Describe some of the important experiences of your life:
Peak experiences - Parents were communists during my early childhood, grew up on farm, married young at 18, traveled to Russia with husband during year of Cuban Invasion, hitchhiked from Portland OR to NYC after divorce, lived on island off Spain with daughter's father for 6 months, birth of children, lived in Haight-Ashbury in '60's, entered Recovery in 1984, grandchildren born in '90's, retired after 25 years at OHSU in 2006, diagnosed with atrial fibrillation in 2008.
What's your biggest regret?:
That I wasn't more helpful to my parents when they were in their last days.
List your most inspiring heroes.:
My parents who were lifelong idealists and peace activists and who stayed together for over 50 years through thick and thin, especially my mother who cared for my father at home with great diligence in his last years fighting Parkinson's disease and Alzheimers. Also Muhammed Ali, Lance Armstrong, Buddha, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Einstein, Jane Fonda, Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking, Mary Draper Ingles, Chief Joseph, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon, Annie Leibowitz, Nelson Mandela, Paul Newman and Jack Nicholson, Georgia O'Keeffe, Samantha Power, Quakers, Robert Redford, Jon Stewart, Alan Turing, Shoen Uemura, Suzanne Valadon, Florence Wald, Malcolm X, Neil Young, and Howard Zinn.
List your favorite movies.:
Movies are my comfort food. Just watched Temple Grandin - well done about an extraordinary woman. Before that A Prophet - foreign film, gritty, excellent. Over the years - Legally Blonde always cracks me up. The Great Escape was one of the earliest favorites of my life. Sports - Hoosiers has it all.
List the most recent books you have read.:
Currently reading The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg, the Sun magazine, Feng Shui: The Book of Cures, and Ultimate Healing.
Who are your favorite musicians?:
Lizz Wright, John Lennon, Willie Nelson, Rufus Wainwright, CSNY, Tracy Chapman, Amos Lee, Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, Eagles, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Otis Redding, Dan Auerbach, Dolly Parton, Bette Midler, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, Wilson Pickett, Jonny Lang, Alabama, Linda Ronstadt, Townes Van Zandt, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow, Susan Tedeschi, Keb Mo, Bruce Cockburn, Tom Waits, John Denver, Joe Cocker, Renee Austin, Jesse Winchester, Warren Zevon, Gillian Welch, Ryan Adams, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Joan Baez, Janiva Magness
Where would you most like to travel?:
New Orleans, Formentera, Paris, Venice, Sedona Arizona, New Mexico, the ocean anywhere.
What is your educational background?:
Country grade school - near Albany, Oregon. High school Albany, Oregon. Freshman year college - Reed College, Portland, OR. Next 2 years U. of Washington, Seattle. Major Elementary Education. Started Senior year at UC Berkeley, dropped out. Later did some community college at College of Marin in Marin County, California. Then a term at Berkeley again. Years later return to take classes at Portland State University and worked to Senior level as French major. Dropped out and that was it.
List the most interesting people you have known or met.:
My parents for starters - well educated, political activists. My first husband who went on to teach Russian History at Stanford. Charles Ross, a sculptor. Felix Leu, my daughter's father who became an internationally known tattoo artist. Ron Stallings, my son's father, who was a well known saxophone player. Many anonymous members of NA and AA.
What organizations do you belong to?:
If you had an extra $100,000 to give away, what would you do?:
Invest it for my grandchildren's college education.
