Comments:
After high school by choice I went to four different colleges/universities (Millsaps, MSU, University of NM, and finally U of Arkansas), and received my Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Languages from UA Fayetteville in 1992.
After college, I lived in Munich, Germany for 18 months and worked as a nanny for two German attorneys and their three kids under the age of four. (Perhaps this is why I don't have children now?) I traveled across western Europe, visiting Austria, Switzerland, Leichtenstein, Italy, and many parts of Germany.
When I got back to the States, I went to work for the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits, and in 1996, I married Curtis Pickett. We divorced in 2005, and Curtis moved to Los Angeles (you've probably seen him on television by now).
In the early 90s I attended massage school and graduated first in my class. I started my own small business doing therapeutic massages on an outcall basis (I go the client), and that business has been a part time career since 1999. I also taught massage at the Virginia College School of Therapeutic Massage for three years as the school's night teacher (50 students) and ran the weekend student clinic for the public.
Also over the last 6-7 years I have been traveling quite a bit internationally. My mother and I purchased a home on the Aegean Sea in southwest Turkey, and at some point I'm sure I'll go live there for a year or two. I've also visited Egypt twice in the last two years, Italy twice, and Germany once (for Oktoberfest, of course!).
Most recently I ran for and was elected to the 9-member governing body of the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, the national group that governs 88,000 massage therapists across the USA.
My next challenge will be to create a large day spa based on models I saw while living in Europe. I am also working on a book of massage "cures" for common ailments like stress, back pain, headache, etc.
