The Middle Seat

I'm starting this blog and if someone reads it - great - if not - also great!

I'm calling it the middle seat for a number of reasons -
1)  I am the youngest child who spent most of her childhood in the dreaded middle seat of the car.  On the old rear wheel drive cars - the middle seat had a big hump on the floor and no control of the windows.   The only sure fire way to get out of the middle seat was to claim that I was carsick- now I was a certain amount of the time but I claimed that a lot!

2)  I am 56 years old - closer to old than young but still in the middle.   I have become convinced that being this age has its advantages.   For example, middle-aged women are seen as the most harmless people on the planet.   I work in downtown Los Angeles and often have people ask me for directions, where the subway is and other things that they ask kindly looking strangers.   I am also truly convinced that if you wanted to smuggle drugs, weapons or any other contraband - I'd be the last person they would look for.  

Here is a little more about me -
I've been married to Mitch for over 27 years.  I love him dearly, he's a good husband and we still have a lot of fun.  He is a few years younger but more mature than I'll ever be.  

I have twin daughters who are 21 and away at college.   They are the lights of my life and while we're in contact a lot, I still miss just hanging out with them.   There will lots about them in the upcoming blogs - they are funny and fierce in so many ways.

I work in fundraising doing prospect research for the Los Angeles Music Center.   Prospect Research is one of those jobs that liberal arts majors fall into and find out they are actually really good at.   It's basically background research for the fundraisers (trying to find out who has money and matching them up with people who need it).   I've been at this current job about a year - after 20 years doing a similar job a local university.   The story of my previous job is a somewhat long one that will be it's own blog post.  

I am an unusual Southern Californian who owns a nice working car but takes public transit!   I live in Upland which is about 40 miles east of Los Angeles.   It's a fairly anonymous suburb with reasonable housing, safe streets and good schools.   So it's a long drive to my job but there's a train that makes it pretty easy.   It's been fun to get out of the suburbs and even though I work in the nicest section of downtown LA, I still see my share of street people, homeless and sometimes just people off their medication.

So that's the fifty-cent version of my life - there is a lot more - stay tuned!