Getting to Know You
Some of my blogging friends have had the good idea to post a getting to know you type post, for new readers due to NaBloPoMo. So, here are a few things about me.
- My name is Julie, I go by J on my blog.
- The picture that shows up when I comment on your blogs is from my 40th birthday party almost (gulp) 20 years ago. Some of you may see an even earlier picture where I’m in Paris, from 1993.
- I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, about 30 minutes east of SF.
- I was born in Berkeley, lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for 5 years as a child, spent my formative years in Stockton, California, and moved to San Francisco for college.
- I met my husband in Speech class at San Francisco State University when I was 21.
- We were together for 5 1/2 years before we married.
- We have a beautiful daughter, Maya, who is 29 and lives with us. She works in Publishing.
- I have a BA in International Relations, an MA in Comparative Literature, and I work in the low tech side of the high tech industry. (I work in tech, but am not a programmer.)
- I love dogs. I have had 3 dogs in my lifetime. Samantha, a black lab/St. Bernard mix, who was a dream of a dog. She was my childhood dog, we got her when I was 6, and she died when I was 22. Then for a while, life was not conducive to pet ownership, so no dog. In late 2002 we got our darling Genevieve, a Sheltie/Keeshond mix. We had her until 2012. In 2015, we got Mulder, the best Keeshond ever, our beautiful boy. In 2022, he was diagnosed with Lymphoma. Because he was only 7 and very healthy, and our vet said she thought he had a really good chance of having a long term remission, we tried chemo. He went into remission, but 3 months after his treatment ended, the lymphoma came back. We were broken hearted. We are currently sans dog.
- I am a Francophile. I love France. I have been 3 times so far, and every time I love it more. I hope to go back at least one more time, but why limit myself to once? I have been to the west coast of Brittany, the south of France meaning Cannes and Nice, Normandy, and Paris. Paris, Paris, Paris. Do I want to see more of France? Yes. Do I also want to see more of Paris? Absolutely YES.
- I’m an orphan. My mom died in 2008, and my dad died in 2017. I miss them both every day. My mom had a blog from 2006 – 2008, which was amazing. Blogging is a different conversation than letters or phone calls or being together in a room, and we learned a lot about each other that we never knew.
- I have 3 siblings. My brother and I have the same mother, he is 2 years older than me, and lives in Juneau, Alaska. We were raised together. My sisters and I have the same father, they are twins and are 5 years younger than me, and live in Portland, Oregon. I met them when I was 22.
- I love to read, mostly literary fiction. I love TV and movies.
- My perfect day would include a walk, then a visit to a museum to see an exhibit of impressionist or post-impressionist art, then a really good lunch including wine, then bookstore shopping, then home to relax with my books and some blog reading.
How about you? What is your perfect day?
6 Comments
Lisa’s Yarns
I’m a Francophile, too! I haven’t been there since 2013 but look forward to going back when the kids are older. I have spent most of my time in Paris but also spent 2 weeks in Lyon for a grad school program and went to Annecy for a weekend trip while in Lyon.
It was fun to learn a few more things about you! You look so much like that childhood picture. Some of us look quite different. Like I do not think I look all that similar to what I looked like as a little girl!
A perfect day for me would start with a good night of sleep. Then I would have coffee, go to an orange theory fitness class, and come home for a good stretch of time to have lunch/lounge around/read. In the afternoon I would get a massage. I’d end the day with a date night with Phil. I feel a little sheepish that my perfect day is mostly spent alone but I am an introvert with small children so solitude is very hard to come by!!
Birchie
I knew most of this from reading your blog and getting to spend time with you, but I love seeing it all again. Plus this is my first time seeing that picture!
My perfect day would include teleporting over to SF to hang out with you again!
AC
You’ve got me thnking that I live my perfect day fairly often, at least in autumn. It might involve a walk in a colourful autumn park wearing a light jacket, preferrably with a coffee in hand.
Sarah
SPEECH CLASS?!?! I love this so much. My TAs and I always talk about the relatiuonships (friendships and romantic) that develop in their classes because people tend to trauma bond in public speaking.
Nicole MacPherson
I didn’t know you had an MA in Comparative Literature – I am pretty sure our mutual friend Allison does as well! I have an MA in Economics and I worked on a trade floor for a while. It was not conducive to family life though, so I resigned after having Mark.
It’s so interesting your mom had a blog!
StephLove
Thanks, this was helpful getting a sense of you (as a relatively new reader).
I am also in my late 50s. And I have two graduate degrees in Comp Lit, too. I ended up writing marketing copy for dietary supplement companies. I more or less fell into that, as my sister has her own free-lance writing business and I started working for her on a occassional basis while I was a stay-at-home mom and then it turned into a regular part-time job when North started kindergarten.
My perfect day would be any day spent at the beach. But this trip to get North from school over Mother’s Day/my birthday came pretty close: https://allfortheloveofyou.com/almost-perfect-days/