I was born in a tiny town in Vermont. I dreamt of having my own horse someday and my friends and I would put blankets on the boards in the old barn out back of my house(actually it was a shack without running water...they actually DO have outhouses in Vermont *LOL*) and pretend we were riding. But, then I grew up and when at the age of 16 decided that working in my town's woolen mill wasn't a whole lot of fun and probably not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, I traded in dreams of horses for pre-veterinary medicine.

I usually do things the hard way and so dropped out of college in my sophmore year, got married and had two little girls. And then I got divorced and went back to college and became a nurse. I have always been easily bored and so nursing gave me the freedom to change specialties whenever I no longer felt challenged. I was able to experience all the aspects of nursing from psych to teaching to maternal/child to school nurse to epidemiology etc. Currently I am a psychiatric nurse practioner which means that I counsel adults and adolescents and prescribe medications. I also have created and published a series of educational tools in the form of Bingo. Stress Bingo is currently on the best seller list and Anger Bingo and Smoking Prevention Bingo will be out shortly with Relationship Bingo and Social Skills Bingo to follow in the Spring.

I had never been to a racetrack before I joined the sim. The first one I went to was Suffolk Downs and was hooked! Since then, I have been to Aqueduct, Churchill Downs, Pimlico, Woodbine, Northlands, Bay Meadows, Saratoga and Keeneland. I probably will never own a race horse. But, now that I have a grandaughter, I am hoping to ensure that she rides. My daughter/son-in-law want her to ski and snowboard, but I told them she will need a spring/summer/fall activity. Sometimes, we need to wait for another generation to fulfill our dreams.