The sum total of my life story in a nutshell. I was born in Marid, Spain at Torejon Air Force Base where I spent the first 2 years of my life. I moved back to the United States where I lived a variety of places including Oakland, California and Teaneck, New Jersey. I was a lousy athlete though I tried my best and I was an exceptional student though I tried not at all (see below)! I had braces (railroad tracks, rubberbands and full headgear) during my entire junior high school years which, along with my glasses and ponytails, made me look REALLY dorky. At age 18, I eloped with an acquaintance and was briefly married (2 weeks would be considered "brief", right?!). A few years later I became a single mother by choice fulfilling a lifelong dream of being a mother. Okay, so I missed my goal of having 6 kids, but those little darlin's are expensive!!

In 1986, I finally saw a Macintosh in action and I immediately became a Macaholic; an addiction which continues to this day. I began my website journey in October 1996 because my 10 year old daughter had stayed at a friend's house and they helped her to create a web site. Not to be outdone, I began with the simpliest of homepages - text in various sizes, a color background, no graphics. It has since evolved from there.

My reward for having excelled at all my academic endeavors from kindergarten on, was more education. Gee, just what every kid in school dreams of!! In my second year of junior high, I had completed all the courses available, so I was shipped off to the local high school for half a day while I continued to attend gym and home economics classes with my peers the other half. This set-up was not without it's perks, however. I would take a public bus between the two schools stopping by my house for lunch and a daily dose of All My Children (which I still watch avidly to this day!).

Once I was actually in high school I quickly ran out of courses since I had had a head start and consquently, I began taking college courses early. But that wasn't enough. Three months before the end of my junior year I ran out of coursework, so they made me a senior and I graduated that June. After which I became a college student at the age of 16, only to develop a severe case of burnout after 2 years (including a semester stint at Sryacuse University Madrid) which lead to my becoming a college dropout.

The moral of this story? No matter how brilliant a child is, they are still just a kid and deserve to remain such as long as possible! Quit pushing so hard, parents!!

I find no shame in the female beautification rituals. I find instead, a certain comfort in the oft times surreal ceremony of draping and painting oneself in the cloak of femininity. At a whim, I can don a mask which either suits my mood or hides it away from the world. I can become the center of attention, drawing all eyes to myself or I can blend into my surroundings, hiding withinin plain sight. I alone determine what it is the world sees of the true me.

But, for those very few close to me, it is the extremeties that give me away. The minute canvases of my toenails and fingernails have somehow become the windows into my soul, the barometer of my moods. Through the years, patterns have begun to emerge. As my life progresses through various stages, as my moods and my emotions swing to and fro on an elliptical arch, so too do the colors with which I choose to paint my nails.

Love, passion, ecstasy, happiness, fervor, zeal, tenderness, grief, sorrow, despondency, despair, worry, depression, dread, fear, hate, resentment, conflict, jealousy, anger, shame, pride, sensuality, lust, desire, regret.The emotions within are infinite in their number, in their depth and range, and in their combinations. Raven Red. Sahara Sapphire. Chicago Champagne Toast. Romeo & Joliet. Grand Teton Topaz. Always Mocha. Pikes Peak-A-Boo Purple. Pompeii Pink. Gold Digger's Delight. Clear Ice. Rainforest Toad.The colors themselves, finite in the available selection. Yet...

Each color, each blend of colors, tells its own unique tale of the emotional storms of thoughts, of emotions, of feelings which swirl through my being. Each holds a piece of me as if it were a integral portion of the collaborative whole. Certain colors and tones speak of my frolicing freely through life while others portray my clinging desperately and tenaciously to the last shreds of sanity. Some show me easily shouldering the responsibilties of adulthood, while still others reflect my screams for the comfort and simpleness I knew once in my long past childhood. Each is a visual stroke to the canvas of my life. And, for those close enough to view them, observant enough to notice them, and perceptive enough to fathom their meaning, the colors intertwine and form themselves to display a true and intimate portrait of me.