I grew up less than a mile from Siena’s campus. When I left for Boston to attend college at Boston College at 18, I didn’t think I would return. I lived in Boston for eight years, and then my husband and I lived in DC for 10 years. After 18 years away, I’m so grateful we came back. It has been such a gift to live near my sisters and my parents, and getting to see my kids become close friends with all their cousins.
My mom was prescient - when I finished my PhD at the University of Maryland and was teaching there, she told me she thought I would end up working at Siena, and I explained that was not how the academic job market worked. When I moved back and found work as an adjunct at Union and Siena, she told me she thought I would get a tenure track job at Siena. I don’t know how she knew.
I ran track and cross-country in high school. I loved running track, made great friends on the team, and was just good enough to be the slowest leg on great relay teams. We got to compete at the Penn Relays and Nationals multiple times.
My husband Chris and I met after college when we were both living in Somerville, MA, a suburb of Boston. We met because our roommates were set up on a blind date. They didn’t work out, but we did.
One of my most valuable skills is finding friends who are more fun than I am. When we moved to town, I was lucky enough to meet and become friends with the most fun ladies I know, who are beautifully thoughtful, lifegiving, amazing people.
I had all three of my children while working on my PhD. I gave birth to my youngest just 7 days after defending my dissertation. I made Chris come to the defense in case I went into labor in the middle.
All three of my kids are now teenagers, and despite the bad rap adolescents get, this is the most fun I’ve ever had with my kids. Watching them become more independent, discover what they love, and who they are is a delight. They even still let us hang out with them, going to concerts, track meets, baseball games, and soccer games.
My parents wanted to take each of their grandkids somewhere special before they graduated from high school. My mom died a few years ago, before any of them graduated, and my dad has started the tradition with my oldest. Gavin loves Liverpool football club, and my dad loves all live sports, having played all the sports in high school and football in college. We all went to England to see Liverpool play at Anfield. It was the most fun live sports I’ve ever experienced. We’ll likely be going back to the UK for a game before my middle son graduates next year.
I love to read, especially audiobooks. I relish a long drive where I can put on a new book and listen to it in one sitting. Between physical books (20%) and audiobooks (80%), I’ve read over 100 books in the past year.
I’ve been trying to branch out and say yes to more live events in the past few years. So far the whole family ran the Troy Turkey Trot, my daughter and I went with friends to the Stranger Things Musical, Beetlejuice, and Wicked on Broadway, and with various kids and friends we’ve seen Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams, The Beaches, Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, Bush, Jimmy Eat World, The Goo Goo Dolls, Shania Twain, Zac Brown Band, Death Cab for Cutie, Postal Service in concert, and threw in a couple of Red Sox games for good measure.
