I’m Janice

I grew up in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, which is less pastoral than it sounds; it’s a suburb of Milwaukee. Whitefish Bay nonetheless has a lot of charm. It’s right on Lake Michigan. Quiet streets, glorious autumns. Angels in the snow! In one of my earliest memories, I’m standing with my mom in a cozy brick building that was at that time the public library. I think the cozy building later became the police department, which does give Whitefish Bay a sort of Mayberry vibe. 

In college, I became a Californian. I got a B.A. and M.A. in Social Ecology at the University of California-Irvine. UCI is where I met my beloved, Jack Cassidy—a writer, mathematician, exuberant dancer, and sweet soul. We spent a couple of years in Los Angeles, then took a brief detour to Colorado. But we missed California. We watched “Starsky and Hutch” reruns for glimpses of L.A. “Look, there’s Lincoln Boulevard!” Lincoln Boulevard is not renowned for its beauty—we were really homesick. Jack, a techie before there was such a thing, got a programming job in San Diego, and we moved home to the left coast.

I still live in San Diego, on the west side of Balboa Park. Out my office window, I see a greensward with eucalyptus, Crepe Myrtle, magnolias, and several tulip trees that bloom flamboyant orange every September. I walk in the park every morning at sunrise with Rafiki, the dog I adopted just before the first anniversary of Jack’s death.