Seems like a renaissance in here. Everybody is doing a bit of everything,

So I began as a baby sitter, the first paid occupation of many women (I got 50 cents/hr), then I worked as a clerk in a hardware store, then as a grocery stock clerk and cashier, all of this in small-town, northwestern Connecticut.

1969 - moved to Columbia, MO and worked in the dining hall at Stephens College, then at Rome's Pizzaria, and then at Ernie's Steak House, home of Ernie's Famous Twin Chopped Cow. I also worked at the Skelly station right off I-70, an all night diner where, indeed, I worked all night, bashing drunk cowboys in the head with those brown coffee decanters and swallowing handfuls of white crosses. Still in Mo, but now in St. Louis, I was a barmaid, dressed in an unbelievably insane outfit featuring purple leotards and tights, at the Candles, a cook-your-own-steak joint, regularly patronized by guys who wore suits all in one color and lots of gold rings.

By this time, the East coast was looking good again, so by the mid-70s I was in Boston, landed a job as the secretary to the FM radio manager at WGBH. Very intense job that took me inside Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, Tanglewood, all sorts of churches, learning how to set up microphones and record all sorts of music and lectures.

Left there in late 70s, worked in public radio in Toledo, OH, then in NYC. While in NYC, worked as a temp for some business that had a logo of a woman at a typewriter with a rose between her teeth. Temped at General Motors, TWA, Planned Parenthood, and the Holocaust Survivor's Memorial Foundation. Played music at night at Cornelia Street Songwriters' nights, Folk City, People's Voice, and another place in Brooklyn that I can't remember. Hired as guitarist for a bilingual puppet theater that performed in the schools. Hired as a secretary for the Assoc. of Independent Video and Filmmakers.

By 1981, love and stress propelled me to the West coast, ended up in Eugene, OR where I worked at Zoo Zoo's collective vegetarian restaurant and played at Mama's Homefried Truckstop and the Blair Island Restaurant--all, alas, gone now. Played several times at the NW Folklife Festival and did a very mini tour up the West coast to Bellingham, fighting with the bass player (we didn't talk during the entire set of gigs). Back in Eugene, began working for a farmer's coop in organic produce, went to school for 10 years, exited in the 90s as a, you guessed it, social worker with a degree in education and substance abuse counseling. Worked as an intinerant counselor in rural Oregon for 2 years until I realized people need to be able to sing and move to heal, so then I gave everything away, jumped in my car, and drove across country to study dance/movement therapy at Antioch New England in Keene, NH. Two years later, drove back, moved to Portland, OR.

Now it's 2001, I'm working in a psychiatric crisis unit with adults and children. I play music at open mikes when I can.

Thanks for asking.

blt