Photo: October 2002
Well, for starters, in real life I'm actually ... a librarian! (Surprised? Hey - there are cool librarians out there!)

I was born in Montreal, which is where I grew up and went to school. I have a Master's degree (MLIS) from McGill University Graduate School of Library and Information Studies as well as a BA in Communication Studies/Journalism from Concordia University. I moved to Ottawa in 1993 when I realized upon graduation that there were few jobs for librarians in Montreal (sad but true), though I don't know if things have changed over the past 15 years.

Since 1993, I've worked in a number of Canadian governmnet jobs, moving away from traditional librarianship almost from the start and concentrating on managing databases, and then later on Internet/Intranet sites and services. These days, I'm one more step removed even from that - I'm a manager in the area of IM (that's Information Management and the discipline includes Web, documents and records management) in a large department. I never ever get to code much html anymore (let alone catalogue), but all in all, I'm happy with the way my "library" career path turned out...Still, I wouldn't be where I am without my MLIS degree (and to a lesser extent, my Bachelor of Communications/Journalism degree as well, as I found out that when you're a manager, you have to write a LOT of coherent, easily understood, detailed but not too detailed memos and emails to just about everyone - and knowing how to write quickly and well is a true blessing, believe you me!)

I am now 42 years old - I celebrated my big four-oh! with a great big ol' birthday bash on March 17, St. Patrick's Day, 2005. Lots and lots of fun, lots of guests, lots of yummy food (that I made myself) and lots of cosmopolitans- I strongly recommend it!

And what do I do now that I am so old? I play golf, that's what! No really...

...I started playing in 1998; my longest drive (with my dandy Cobra MEN's driver is 240 yards (July 2003, The Nation); my best score is 87 (September 21, 2001 and again September 10, 2006, both at Cloverdale Links; par 71, 5200 yards from the red tees). I also won the ladies' Long Drive competition at my company Golf Tournament a couple of years ago (August 29, 2002). The little trophy sits on my desk at work.

My wish List:

• More free time, like maybe 40 hour days
• Regular golf scores in the 80's (ha!) ...from the whites... (double ha!)
• The ability to be a great hostess AND enjoy my own parties (I'm getting there...)
• Curly hair (since I was a wee child!) - you know, I really hate this recent trend where long straight hair is deemed cool! I want a big old mop-top of thick, curly tendrils - oh yeah!