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Please give a short bio of yourself for our readers. I grew up in the Seattle/Tacoma area the second of 3 daughters. My father was a flooring subcontractor at a time when the bottom virtually fell out of the housing market so we were a little on the poor side for much of my childhood. Things picked up during my teenage years, though. I moved to Utah when I was 15 and lived with my grandparents for my last two years of high school afterwhich I attended BrighamYoung University. I majored in English and graduated in 1987. Also in 1987, I married my college sweetheart, Ed. We moved to Oregon in 1990. I worked as a technical writer for 12 years, half of which was as a freelance writer from home. I have one daughter, Joey, born in 1993. Two year ago I decided to go back to school to become a midwife but after being accepted to nursing school, I changed my mind to go back to my writing roots. I plan to go to graduate school next year (2002) to get a master's degree in writing so I can teach. I love to write, garden, play volleyball, hang with my family, hang out at Diaryland, scrapbook and my latest obsession is black and white photography. (And obsession is the right word.) Why did you choose this username? When I was trying to think of a username, I was evaluating my life in the moment and realized I was absolutely crazy. I was going to school full time and very busy with that, considering going to nursing school and graduate school in nursing and I was also trying to avoid neglecting my child and husband, volunteering at church, and just generally feeling overwhelmed. I kept hearing this voice in my head saying "You must be crazy" and I was starting to believe it. I've always been a little crazy anyway. So I figured that someone in my position must be in need of a lobotomy. Why do you keep a diary online? First of all, I'm a writer--both professionally and as an avocation. Second, I like journaling. I've kept journals most of my life, but in recent years, I have let them slide entirely too much. I had been reading an online friend's diary for a few months and decided that it might be a good way to keep me interested enough in the process to keep journaling. I had originally intended it to be a private one--I wanted to have complete anonymity--and didn't tell anyone about it. Then one day, HerWorship linked me as a favorite and I got a charge of realizing that someone was reading my stuff. The writer in me loved it. It was like being published or something. Suddenly, I realized the allure of an online diary vs. a paper diary. People who don't know me and who aren't going to care if I confess my worst characterstics can read my stuff and it makes the writing much more fun. Once I got a guestbook and started getting feedback, it turned into almost an addiction. Ok, not almost. It's a full-on addiction. How important do you think a layout is for a web-based diary? Would you also comment on yours? I think layout is very important. There are some diaries that I *don't* read because the layout is too busy, too annoying, too crowded, too hard on my eyes, etc. There are also some diaries that are very visually appealing and which draw me in--Angelbutt, HerWorship, Mimi Smartypants, Trinity63, Lookinside all have nice layouts and the layouts make the reading experience much more pleasurable. I had a standard template diary for a month or so when Lucretia offered to make me one. I said I wanted something arty and thought that maybe Van Gogh prints would lend themselves well to my general life-is-crazy theme. I love my layout--she did a great job and I've gotten many compliments on it. She's great! I have noticed throughout your diary how the importance of food is to you, and how you relish cooking. Can you expand on this for us, and share with us what the art of cooking means to you? I'm both a gourmet and a gourmand. I love to plan and invent and create wonderful food. It's the full sensory experience--beautiful fruits and vegetables and breads, wonderful rich aromas of the herbs and the foods while they cook, the kinesthetic experience of kneading dough, carving meats, cutting with a sharp knife, the sizzle, and lastly, the taste. Ah, the taste. That's where the gourmand part comes in--I love eating good food--pasta, roasted or braised meats and vegetables, crisp salads, Mexican food, piquant lemon sauces, the lingering heat of a spicy sauce. It's all good. I began cooking when I was a young child--around 6 or 7. My mother taught me to crush dried herbs in my hand before adding them to foods. She taught me to use a sharp knife safely and properly. She taught me how ingredients go together and about food chemistry and about entertaining with food. Cooking brings me closer to her. It's something that we shared when she was alive and which I continue on, even in her absence. But when I smell those pungent herbs, I'm transported back to my childhood, standing on a kitchen chair in front of the stove crushing oregano and marjoram and rosemary before dropping the herbs into spaghetti sauce. In your diary you exhibit a delightful curious nature. If there was one question in the whole world you could get an answer to, what would it be? Why can't I get pregnant? Joey your daughter is indeed the love of your life. What do you hope Joey does differently than you did growing up as a child? I hope she maintains her incredible sense of self esteem and confidence. I spent many years knowing I was smarter than most of the kids I went to school with but feeling inadequate and ashamed and embarrassed by my handmedowns and messy hair. It took a major move in my life to shake that sense of inadequacy that I had from early childhood. I want her to feel the way she does now--that she is of worth, competent, liked and loved. If you only had one picture left in your camera, and it was the last picture you'd ever take-- what would it be of? My family. I'd want it to be of Ed and Joey in our home, perhaps playing a game or wrestling on the floor or cuddling together on the couch while watching a video. They're my life. Interviewed by Trinity63
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