I never imagined I would be living in New Orleans! I was born and raised in Napa, California, attended college in San Francisco and spent much of my adult life in the San Francisco Bay Area, working as a landscape designer and dabbling in music off and on. I enjoyed working as a landscape designer but my dream was to work as a professional musician. In 2006, my first husband's job brought us to San Diego. This move coincided with my mid life realization that I needed to stop delaying my heart's calling. I began to pursue a music career in earnest with no clear roadmap on how to do it but plenty of reckless bravery. This new direction eventually lead me away from my first husband and into the gypsy lifestyle I was always meant to have. I met my gypsy soulmate, John, who mentored me on my journey to be a professional musician and along the way became my husband. Together we are living an inspired and artistic lifestyle that neither of us ever could have imagined.
In 2016, we decided to leave our stable but uninspired music gigs in San Diego, California and follow a fellow musician to Cuenca, Ecuador. We rented a huge and gorgeous home for $800 a month and put on house concerts for the local expat community. We enjoyed this experience for a couple of years until we felt the call to move on to something new. In the beginning of 2018, we convinced our California relatives to meet us in New Orleans to celebrate a milestone birthday. After just a few days in this magical place, John and I knew that we had to move to New Orleans for our next big adventure. Within 6 months we made the transition, all the while telling each other that this will be a fun place to experience for a couple of years then we will most likely heed the call for our next destination. So far, the winds of change have not hit us here (although a couple of hurricanes have)! On October 18th we will have been living in New Orleans for 5 years!
What is keeping us in this place? Here is a partial list: Warm, friendly people; expansive green space; pedestrian and bicycle friendly streets; affordability; strong sense of community, history and culture; good food and many opportunities to listen to and perform music in a variety of styles and in a variety of places…Gypsy paradise!