CURRENT MISSION

Reinventing my life

ABOUT ME

I grew up in Seattle, and hitch-hiked to San Francisco at age 19. I've made Northern Cal my home since. I live in the wine country with a family of cats I rescued, and am now deciding what I want to be when I grow up. My passion is helping an orphanage in the Himalayas where I've been sponsoring a Tibetan girl since 2001. My career has been in business administration, and I'm not sure what direction to go next. I studied classical music in college, love to travel to France, enjoy cooking and gardening, travel, reading, meeting people of other cultures, and being a good friend. I'm considered warm, generous and kind. I've been derailed with a house remodel, so my attention has been focused on home for the past year.I have been self employed for 12 years. I love critters, don't smoke, I do eat some meat (not red very often), and I love meeting new people. I am always studying and learning something new. There are not enough hours in the day!

PHILOSOPHY

You get out of life what you put into it. Your thoughts create your beliefs which create your experience. My religion is simple: BE KIND. Enjoy and do no harm. Make this world a better place than when you found it. Be constructive, not destructive. Karma rules. Create instead of react.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

So far, I've only participated by hosting and being hosted by other surfers.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've had a variety of visitors, not just from couchsurfing, but also from other similar online groups. My favorite has been Steve Savage from the savage files dot com during his 4th trip around the world. We stay in touch to this day. I've only had one bad experience with a guest - everyone else has been great! I was hosted as well, and I think it's a great way to get to know people from other cultures and places in the world. We are all one family, after all.

Interests

Travel, internet research, personal development, animal rescue, snow skiing, cooking, baking, gardening, reading, French culture and travel, PARIS, meeting people from other places, staying in close touch with my friends, teaching wine tasting, fine dining, good music, driving back country roads, exploring new places, learning new things, genealogy, history, spending hours on Google Earth late at night looking at places all over the world, being in the country camping, hiking, going to the City for fun/recreation, attending classical music concerts and operas, learning Web 2.0, updating my skills, taking classes at the JR College nearby, futzing around the house and being lazy, watching tv like Ugly Betty and the Amazing Race, learning digital photography, developing business concepts/entrepreneur, coming up with creating marketing plans, consulting to businesses, helping others grow and learn and be empowered, empowering women and especially the orphan girl I sponsor, the Manjushree Vidyapith Orphanage and doing whatever I can to help Lama Thupten care for the kids, planning my house remodel, enjoying working around the yard/land here, going to garage sales and junk stores, exploring new places, studying maps and planning fantasy trips to places, playing with www.airtreks.com at night to plan my around the world tour someday, going to book signings and meeting interesting authors, watching travel programs on tv, watching cooking and hgtv shows, .....is that enough???

• animals
• cats
• culture
• books
• photography
• concerts
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• baking
• wine tasting
• fine dining
• running
• gardening
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• socializing
• garage sales
• music
• classical music
• hiking
• camping
• skiing
• business
• cartography
• entrepreneurship
• genealogy
• history
• medicine
• religion

Music, Movies, and Books

Can I please come back to this later on and finish?

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Went to Paris for the weekend for my 21st birthday. Flew from Chicago Friday evening, returned to Chicago Monday morning. I didn't sleep a wink the whole weekend in Paris. I had the time of my life! The other amazing thing I've done(am doing) is sponsoring a Tibetan orphan girl. She is thriving and has since moved from the orphanage to a great school in the big city. I'm preparing to send her on to college next. She is totally amazing. The experience is life changing for us both. One person CAN make a difference. It is the most rewarding thing I've ever done. She is truly my 'daughter', and I'm her proud Mom. She plans to become a Doctor, and she will! Who'd a thunk? She never dared to dream before. Anything is possible.

Teach, Learn, Share

This will take some thought, and I've run out of time. I will continue shortly as I do have things I wish to learn and plenty to share.