A Bio of sorts

I was born in Monterey California (6-13-1961). My dad was in the US Army
and I've lived a lot of places, mostly in Germany. I started sewing when I
was 5 years old when my father gave me the first and only sewing lesson
I've ever had. Judging from the results, he must have done a respectable
job. He still owns that machine too.

I don't like talking about myself and am -surprise!- very shy so I'll jump
ahead to today and fill in the blanks based on any questions one may pose
as I never know what to say. At this writing, I'm a 42-yr. old single mother
of a seventeen-year-old boy. I've been working in the needle-trades one way
or another for the past 20+ years. I live in El Paso Texas (but looking to
relocate ASAP) in a local area landmark known as "The Brewhouse". The
Brewhouse is the original Falstaff Brewery built in 1896 so it's over a
hundred years old. My space is what used to be one of the vat rooms and
it's pretty big, about 6,000 sq. feet. I've done a lot of renovating in here
because it wasn't set up to live in. I'll include some pictures later.

Anyway, I live here with my son (Mike) and four cats who are named Left,
Right, Colita and Batface. As you'll see after I flesh out this site, I'm not
what you'd describe as typical and that is definitely very unintentional.

My interests are both predictable/off-beat and fairly limited (unfortunately).
Other than all things sewing related, I like to make things...anything (lol).
These sorts of things will be detailed in the projects section of this site. I'll
also show some photos of the renovation projects I've done in my loft. As
you'll see, I do all of my own plumbing, carpentry, electrical etc...everything
but welding.

Fitness is a priority for me. I lost about 150 lbs. over 20 years ago and
fitness has helped maintain my weight loss. I used to run but haven't done
much of that since I moved to El Paso; the air quality is awful here. I love
doing outdoor type things like camping, hiking and canoeing. I think I'd like
to move back to northern New Mexico where I can do those sorts of things
much more readily but I don't think there's any work for me there (not that
there is here either).

Social activism is a defining paradigm of my life and that should be no
surprise to any of you (who have read me). I am fundamentally committed
to sustainable economic development to improve the quality of people's
lives. I do not believe that businesses have to make ethical tradeoffs in the
interests of profit and growth.

I am committed to an ecologically low-impact lifestyle; I'm a vegetarian
(that means no meat of any kind for those who don't know) and consciously
limit my lifestyle and spending towards choices that reflect my values. In
simplest terms that means I'll never own an SUV, a large screen TV
(actually, I don't watch TV at all but I'm a life-long NPR listener and
supporter), or any of these sorts of things.

I like to read quite a bit; mostly non-fiction topics such as anthropometry,
brain architecture, morphology, the mechanics of skill acquisition and
learning, smatterings of light science, anything mechanical and lastly, my
favorite which is the development of process controls, i.e. the architecture
of quality.

Probably the books that have had the greatest overall influence on me are
Man's Search for Meaning (Frankl) because it forever changed my attitude
about the power of choice in people's lives -particularly when you think you
have none- which is why I always say that being a victim is a choice; you're
only a victim if you stay "there". Another is Diet for a Small Planet (Frances
Moore Lappe) which compassionately, logically and eloquently discusses
the ecological devastation of the average American diet and how to live
more healthily, sanely and compassionately. Most recently, I am continually
reading The Cinderella Complex (Colette Dowling) which I urge all women
to read (be forewarned; it can be a frightening thing to face internal reality).
This book can be a very constructive tool to redesign your life-long
priorities, particularly if you are single like me.

I read some fiction -admittedly escapist, remember no TV- but that's mostly
science fiction. My favorite contemporary author of the genre is Sheri S.
Tepper (try Singer from the Sea) and I'm hoping to meet her someday. She
lives in Santa Fe New Mexico. Probably my favorite sci-fi title is The Game
Players of Zan (M.A. Foster) which is a real brain squeeze if you appreciate
the difficulty and endless complexity of designing a fictional seminal social
system. I also enjoy a genre described as Latin-American surrealism, which
includes anything from 100 Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) to
The Milagro Beanfield War (John Nichols).

The last (or rather first) thing you should know about me is that I have
Asperger's Syndrome. Asperger's is a pervasive development disorder (a
type of Autism) that severely impacts my life, restricting my ability to
socialize and be with people. I cannot work at a regular job or be engaged
in the kinds of daily life activities that everyone takes for granted. My eye
contact is poor and I am very shy. I STRENOUSLY dislike being the center
of attention and for this reason, have very frequently regretted having ever
written a book or having done anything else that has put me in the public
spotlight. I'll write more about Asperger's Syndrome later -and it's
important that I do so- because there is no doubt that this genetic anomaly
is what has created and affected my depth of interest and mastery in my
field.

If you are interested in knowing more about Asperger's, I've been writing
about this for a very long time (including my extended sabbatical) and will
post the first of these pages the week of July 26th.  Honestly, the pages are
written, have been written. The hesitancy on my part is having to explain
the signifcance of things difficult to express and understand, like feeling
you're from another planet all of your life. And some of it is not so hard to
understand and falls in a category not unique to any divorced -and dating-
woman in her mid 40's but is rather personal, particularly when you don't
understand the ways of men (and why they lie) or women for that matter
(or why they lie either) or any kind of supposed social dating norms.

In the meantime, you can see how many asperger-type traits you may have
by taking this quiz at Wired Magazine:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html
A companion article can be found at:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers_pr.html

This site was last revised July 24, 2004