Met in Poconos. I was working with friends at a riding stable we opened at one of the resorts, and Dale was there working at The Pocono Raceway on the grandstands and suites. He is responsible for all of them on every racetrack in the US and a couple of islands as well. We moved to Florida seven years ago, I am close to a friend who is into the same breed of horse. Dale works as a crane operator for a marine salvage company and travels all over. Right now is on the gulf for the oil spill.

Life is funny, you get older and when reflecting back, you regret the way you were or what you did. I loved learning, but only what held my interest, and I especially was into the sports and gymnastics. I never continued my education, and regret not becoming a physical therapist. I did however, get to work doing things I really enjoyed and loved. The first, of course, was working with horses, where we travelled extensively on the show circuit. I also worked at a rehab farm, where we did recuperation procedures on some to the top show jumpers. When I was tired of the cold during the winter months, I went indoors to the food business. I met alot of interesting people in that walk of life, both friendly and fun, and some not so friendly, but the special person that will always come to mind, was a very nice young man that had been born with Terrets. He was not comfortable with many people, but he was with me, especially when I brought himn to the barn to meet the horses. He unfortunately died at an early age because of his disease, and I was the last to have spoken with him. My other fun job was a trail guide in the Poconos, taking out all types of vacationers that stayed at our resort. Had I made notes of the incidents I dealt with on a daily basis, I could have wriiten a funny book of short stories. Men mostly gave me the biggest laugh. The kids were always a challenge and also very funny. I got plenty of hugs when we returned to the barn. Florida was a place I wanted to move to for quite awhile. It did not welcome me with open arms. For all the riding I did up north, and sometimes dangerous, as I loved cross country jumping, where you fall down and not the jump, if you miscalculate the distance. I was also riding a horse that nowhere in the breed history, was any reference to jumping. I had my first riding accident shortly after arriving here in the sunshine state, and then had another two years ago. In between those riding accidents, I also had a mishap in someones house looking at puppies, that had me back in the hospital for a week. All my friends still up north advised me to get the heck out of Florida, but the stubborn Leo in me refused, so I'm still here. Because I love to be outdoors, and still keep active, I took up agility with two of my dogs. The little diva Dachshund has competed, but she's frustrating as she has the ability to be top in her eight inch class, she can easily make you think that she has never set eyes on these obstacles, and generally looks to spectators to come and remove her from this situation. She actually on two occasions ignored my signal, and went and jumped on the jump setters lap. That got her quite a bit of applause. My friend here that I have known for about twenty three or so years, is looking to move north, closer to her son in DC., and I have committed to go also, to do the horses with and for her. That may put us closer to home, as she is from Long Island, Dale is from Buffalo, and me and Ct. Since our next reunion we'll be almost 70, I'm thinking closer will be better.

This is a difficult one for me. For personal reasons that I'm not going to share, school was not what it should and could have been for me, however I don't believe in holding blame and negative thoughts on the person responsible, so I have some memories of little things, but I guess one of the funniest, was our trip to New York(I think) to see Romeo and Juliette. Of course I was seated next to Debbie Rondeau. She was wearing false eyelashes, and when it came to the real sad part and she cried, the eyelash on one eye dropped to her cheek, and when I looked over I couldn't help myself, I started laughing. That didn't go over well.

I was pretty busy in the hobby department. The horse and dogs have always been there, and I think I've said enough earlier about them. I also took up skiing, and made it to several of the closer ski areas, with my favorite being Brody Mtn. I also bowled on a women's league and then a mixed league for a few years. Nancy Faust was on the team with me. I did a few summers of women's softball in New Fairfied. I did some roller blading, mountain biking also. I did get to take Dale's ski mobile out on the Pocono racetrack, and that was pretty cool, about ninety mph. Although I enjoy doing it, I seldom do because it involves staying indoors, I occasionally do some artwork, like painting. I also at night do crocheting.

While in the horse breed that was imported to this country in the late sixties and early seventies, called the Paso Fino, meaning fine step, I went to alittle town north of Skowhegan, Maine. I was there for an entire summer. I lived for fifteen years on the state line of Ct. and New York and I was on the New York side. Then from there I went to the Poconos, and was there for three years, but there I was convinced that the cold weather was not for me. Now here I am, to some the worst hot, humid, place in the world, but you do get used to it, and sweatings not so bad, it showers off, and whallah!! there's air conditioning. Right now North Carolina may be in the future, but still researching the equine communities, as we must have access to miles of trails. We are not ring riders.

I think the first famous person I met was the goalie for the New York Rangers, and I can't remember his name. I did get his autograph on a hockey card for a friend. I also ran into Richard Gere in a competition in Bedford. The girl I was riding with and I passed him going to to start point as we were just leaving it, and he nodded and said "good morning". He later caught up with us on the trail with his teammate, so were rode alongside one another for a few minutes. Very pleasant, and quite the crazy rider, does not like to wear a helmet, and jumps everything. While I was in Nashville once, we were at a sports bar, and the famouse pool player, again I don't recall his name, was seated next to us. I was in Los Angeles once, and did look for anyone, but only saw, sadly, a bunch of people, looking to be discovered. The bar in our motel held karioke every night, and you would not believe the talent that got up to sing, most of them bringing their own music, and sometimes props to add to the theme of the song. The same group were there every night, as this I guess was their life. One woman even had her little girl with her, that had to sleep at a table while mom belted out a tune. The last interesting person I have been in contact with was my last boss here in Florida that purchased the little cafe that I cooked at. He was the retired business manager for Frances Ford Coppala. He had many stories of the actors and actresses he dealt with or met. He grew up with and to this day is best friends with Billy Crystal. Because Dale loves the City Slickers movies, I was able to get an autographed picture of Billy on the horse from the second movie.

I've pretty much kept most of my travels to our country, but did get to visit Puerto Rico, the far side of the island, alittle town called Aquadilla. There were no tourist attractions and few English speaking people, but the beaches were spectacular, and we even spent one scary day at one with huge waves, that we later learned was the reason they used this beach for international surfing meets. I also visited Paradise Island, Bahamas. The beaches there are also very beautiful, however the big attraction is the Atlantis. It has the largest indoor aquarium that you can walk through. We also went to a small Bahama island that had dolphin encounters, which was my favorite part of our time there.