Back in 1987 Robin Williams taught me a new phrase in the movie Dead Poet's Society. The phrase, in Latin, was a Roman motto - Carpe Diem - seize the day. The phrase very nicely summed up something I'd been feeling all along. It was an elegant and direct way of saying that life is very short, make the most of it while you still can. It implied that life is too precious to think of it as something to merely get through with a minimum of fuss. No, Carpe Diem meant that we must go out of our way to take whatever life offers, even when it is difficult to do so.  

With this page, I attempt to describe many of the things that life offers me, and how I spend my precious hours. It is a great misfortune that the only way I can express these experiences here is in the form of symbols - words, lists, and pictures. The symbols themselves as they appear on your screen seem so minuscule to the experience of what they represent. For instance, when I say that I enjoyed watching Titanic that in no way instills in you, the reader, the range of emotion that I felt while watching this movie. You can't possibly experience Titanic just by seeing the title on a list. Try to understand that each item discussed on this page has been a vital part of my life experience, and are we not the sum of our experiences?

Rob at home.. 

My home is in Monterey, California. Monterey is a beautiful coastal town about two hours south of San Francisco and six hours north of Los Angeles, when traveled by car. I grew up in Monterey and have lived here on and off most of my life. Its a great place to call home, despite the last decade of overbuilding and overcrowding in California. I don't plan to live here for the rest of my life, there's too many other interesting places on this globe, but I'm sure I'll always come back to my home by the sea.  

I travel a lot, mostly on weekends. During the week, much of my free time is spent preparing for weekends away and spent taking care of the basic chores of modern living - washing clothes, paying bills, filling out tax forms, cleaning my apartment, etc. I'm always pleased when I have time at home to just relax. Sometimes I really need a little 'grounding' at home, away from crowds and noise. During these times my three favorite things to do are to read books, watch movies , and listen to music. I've compiled lists of some of my favorites and posted them here. Everything on these lists has my endorsement and urgent recommendation. Each work has influenced me in some way and become a part of who I am.  

I left television out of the last paragraph. I am an occasional TV watcher, but its not a part of my daily life at home. I always watch the TV coverage of every Formula One Grand Prix. Other races I watch only as time permits. During the NFL season I try to watch one game a week, usually my beloved San Francisco 49ers. In addition to sports, I am a science fiction fan. I love watching Dr. Who (my favorite Dr. Who is Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor) and Star Trek (Original and Next Generation. Voyager and DS9 do not interest me.). My favorite science fiction show right now is Babylon 5 . When I first saw TV adds for this show I thought it was a cheesy Star Trek rip-off and didn't give it a look. Two years later my boyfriend started me watching it. I soon found that Babylon 5 is  far better than Star Trek, with more engaging characters and a deeper story. The entire five year saga was written in its entirety before any of it was ever filmed! The creators have pushed the frontiers of CGI special effects too, but this show is not about special effects, its about story. The only reservation I have in recommending it to readers is that because it is a five season story, the episodes must be seen in the correct order from the beginning to the end. 

When I'm in Monterey, I don't spend all my free time sitting at home. Monterey is known for its golf courses, and although I can't afford to play the best courses in town, (e.g.., Pebble Beach ) I like to play golf when I can. There are also lots of great hiking and biking trails all around. The Big Sur coast is 20 minutes away and has great hiking too. Once or twice a year I go scuba diving here. This area has some of the best diving in the United States. At night I'm not a major bar-fly, but I sometimes enjoying going out with friends to the pub for a Guinness Stout and to play darts. I'm not much of a dancer either, but I give it a shot a few times a year.  

...and away! 

I have a great need to travel. Its in my blood. In fact the need to explore is in the very fiber of my being. Carl Sagan used to say that the atoms which compose our bodies were forged from hydrogen in heart of first generation stars - we are made of star stuff - as a random blip of consciousness in the vast Cosmos, we are the Universe's chance to come to know itself. I feel the gentle pull of my need to explore every day. If I haven't traveled somewhere within the course of two or three weeks, I become stir crazy. I cannot be content to stay in one small area for months at a time. 

Fortunately I have hobbies which get me out of town a lot! One of my greatest passions is motor racing. I have another section on this web site dedicated to my love of the sport, so I won't go into it in great detail here. Instead I will simply cover the travel aspects of my racing hobby. I am a member of the United States Auto Race Marshals . As a USARM member I travel to weekend racing events all around California. The season is from March through November and I'm usually on the road at an event for USARM at least one weekend per month. I am also a national official for the American Motorcyclist Association and work at six road races a year as a pit lane official, assistant starter, or scorer. The AMA season for me begins in March with the Daytona 200 in Florida and ends in October with a race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Three times each year I spend the weekend in the LA area working in sales for Team Penske at the Long Beach Grand Prix and the California Speedway in Fontana. 

Twice I have had the opportunity to travel to Australia as a guest official. One trip was to Adelaide for the Formula One Grand Prix of Australia and the other to Sydney for the 500cc Motorcycle  Grand Prix of Australia. One year, having gone to all the expense of putting myself in the Southern Hemisphere, I decided to make a pit stop in New Zealand and trek the 36 miles of the legendary Milford Track on the South Island of New Zealand, through the Southern Alps. Playing with the alpine parrots, watching avalanches thunder down into the valley, and being harassed by biting sand-flies all contributed to a grand adventure in an alien land.  Even the familiar night sky had been removed, to be replaced by a baffling jumble of stars I'd never seen before. 

Racing isn't the only thing that gets me out and about. The winter season is a little slow around the track so three years ago I became a volunteer ski tour guide for a local ski shop. Four or five weekends a year I drive a van with six to ten clients from Monterey to Lake Tahoe (about 5 hours on a nice evening). On Friday evening I get our clients settled into their motel, and then early Saturday morning get them up to the ski area. Once they have their lift tickets and are off on the mountain I get to go skiing too! In the evening I take them back down to the motel in the van. I repeat the whole process on Sunday, then drive them back down to Monterey on Sunday night. The trips are great fun, and although I don't get paid for my time and effort on behalf of the clients, the ski shop pays for the entire cost of my trip. I get about 10 days of skiing in each year at no cost! I certainly couldn't afford to do that on my own.  

Sometimes I travel just for the hell of it. One of my favorite destinations is Yosemite Valley. I've enjoyed many days of hiking  there. This year, I want to try to get to the top of Half Dome. That should be quite a challenge. Another one of my favorite places to run off to for the weekend is Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth. It really is a special place. I can spend twelve hours there without ever going on a major ride and still have a wonderful time. Its not just another amusement park.