What, you want a bio for our 50^th reunion?  I don't think I even did one for the THS 100-year book.  Probably read the request and put it on my To Do list, which I regularly throw away.   Timelines and facts are hard for me. I like to categorize and see the big picture.  For those of you who remember Myers-Briggs, I’m an INTJ, a very strong introvert and highly favor intuition and thinking. 

So where do I even start?  I’ve read the bios.  What a fantastic class we have!  So accomplished, solid and dedicated.  Me? I've lived in about 20 places from MA to HA.  Started dating Jim in 1957, married in ‘60, divorced in ’78, but we remain very good friends.  He’s retired, lives in Hawaii and enters the triathlon every October.  We have one fantastic son in Alaska.  Jay, practicing with a doctorate in physical therapy, also has a degree in recording engineering.  Up there in Alaska I can visit my two grand dogs-huskies. Here I have two, deaf, 15 yr old cats.  My 86 yr dad is in NC and bro Bob (THS’64) is in CT. 

I didn't end my formal education until I was approaching that 40 year mark.  Late, but it is fun now to say my undergrad and grad were at University of Hawaii and San Diego, and Industrial Organizational Psychology is a good field.  They told me I probably wouldn't get in ‘cause I was female.  Ha!

I don’t think I’ve done anything spectacular that anyone would want to read about.  Actually the elephant ride in Thailand in April was pretty nice.  And the villa that we rented in Tuscany was like a Hollywood movie scene. I have to mention that being on a ship under a piracy watch while cruising off Yemen and Oman was different.  And maybe the trips I was able to take because my son worked for Norwegian cruise lines.  Contrast that with seeing the poor in Mangalore, India.  At the cashew plant they make $3 a day.  Makes me cringe at our over-abundance.   

Oh, then there are the truly dumb things I've done.  I drove alone across the US in a Pinto in the ‘70s with my 10 yr old son.  Visited my son and daughter-in-law, Susan, in Fairbanks at Christmas when it was dark and minus 39 degrees-twice.  Right near the top of that dumb list would be leaving Hawaii for California, or leaving California for Virginia. Then even worse - staying in Virginia when Hawaii and California constantly call 

Hardest things:  Being a military wife during the Viet Nam war; living in Newport RI with two seasons, 4^th of July and winter; going back to college at 32; divorcing; learning to walk again after being paralyzed in ’86; being a caregiver; being a revenue officer in LA for the IRS, and dealing with mom’s tragic death.   Also balancing my checkbook, staying computer literate, keeping up with today’s ‘toys’, the music and musician’s names.

Loved working as a research assistant at Navy Personnel & Research Development Center, Point Loma (San Diego for non-Californians).  I still dream of living on Point Loma.  Enjoyed work at IRS National Office, in Wash, D.C. especially special projects and travel, but was glad to retire.  The best jobs are the volunteer jobs like working on the 50^th reunion for the class of ’58.

Some good stuff: having a great son; friends; still having my dad at 86 yrs old and my bro; receiving IRS’ highest award, the Commissioner’s Award, for my work on the IRS organizational redesign team; being a deacon in my contemporary Southern Baptist church; organizing a volunteers’ program at Monterey Institute of Speech and Hearing in the ‘60s, starting Singles Groups, and recently starting a Caregiver Support group in my 55+ community and setting up our community as a SeniorNavigator.org site.

I teach ESL, am a licensed water aerobics instructor and the Alzheimer's Chairman of the Virginia federation of NARFE (National Active and Retired Federal Employees).  I’m chairman again of our chapter’s Fashion Show fundraiser for Alzheimer's held in October at the local country club.  We received a NARFE award last year for raising the most $$ of any chapter in Virginia and most of the nation.  I wear that badge with honor and am working to do it again this year.  

Gracias, Sr. Mattei.  Te quiero.   Voy a España en Octubre.  Thanks for happy years at PS 5, especially Carmella, Faye and Margo. Thanks for THS fun, Lis, Rose, Shelby, 2  Bills, Jay, Nancy, Else, Joyce and Alice.  Thank you gentlemen- Marty, Bill, Peter and Tony for taking me to the proms.  I was thrilled that you cared enough to ask me.  And thanks Miss Sklair, best home room teach.  Bless you Elias and team for the 50^th reunion.  Love the THS website.  So glad we ‘found’ Anne S. and wish health to PS 5 pal, Alayne.

Dreams of the future: we’ll have peace on a healthy planet; I’ll be thin and a natural blond at our 60th; my IRAs will make money; I’ll laugh, sing and travel; share the next 35 years with a great TBD guy; grow vegetables and flowers, and live by the water and mountains; have grandchildren; live in a place that doesn’t require driving a car or I’ll be rich enough to have a chauffeur.  I’ll continue to serve community and church, and end up in heaven.  If I reincarnate I want to be born in Florence, Italy, but spend 50 years in or near the Pacific.

Lessons learned:  I often took the road less traveled and often did it my way.  Unlike Frost and Sinatra, I can’t say that I always chose correctly or did the wisest thing.  Ah! Another future dream:  I’ll listen more to advice from others– preferably while we are sipping mai-tai’s on Waikiki or wine in Napa. Join us!

Update after the 50th reunion weekend.  My bio says that I hoped to spend 35 years with a great TBD guy.   That great TBD guy turned out to be Bill Lidell who took me to the junior prom.  We had fun at the reunion and maybe a spark was lit.  He returned to California,  I returned to Virginia.  Then we began emailing and phoning each other.  I invited him for Thanksgiving with my family.   He arrived on Tuesday,  proposed on Friday, and returned to California the next Tuesday.

Our wedding will be held on Valentines Day 2009, six months after the reunion and about 50 1/2 years after we graduated from THS.  Initially we'll be bi-coastal, settle in Virginia and then who knows.  We owe Elias a great thanks for orchestrating the reunion.