because they better demonstrate your geekliness. It's like saying, "Hey look! I remember the net before the web existed! And I wrote it in vi too!"
(unfortunatly, the CGI script that used to work for this doesn't anymore :( )

In the 3 years I spent back in Santa Barbara County, I lived in 3 different houses. Not counting the year I spent living with my parents after graduation and commuting all over the place. The first house was total suburbia, and I lived with two women who were grad students at UCSB. It had a nice big back yard with a patio and a lawn and a Jacaranda tree that I could climb. But we had to move out 'cause the landlord wanted his house back.

So I moved. Into this TINY 10'x10' studio apartment in a decrepit old victorian. Here's a picture of me in my doorway. I got creative with my decorating. I only lived there for 2 and a half months before my best friend Julianne moved down to join me.

We moved into a funny little apartment with PINK carpet. Icko. but it was only two blocks from the beach :) I miss Julianne. She moved to Ohio! Of all places! But now she is back in Santa Cruz (well, Capitola, actually). She got finally got married to Gerald and they have a BIG, CRAZY DOG named Oswald. Living with her was a learning experience for both us.

Pretty much the whole time I was living in Santa Barbara, I was working for this really cool Independent Bookstore called the Earthling. I miss being surrounded by books all the time, but I don't really miss the job all that much. Okay, so I miss parts of it, and I definitely miss some of the other people I worked with. Unfortunately the big, evil chain bookstores put the Earthling out of business (about a year after I quit).

I'm currently really enjoying my job with Qualcomm. It's a wireless communications company in San Diego that has several products including digital cellular phones and Eudora email software. I work in the internal computer support department. For a while I was an administrative business-process type person. Lots of 'best-practice' and 'continuous improvement' type effort. Now I'm doing a little more technical writing, marketing and web design. I get paid to use my brain and be creative!!

My life has taken some very interesting twists and turns in the last year. In fact it was just over a year ago that I attended a certain fateful Halloween party down here in San Diego. You all know me well enough to know that I am often at my most outgoing and persuasive when in costume....

There I was, dressed to the nines in my psuedo-Victorian dress and long auburn curls (wig), batting my eyelashes at anyone and everyone. One certain dashing gentleman, dressed as a French Magistrate caught my eye and I apparently caught his too! Of course, that was Pierre Cadieux. :)

Over time, what had been a somewhat flirtatious work friendship quickly turned into a deep respect and love for each other. Our minds even work together well on a playful and silly level. It got more and more difficult for either of us to do anything without thinking of or including the other.

So this October, when Pierre returned from work travel to Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney, he brought back a big beautiful Sapphire ring, with which he asked me to be his wife. With tears of joy, I accepted.

Interestingly enough, on the one year anniversary of that Halloween party, we moved into our newly purchased home. It's a beautiful 3-bedroom on a 1/4 acre lot. (Beware, the page about my house has lots of photos and loads quite slowly.)

Here's a picture of Pierre being embarrased by Hudson Lieck, the actress who plays Callisto on Xena and Hercules. This was taken just a few months after we got engaged.

Soon after adopting Bast, our little grey moggie, and moving into our new house, we went and got hitched up at Midland with a great Renaissance-style to-do. Our honeymoon was spent in Florida (Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale) and on a short cruise to the Bahamas. I think snorkling in a coral reef and climbing Blackbeard's tower (well, a tower built in the same spot that he had a wooden one) were the high points of the trip. The fires in the everglades and the yucky humidity were the low points. We also both really enjoyed Epcot center - particularly the part with all the countries. Next time we'll skip the science-y stuff and go straight on to the countries.

For Pierre's birthday in 1999, I bought him (us) a pair of plane tickets to Australia. We flew into Sydney in March 2000 and stayed in the Park Hyatt, overlooking the Sydney Harbor (Circular Quay) and the Sydney Opera House. We spent a few days exploring The Rocks (where the original quarters for the sailors and immigrants were), Darling Harbor (where there's a wonderful Aquarium with platypuses (platytipi?)), Manly Beach (right at the mouth of Sydney harbor, with about a 3 block width of land between harbour and open ocean), and a little bit of downtown. Then we caught a night train down to Melbourne, which I don't recommend.  The trip was uncomfortable, first class was sold out, and the food was astoundingly bad.

I fell madly in love with Melbourne.  The city felt very European to me and more elegant than Sydney, although it didn't have the same historical feel as Sydney.  We also had a great St. Patrick's Day, attending a chorale concert the day before at St. Patrick's Cathedral (a block from our hotel) and most of St. Patty's itself in a little pub called Bridie O'Reilly's, drinking lots of Guinness and Harp. In Melbourne, we also explored the parks at night to see the possums (MUCH cuter than opossums), we went on a wine tasting tour in the nearby Mastadon Ranges - very good sparkling wines, and we did a little shopping. We also conceived our firstborn at some point. Hopefully AFTER St. Patty's Day....

Then we rented a car (a Holden Commodor - basically a Ford Taurus) and proceeded up the East coast back towards Sydney.  We stayed in several wonderful little B&B's on the way and explored things like the wildlife (kangaroos, wombats and kukaburras oh my!), the Buchan Caves near the Snowy River, and a darling little town called Berry. Once we got back to Sydney, we met up with some of Pierre's friends and wandered around downtown some more and mostly relaxed before we had to head back home to the USofA.

To be continued....