About Me...

What to say about me......? First you'll notice there's no picture here. What can I say? I'm a girl and therefore hate all pictures of me. But through the course of life, I have managed to appear in a few. If you search for them, you can find a few on my pbase gallery here. this opens in the same window so to come back here you'll have to use the back button on your browser Start with Rockapella, then go to the Meet & Greet Pictures.

Growing Up

Currently, I'm 37 and a native of North Carolina - where I lived for 31 years - and I currently live in South FL. I grew up outside of a small town called Oakboro, which is outside of another small town called Albemarle, which is about 45 miles East of Charlotte. I went to West Stanly High School, an experience so fun that I've decided to supress most memories associated with those 4 years. But I still remember the cool ones involving Dusti and Amy. Those Gals Rock!

After HS, I went to Stanly Community College for 2 years then UNCG for 2 more. I've lived in Charlotte, Kernersville, Greensboro - for the longest amount of time -- 5 years, Supply (outside of Wilmington), back to Albemarle - Endy to be specific; then back to Charlotte. I moved to San Diego, CA in November of 2002. 18 months was enough of that & I moved back East, landing in Maryland. Maryland lasted 2 years. Then it was back to NC - Raleigh this time - for a year. From there I migrated to sunny South Florida. You can't beat the winters here & living 4 miles from the ocean is a big bonus as well.

Mom & Dad lived near Holden Beach for quite a while, but are moved back to Stanly County soon, my Sis, her hubby and my beautiful niece & nephew, Ally & Noah, live in Stanly County. Many pictures of the kids can be seen: here

Work Stuff

I spent 10 years working for Marriott International. Great company, but I got bored and just never found the right fit. I started as a front desk clerk in Greensboro, at the Courtyard. I transferred to the Full Service Marriott where I was a Rooms Controller & Front Desk Shift Leader. Then I moved to the EBC (Event Booking Center) which did group sales for 4 Marriott properties in Greensboro.

From there I went to Charlotte, to the City Center Marriott at the corner of Trade & Tryon. I was Reservation Supervisor there - for about 4 months. Then I was promoted to Cluster Revenue Manager. I stayed there, in that position, until November of 2002, when I transferred to sunny San Diego, CA as a Lead Cluster Revenue Manager; then, I transferred to MD. I finally branched out into the world of Franchise Management companies in 2006 & moved to Raleigh. The good part was that I got to learn how to do revenue management for Hiltons. The bad part was that the people I worked for were INSANE!!! 7 hotels and a 70 hour work weeks? I don't think so. So I tried a new company, new location, just one hotel & I love it!

I'd go into great detail about what a Revenue Manager does, but it's really dull. Highlights: Set rates, set restrictions, analyze a bunch of data to see if rates and restrictions were good, project what the hotels will do in the upcoming months, work with account to set future years budgets. Boring. But it pays the bills.

Personal Junk

Divorced & very happily single! That's me. Twice actually. I've learned that I was REALLY stupid from about 16 to 26 when it comes to the whole guy thing. Bad decisions made for the wrong reasons.

So now I'm all kinds of single and happy to be so. Given the whole moving thing - which I plan to do again eventually, my stubborn habit of wanting to do what I want to do when I want to do it, and the fact that I hate having to do such mundane things as paying the bills, grocery shopping, etc, I certainly have no desire to live with someone and have to actually discuss said things - I figure I'll be single for quite a while to come. A thought that makes me smile :-) Also, zero kids. This too falls in the category of good.

I have a cool 2 bedroom apartment in here in FL, which I share with my lovely dogs Roshi & Randy. Pictures galore can be seen here

Hobbies

Music, Photography, Travel, Rockapella, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel!!

Buffy & Angel: You wouldn't think a TV show could be a hobby, but I promise it can. I've got lots of links on the home page so check those out if you want more info on that side of my life. And if you've ever watched buffy, that'll also help you understand my strange speech patterns that come through even the writing.

Photography: A good number of my pictures can be seen at my pbase account: bluewillow29 gallery

At some point I'm going to get a scanner and save the bazillion pictures I have to disk, but for now these will do. Most of my pictures are landscapes. I'm not much for taking pictures of people, unless it's in a groupie capacity. Also, given my location for the first 31 years o' life, many of my pictures are of North Carolina. Not all of course, but most. A lot of the ocean, the intercoastal waterway, and Stanly County. As much as bugs me that many o' things about NC are not the best (think humidity, hurricanes, mosquitoes, the streets rolling up at 10pm, the list goes on and on), it's an amazingly beautiful place. Also you'll see lots of Cali pics since it was a vacation spot quite a few times before it was where I lived.

Travel

At this point in my life my travels have been limited to the US. Mainly because living solo has its drawbacks (i.e. I'm broke a lot) and until recently overseas travel was pretty expensive. But 2008 is my year! Germany in July, London in October. I can't wait!

create your own personalized map of the USA or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

East Coast:

The District! Not a state, but DC is quite a city and it's listed first cause just saying DC makes me think about Christina and all the amazing times we've had there. Part of me still thinks I should have moved there instead of SD, but given the snow they had this past winter & the hurricane this fall, I think I made the right choice.

VA - pretty much all of Northern VA in the many, many, many trips I made to see Xina. Springfield and The Silver Diner currently hold the spot as my favorite :-). Plus there's Va Beach, Chesapeake Beach, Williamsburg, the mountains... the list is long.

MD -- Previously, I said: "Baltimore a couple times, Annapolis once. It's cool. I hate the toll roads." Now that I've lived there 2 years I say, "I hate that damn state. I couldn't wait to leave & I hope I never have to live there again!"

DE -- Tiny State.

PA -- Philly - its kinda so-so. Media is cute as hell.

WV -- Drove through on the way to Ohio. Didn't stay over night. Pretty during the day. Scary in the dark.

Ohio - Columbus. Professional Soccer. It was a thing.

SC - Duh. All parts, take your pick. Fave would be Savannah. And the Gaffney Peach Butt. I mean water tower.

Georgia - I love Georgia. I love Atlanta (well, parts of it), I love Athens. I LOVED the bars of Athens when I was in College. Too many road trips from Greensboro to Atlanta to Athens then back. Now Jody lives in Atlanta and I still may move there. It depends on if I love Jody more than I hate the humidity, hurricanes... that whole list.

FL Well, I live here now. LOVE it!!! Other than that - Orlando a couple times - DisneyWorld, Seaworld, that whole deal. And just so you know Disneyland sucks monkey balls compared to Disneyworld. Also the Orlando World Center Marriott is Awesome!!

TN - Knoxville, Nashville, Pigeon Forge - Dollywood's alot cooler that you'd think.

Texas - Big state, cool people, good food.

California - It is beautiful, No I'm not scared of earthquakes, No I never felt the earth move yet, Yes the traffic IS that bad and Yes the weather is that great.

Other than the traffic part, I love LA. I wish I would have held out for a job up there, but SD was cool too. Plus less smog. But there's always something going on in LA. A concert usually. The traffic is hell on any of the Interstates at most times of the day. Between 2am and 5am it's not so bad. But I love the drive up from SD to Orange County & OC is cool too - Newport Beach, Dana Point, Disneyland. Once you hit the LA county line, traffic stops and the ocean breeze is gone. Once you hit the LA city limits traffic stops again and it's damn ugly. But the palces in what we lump together as LA that I love: Santa Monica, Redondo Beach, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Griffith Park, Hollywood (The Knitting Factory is great!!!). And although I usually lump it in with LA, this time I'll keep it separate: The Santa Clarita Valley. It's really beautiful and plus HUGE bonus: David!!! :-) The one person I know here who understands when I say "I'd love a Cherry Lemon Sun Drop!" and knew where I could buy Cheerwine. Yay David!

AZ - Phoenix. Grand Canyon. I SO need to go back to AZ. Also the closest Cracker Barrel is in Yuma, AZ about 2 and 1/2 hours from here. If I can't hold out until my next trip home, I may have to drive it.

NV -- LAS VEGAS!!!. Love Vegas! I've been there 4 times. Once in 99, once in 2000, twice in December of last year. I hope to go again soon, when it stops being 110 degress. In fact its running neck and neck with Atlanta right now for places I might move next.

Music

has it's own page....here

If you want to keep up with me and my happenings:

You can always check out my on-line live journal, but most of it is friends only so you'll have to ask to be added:

My LiveJournal