I have many lives.  I'm a scholar, a musician, a writer, an artist, an office drudge, and a wife and mother.  Sometimes these lives are very separate; other times, they bleed into each other other like the complementary shades in a water-colour painting. If you ask what I do for a living, I'd say I'm a media researcher.  This is the most boring of my many hats, so I'll dispense with it first and fast.  I shuffle endless amounts of paper at Leger Marketing, reading newspaper articles and wishing I were somewhere else.  I have a title and a pitiful salary, but no office and no respect.  Enough about that. I have several pieces of paper hanging on various walls around my house attesting to the fact that I have a few brain cells hidden here and there.  I did not complete my PhD in Medieval Musicology, but I had a lot of fun not doing so.  I've researched and written and published papers on topics as wide ranging as Hildegard of Bingen's epistolary style, the reflection of the spice trade in changing culinary tastes in England, the hidden mass in Dante's Purgatorio, and reflections of  emerging humanism as reflected in Florentine architecture and Guillaume Dufay's two secular Florentine motets.  Pretty heavy sounding stuff, but the food is interesting, and the music divine! I did manage to squeeze out a Diploma in Music Performance from Mount Royal College in Calgary, and a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Arts in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto, so my parents' money was not entirely wasted. I have delusions of being a writer.  I've published academic work, dry as bones, although the sauce was tasty, but I've discovered the joy of fiction.  Thanks to the encouragement of a group of ladies at the Writers' Cafe, I've amassed a small collection of short fiction, some good and some (ahem) experimental, and I've found myself chasing several of my characters on a cross-country adventure that has yet to be resolved.  Monique, Monteith, Anthony and villains unknown have taken on lives of their own, and I hope one day soon to find out what happens at the end of the book. I said I'm an artist.  I lied.  I play at web design.  I created this page, graphics and all (except the Klimt on the home page), as well as a few others.  I have, perhaps, more enthusiasm than talent, but I'll keep on living in my fantasy land. Perhaps the hat that most defines my life, aside from my familial hat, is that of musician.  At age ten, I astounded my parents by begging to learn the viola, and haven't looked back.  The viola is a wonderful instrument - larger than a violin, smaller than a cello, and rarer than hens' teeth.  There are never enough decent viola players around, and thus I have been fortunate enough to perform with a wonderful community of professional and amateur musicians in Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto. My training is classical, but I have some specialized knowledge of Baroque music as well, having played in several small professional Baroque ensembles in the Toronto area.  I have another musical love, though: traditional Jewish and other folk music.  With my duo, Ursa Major, my friend Laura McRae and I explore Jewish music from the Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions, as well as the wonderful Celtic music from the British Isles and any Medieval tunes that grab out fancy.  We have a CD that has received many favourable comments, and have vague plans for a second.  Sometime. But my pride and joy is my family.  I have a wonderful husband who encourages my fancies and puts up with my foibles, and a busy and brilliant six-year-old son who, when he isn't doing basic algebra in his head or reading the newspaper on Saturday mornings, is driving his teachers to distraction.  He's gorgeous, funny, and knows more about dinosaurs than many paleontologists, and in September will have a sibling.  I hope he's also good at changing diapers. I've indulged my ego for long enough here.  If you wish to know more, check out my other links, or e-mail me and I'll be sure to get back to you.