Gender

Female

Location

Norman, Oklahoma

Way Corp group(s) I was in

9th Corps

Where I live

Oklahoma

Married or Single

Single

Maiden Name

Fleming

About Me

Update:divorced, 63, retired, 4 huge rescue dogs, planning a garden, enjoying a peaceful life. (My husband’s midlife crisis and his 2/3-my-age home wrecker were a bit of a roadblock.) I’ll update the rest of the personal information eventually! I went to Burning Man alone, knowing absolutely nobody, at age 60, because I needed a jumpstart. I’ll go every year that I can, to enjoy fellowship with sweet people who want to leave the world better than they found it. Older Information: I'm 56 and am enjoying the ride! I'm a wife, mother, and university professor in Oklahoma. I'm fortunate enough to be married (for 17 years) to the absolute love of my life, and am sorry that more of you haven't met him (he was never in the ministry). Michael is a Chemistry professor / fisherman / artist / rock climber, and an extremely nice person. We both feel very fortunate to be involved with shaping young minds and careers. We try to stay healthy, but it gets pretty busy around here. Those of you who are triathletes and runners have my undying admiration. We have four children, the oldest two of whom are my stepchildren. They range from 14 to 27. We have two finished with college, one in high school, and one in middle school. I haven't been involved with TWI for over twenty years, and the first order of business was to finish college. I worked full-time in an office during the day, typing ad specialty orders, while going to school full-time at night. Those were busy days. I taught college composition for a year as a grad student, then three years of middle school English (because of those three years, nothing scares me any more), two years of high school English, and then adjuncted at The University of Oklahoma, teaching First-Year Composition, while my babies were small. When the kids were big enough, I began full-time teaching, and held a term faculty position at The University of Oklahoma for five years. I am now in my last-ever job, as tenure-track faculty at Oklahoma State University's Oklahoma City branch campus, which basically functions as an inner-city technical school and community college. I'm the lead instructor for Developmental Writing and Developmental Reading, and am delighted to join the dedicated educators at OSU-OKC; we are devoted to the mission of lifting people up.

My Interests

Not in this order: scouting (I was a Brownie leader, and can lead The Moose Song like nobody else!), politics (still have my champaigne cork from both of Obama's election nights), our children (all four of them!), my church (back to being a Methodist, but still not a Trinitarian), good books, loaded questions from the back of the classroom (because I asked so many when I sat there), and dating my husband.

Employment or Career

I teach Developmental Writing at the Oklahoma City campus of Oklahoma State University, and also coordinate the Developmental Writing and Developmental Reading programs. Prior to this, I taught First Year Composition at The University of Oklahoma (in Norman, Oklahoma) for eleven years. Before that, I taught middle school and high school English in Edmond, Oklahoma for five years.

Music I Like

Shameless Promotion: I like Broadcasting On All Frequencies; this is a jazz fusion band, and the bassist is my own sweet nephew. These guys are the real deal. You can find them on Youtube. Others: Leonard Cohen, Dave Mathews, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Elvis Costello, Adele, and too many others to sit here and type up the list. Because I have a twelve-year-old, I hear a lot of Taylor Swift. When I'm calling the shots, it's ecclectic: Dixie Chicks, Mozart, Dave Matthews, of COURSE Bob Dylan, various hymns, Dylan, Santana, anything by Aretha, the blues, jazz, The Sons of the Pioneers, Dropkick Murphys, and whatever my kids are singing in school. Oh - my favorite songs, and this is really corny, but I just don't care - are still things like How Great Thou Art and The Star Spangled Banner. I know; it's hopeless, and I'm okay with that. I also like the NPR desk concerts from my husband's Ipod. I haven't yet mastered the art of achieving "mother ears" while wearing earbuds, so I'm not in the habitual Ipod generation just yet. "Home" by "The Magnetic Zeroes" is my current favorite Little Desk Concert.

Books I Like

I've not had much time to read for fun lately, except short stuff. There are literally thousands of books here in our home, and in my office at work, and they're from a diverse crowd of authors. I pick one up for a drive-by whenever I'm headed for a chair, late at night. Sometimes that's just for a few minutes, and sometimes I'll look up, and it's 1:am, and I'm on the last chapter. Fiction, biographies, how-to's. I like action adventure. I recently purged the house of all of my romance and romantic adventure novels, having decided that they were "shallow." They're fun, though. My kids are exactly like I was, always with a book.

Television I like

Don't own a television. I spend my evenings talking with my husband over a small glass of wine and a nice snack. There is also a fair amount of transporting children to scouts, cross country practice and meets, tae kwon do, church choir, and such. I used to have a little 5-inch emergency T.V. set under the kitchen sink, back when Rumsfeld said that we needed duct tape and plastic sheeting. I thought we'd gotten rid of it sometime last year, but found it in the bottom of a closet last month. It's analog, so it's probably just a paperweight now.

Movies I like

Avatar is the most striking visual experience to hit movie theaters in years; some of the mercenary characters are a bit "stock," but other than that, it's a fantastic movie. Other favorites are: Up, State of Play, Crash, The International. 3:10 to Yuma, The Sound of Music, Casablanca, and Laura (from 1944). I tend to favor action adventure (Con Air, Armaggedon, The Professional), and also like taking the kids to see movies made from books they've read (Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter), when they're old enough. I like Bond, James Bond. Django Unchained, but I had to close my eyes at two spots (you know where they were). Flight.

Sports Teams I like

The Oklahoma Sooners. Any sport. I know, I know. I'm a 5th generation Texan. I cheer for Texas when they're not playing us. I've come to accept a certain amount of conflictedness during OU/Texas weekend every year. By the way, this year: we won! Now that I work for our main in-state rival, OSU, I have an additional team to support. My favorite Rugby team is the All Blacks, from Wellington, New Zealand. My favorite cross country track team is Norman High.