Julie

About Me

i grew up in houston (except for a couple of years in fort worth), lived in boston '75-'80 (except for a year in munich), lived in austin '81-'84 (except for a year in berlin), lived in new haven '85-'87, lived in seattle '87-'97, moved back to houston in '97 to live with a fellow i knew in high school, had a son in '99, and got married to his dad in '05. we moved from houston to the greater austin area before our son started kindergarten a few years ago.
before i became a parent, my interests included lots of kinds of music, various foreign films, good short stories, german expressionist art (especially karl schmidt-rottluff), cooking, general and alternative health concerns, web surfing, ecology, do-good organizations, and so on.
since i became a parent, most of my interests have revolved more around my son, his interests, doing house-related stuff, web surfing, ebaying, shopping at resale stores, working, etc. (and sometimes genealogy). my son's interests are animals and animals, so we have pets. we also live "in the country," so we watch various birds and animals out the window and when driving around.
my husband has four grown kids from his first marriage, and i now also have two stepgrandkids. still getting used to that....
i work as a copy editor of experimental psychology journals 30 hours/week and also help my husband with his real estate business, armadillo real estate services www.armadillo-res.com. need a broker/realtor in austin or central texas? feel free to contact him.
we live at lake travis, though i don't really consider myself a "lake person," with regard to boating, swimming, and other typical lake activities.

My Interests

taking care of my 8-year-old son's pets ... we currently own two formerly stray cats, one formerly stray now 85-lb. lab, a three-quarters-grown bearded dragon, one fish and four minnows from the lake, four tropical fish, two medium-large hermit crabs, a tarantula, a great plains narrowmouth toad, a western fence lizard, and a lot of crickets.
You Are a Retrospective Soul
The most misunderstood of all the soul signs.
Sometimes you even have difficulty seeing yourself as who you are.
You are intense and desire perfection in every facet of your life.
You're best described as extremely idealistic, hardworking, and a survivor.

Great moments of insight and sensitivity come to you easily.
But if you aren't careful, you'll ignore these moments and repeat past mistakes.
For you, it is difficult to separate the past from the present.
You will suceed once you overcome the disappoinments in life.

Souls you are most compatible with: Traveler Soul and Prophet Soul What Kind of Soul Are You?

I'd like to meet:

some of my ancestors ...

let's see, also ...

mozart ...

bach ...

tom waits ...

(the mind trails off)

Music:

brazilian and other central and south american stuff (sambas, cumbias, tangos, you name it) and especially singers such as caetano veloso, some singer-songwriters (including tom waits, billy bragg, t-bone burnett, rosanne cash, john hiatt), some "classical" (bach, mozart, bartok), a fair amount of "world" music, and a good smattering of everything in between.

i once worked as an overnight dj at a variety station and enjoyed the immersion in the music.

i have also played cello (more when i was younger) and at one time had a quartet in seattle called quirktet --including violin, cello, accordion, and (classical) guitar. we played coffeehouses and a couple of weddings.

i have bought cds recently by lhasa (de sela), morelenbaum/sakamoto, yann tiersen, maria rita, and i forget who else. long-term memory?

Movies:

i liked "amelie" pretty well, and "modern times" (chaplin) was very good. i used to like folks like fassbinder, herzog, wenders, bergman, kurosawa.... recently my son and i have really enjoyed some david attenborough films such as "life in the undergrowth."

Television:

my favorites are probably science- and history-oriented shows. of the "regular" shows, "house." guilty pleasures have included "american idol" and those incredibly bizarre spouse-trading shows. these days it's hard to find time to watch tv, between my son recording "spongebob" on the dvr and my husband watching "csi" reruns almost constantly ... and then there's work and sleep.

Books:

i haven't read much lately. i like a good short story, if i get around to reading one. in the past, i have enjoyed writers ranging from salinger to thomas mann to nabokov to donald barthelme to julio cortazar to ann beattie to raymond carver to margaret atwood to botho strauss -- one of whose stories i translated for my master's thesis.

I am here for Friends and Networking