Hi Lily. Welcome to BWS.

Welcome Lily. I'll be in Florida next week on the 15th to bring my daughter down for college. She was going to attend Florida A&M but decided on Bethune Cookman for the full scholarship they've offered her for her journalism skills.

So, with all that said, if anyone of the Florida Boomers would like to meet for lunch, granted you're close enough to Daytona Beach, email me.

Welcome to Boomers! You'll love it.

Sheree

Yuhoooo....Lily, welcome! So glad to see you've joined. Now do tell...are you Florida born and raised? And the University? Course you might not want to disclose that tidbit. My Uncle was the Dean of Admissions at Florida State University. He's retired now.

Anyhooo...welcome, welcome. You're gonna love it here.

JJ - resident Queen and fluffy person.

Thanks for all the welcoming messages! I'll try and fill in some information about myself. I'm at the University of South Florida in Tampa and have a great job with great colleagues. My field is languages and teacher education. My research interests are bilingualism, literacy, and teacher development. I speak Spanish fluently and have conducted research in Costa Rica with women who were teachers and advocates for children. I love the research but I find myself bogged down with the academic writing, something I need to work through in the next couple of months.

On the other hand, I love to write more personal pieces and essays. I have a collection of essays I wrote during my 5 weeks in Costa Rica last summer, and I'm working on a novel with a friend--a looong-term project done for fun. I have some other essays I've written about different things in my life. Someday I'd like to look for publishing outlets. For now I write those for myself.

My kids are a daughter, 19, and a son, 13. The daughter has had problems with an eating disorder--anorexia--but seems to be coming out of it and is much happier than I've seen her in awhile. My son is in his last year of middle school and turning into a young man before my eyes. He loves computers and music. I love my children passionately. My daughter has been the challenge child but has so many wonderful qualities and a strength that she is only beginning to discover.

It's nice to be here. Thanks for the warmth!