Profile

Total Geek Moment--Playing Scrabble with a good friend in Middle English. And laughing at off-color words that haven't been off-color in a few centuries.

Education: Wellesley College, BA in English Lit. Mona Lisa Smile it was not; although, I did belong to a "society" while I was there. The Shakespeare Society was not terribly exclusive. If you liked Shakespeare and theater, you had a good chance of being accepted. The fact that women played all the roles was a twist on Elizabethan theater since boys played the women's roles in Shakespeare's time.

Universite de Paris VII, Ecole Charles V--DEA in Etudes Anglophones/Comparative Literature. Loved teaching, but never found a research topic about which I was passionate. The trick is to find a topic about which nobody else has written. Came to the conclusion that there are good reasons nobody has touched some of these topics.

Adolescence--Survived. Empathize with quote by Angela Carter along the lines of "My adolescent rebellion is a period I now remember with intense embarassment, the chief problem being the absence of other people with whom to rebel."

Unusual thing to find sexy--String Theory, probably because I don't understand any of it and can't do the math....but I've got to say, all those colliding branes, open and closed loops, gravitons, super-symmetry, excited-state subatomic particles, parallel universes and thirteen dimensions. What's not to love.

Favorite writers- incomplete and in no particular order--Charles Baudelaire, Blaise Pascal, Honore de Balzac, Marguerite Duras, T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Edgar Allen Poe, Michel de Montaigne, Maya Angelou, Angela Carter, A.S. Byatt, Roland Barthes, Paul de Man, Walter Benjamin, LeoTolstoy.

Worst employment moment ever: being fired after three months from my first job ever out of college-- marketing assistant at a fund-raising consultancy for 1) improperly duplicating the color-coding scheme on meeting packets 2) forgetting to send an enclosure with a mailing 3) talking while stuffing envelopes.

Not very--Mechanical, could write a treatise on stupid things I've done in cars. Got drivers license at seventeen, only because humiliation of being in a carpool with younger kids became unbearable. Learned to drive stick shift at nineteen. At some moment in the process, my father suggested that maybe drinking a beer might help me relax and do a better job behind the weel.

Sort of known for--Being Communications Director for a company that has many, er PR moments, is known for its modesty, professionalism, and employing some of the bad boys in the J2EE industry, among whom my husband is one of the most outspoken.

Humiliating social moment--Mr. Bogey, my Bull terrier, was totally snubbed at a French dog show where we took him in hopes of establishing his pedigree. Ok we bought him from the gypsies on the Quais de Paris, but he does have all the neurotic bull terrier traits--occasionally chases his tail, loyal but dense, has sensitive skin, and has a shoe fetish (all shoes must be picked up around the house or he drags them off to his lair). Picture of General Patton and his bull terrier, Willie.

Lives in--Atlanta. It took me almost ten years and living in a lot of more cosmopolitan places to decide to return to my hometown. Places I sort of like to go to in Atlanta--Cafe Intermezzo, Jolie Kobe (now Azure) in Sandy Springs for best pastry in the city, Alon's Bakery (Virginia Highland) a good runner up, Doc Chey's Noodle House in Virginia Highlands, Chez Philippe In Peachtree Hills (love the Sunday brunch), hairdresser "Pascal" at Studio Pascal in Buckhead. Technically he's Pascal Bis (the second) because I used to go to another Pacal who moved to Aspen and became a celebrity hairdresser. Have heard the Supper Club and Cafe d'Alsace in Decatur are good, but haven't been there yet. Heck anybody who moved to this town six months ago, probably knows more of the happening places than I do--I've got three kids.

Strange fact--Had pet rats as a child. These were "fancy domestic" rats, not the common wharf varmint variety. My rat was caramel and white and called Turkish Delight; my sister's was black and white and named Daddy Boze. It used to provoke some curiosity among the neighborhood mothers when we would stroll our pet rats in a doll parambulator--but not much, we had the good fortune to grow up in the South where you have to be really eccentric to stand out.

Used to--Run marathons: Boston (twice but not officially since you have to have a competitive time), NYC (my favorite) and Washington DC Marine Corps. Average time--4 1/2 hours, finishing was the main accomplishment. Definitely would recommend the NYC marathon for someone who's never run one before--great way to see the city, especially parts where you might not feel comfortable going under normal circumstances, loved the bridges and the enthusiastic crowds.

"Etat Civil"--Married with three children.