First of all, I’d like to give heartfelt thanks to Joe Downing, Steven Suchar and Judy Smith for my nomination, to all those who voted, and most especially to you, John for keeping this forum going for all this while and to Pauline for the beautiful spirit that she so gladly shares with us all.

Now, about the bio…Let’s see…..I was born in the quiet little town of Ashtabula, Ohio. I only have one memory from the three years I lived there and it was of rainbows around a huge icicle hanging from the roof in front of the window where my little table and chair was. I am told that the icicle broke off and crashed through the window on the day my grandmother died and also that I somehow got into a can of Draino and almost died and also that my brother Jim was born there, but I remember none of that.

Actually I remember very little of my childhood. I know that I had attended 11 schools by the time I reached Grade 8, and that we lived in Dallas, various cities and neighborhoods in and around the big apple, Mexico City (I do remember that), Erie Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio. High school was a bit less hectic. Two and a half years at a boarding school, then a girls school in Manhattan. I was happy, shared a room with my sister who was born not long before the move to Mexico. liked school, studied dance at Martha Graham’s School and began dating. College was apparently not to be, so I took a job at Random House Publishers and then just two months later, my father accepted a job at an advertising agency in Toronto, Canada. This meant we were set to move again…NOT….I’d had enough.

I married a man almost 12 years my senior, settled down in Brooklyn and had four children within the next 6 ½ years. At some point we decided to join my family in Toronto, and a year and a half after my fourth child was born, I enrolled in the government-sponsored teacher’s college there. I did well and got a job immediately with the Toronto Board Of Education teaching 3^rd Grade.

The strain of juggling family, work and school, however took its toll on the marriage and once it was over, I realized that the teacher’s pay would not sustain my family. It turned out that I made more money at my weekend job in a jazz club than I did teaching, and so I moved to Las Vegas where I could make a decent living in a casino and still have time for family. While there, I met a man from Seattle who was interested in working with groups of people and the next several years were filled with what now would be called joint ventures. Some of the projects I worked with included an organic produce market, a tavern, a restaurant, a Guatemalan import business, a community house and a land trust. We never married, but had a son who was brought up on the land in a house with no electricity and no running hot water and is now an engineer in computer science working for a subsidiary of GE near Lake Tahoe– Go figure.

My marketing started with 5 years with Time/Life phone sales and then a fascination with the Internet. It’s been quite a while since I got really excited about a project, but that isn’t to say it won’t happen. Meantime, I’m happy doing little things behind the scenes here at Adland and being helpful when I can. I love this Community!

Judy

Well Folks, it's time to honor this wonderful lady with your praises. Please invite her to join your list of friends if she's not already on it.

Judy, you sweet lovable lady, we are so happy to be finally honoring you with this award. Enjoy your week as our POTW and our Queen of AdlandPro!  ;-)