GENEOLOGICAL:
My mother's mother's mother was Sally Barlow Matthews (hence my first
and middle names), a postmistress. I think she and her nephew, the postal
carrier (my mother's mother's brother), must have had had the little town
of Barlow, Mississippi pretty well sewn up. On my father's side, we have
a tradition of farming and practicing law, as opposed to postal power.
My immediate family is scattered along the East Coast, though at times
we've spanned three continents. We have a pleasant habit of writing each
other long trip reports on our travels.
GEOGRAPHICAL:
Our home base is
Wilmington,
N.C. My favorite places in Wilmington include the engaging downtown
library and Greenfield Lake. Other Wilmingtonians you may have heard of include Tim Klein, creator of The Elements Car, Michael Jordon, basketball star, and the late great David Brinkley and Paul Jennewein, reporters.
My alma mater is the College of Charleston
in beautiful, downtown, historic Charleston, SC. After graduation, I lived
about six years in Rochester, N.Y., and I still find myself missing a
few things about Rochester). While there, I was also able to visit Toronto several times; it has a cool film festival every September, and is a great walking-around town.
After Rochester, I lived for awhile in
Spokane,
Washington. Spokane was certainly pretty in places (I'd never lived anywhere with
that mix of desert-into-mountain country before). I loved sitting on my balcony, which
overlooked a huge field, checking out (with my [very good] binoculars) the
pheasants (or grouse, or something) scurrying on the ground, other
unidentified birds, a fox every now and then, and the horses in the
distance. The pheasant (if that's what it was) and the fox surprised me,
given the apartments nearby, but it was pretty close to a lot of
undeveloped land. I also have some fond memories of gaming with friends, and a
science fiction bookstore (new and used, and gaming goodies). My favorite restaurant
in Spokane was the II Moon Cafe at the Mars Hotel, with a decor to match
the name.
Off and on, I have been in some ways a minor activist. I think it's important to give back to this wonderful world. This includes trying to keep myself informed on the issues, whatever I decide about them. In the past, I've done this by attending some conferences, such as