20 Things

Hilda responded to Debra's request for an introduction from the Artist's Way Quilters with 20 things and tagged the rest of us. Here are mine.

1. I was born and raised in Michigan and attended Michigan State University. I completed my BS degree at 20--I was in such a hurry to get on with my life.
   
2. After graduation, I moved to Houston where I met my future ex-husband.
3. In addition to Michigan, I have lived and worked in Houston, Austin, Boston, assorted small towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, on the Riviera in the south of France, and around the San Francisco Bay: Berkeley, Oakland, Palo Alto, La Honda (home of Ken Kesey's psychadelic redwoods), San Francisco, Oakland (again) and Sonoma Valley.
4. I was married in a beautiful small chapel in New Hampshire . . . and divorced some years later in a cold, impersonal courthouse in Massachusetts.
5. My mother always talked about quilting, but the only quilt she has ever made was a cathedral window quilt--a wedding gift for me. It is one of only a few things I still have from my marriage.
   
6. I learned to sail in Massachusetts, to fly in New Hampshire, to ski in France, to quilt in California.
   
7. When I was on sabbatical from a silicon valley start-up, I bought a 4WD truck, headed toward the snow (there was none in the Sierras that year) and skiied in New Mexico and Utah for a month. In the mountains, I first decided I didn't want to go back to that sili-valley startup, then I realized that I didn't want to go back to hi-tech at all.
8. During my break from high-tech, I interned or worked for several non-profit performing arts organizations in San Francisco, started a hat business and, for one season, made hats in the costume shop for the SF Opera. I also had a long string of interesting day jobs. When I returned to high-tech, I felt I was better equipped to maintain a better balanced life. (I still tell myself that I balance my high-tech career with high-touch interests.)
   
9. In early February, 2001, I drove my little pickup truck 2400 miles cross-country from California to Michigan through blizzards and ice storms and had to stop 4 times because of closed highways in Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa. What I thought was going to be a 3 or 4 day trip took 9 days. I planned a 3 month leave of absence to spend time with my family when my dad was ill. I decided to stay in Michigan when the winery I worked for in California was sold and I got a voicemail message telling me that I no longer had a job.
   
10. Before that trip, I mailed some Jacob's Ladder swap blocks to the hostess from Calfornia; she returned them to me in Michigan; I put them together in an arrangement known as Road to California, but my quilt is named Road from California. It was a gift to my mom.
    
11. My father died at the end of 2001. I still miss him, especially at the end of the year.
    
12. I love kids, but have no children. Being close to my nieces and nephews is one of the reasons I decided to stay in Michigan.
    
13. Now I live in Lansing, Michigan.
14. 30 years after graduating from Michigan State University, I find I still have my student number committed to memory . . . but ask me for my month-old cell number and I'll have to look it up.
    
15. I have also studied at Boston University, Harvard University, Golden Gate University and San Francisco State. I love to learn.
    
16. I am fascinated by how things are made and once spent a 2 week vacation in western Utah learning to make custom western boots and hiking boots.
17. I will be 51 years old on November 8.
18. I believe there is one more love-of-my-life in my future.
19. Although I learned to quilt 6 or 7 years ago, I made my first quilt block, from a library book, as a teenager. It was a drunkards path, made from solid blue and orange fabrics. It became a pillow.
    
20. This will be my third trip through The Artist Way. The first time led me to making hats. The second time led to my move to the Wine Country. I'm a little afraid of where this time will lead.

Ok, who's next?