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(1971-1977)
I went to UC Santa Cruz for two years, then Eric and I got married in 1973 and we both finished our BS degrees
(biochemistry/biology) at UC Riverside. For fun we helped put on campus movies and concerts. We stayed
there two more years, both working in the same research lab, studying how cotton fibers grow. He got an M.S.
in Plant Science and I got paid. We took a couple of months to travel the US and Canada in our old van, see
relatives, etc., and came back to WC having decided to move to Minnesota "sometime" - based on a few
glorious fall days back there with my cousin.
(1977-1985)
Eric got a job with Dow Chemical in WC, trying to discover new herbicides. I took a job with Stauffer Chemical
in Mountain View doing the same. My job saw the beginning of the plant biotechnology and genetic engineering
industry. Eventually I decided I needed to know more about plants and genetics, so I quit and got an MS in Plant
Physiology at UC Davis (want to know anything about rotten pears?). Eric decided plants weren't his thing,
people were, so he went back to school at Cal State U. Sacramento to get a Master's in Psychology. "Do people
get addicted to video games??" was his research project (yes, a few). Both of us eventually wanted Ph.D.'s in
our fields, so we moved....
(1985-2000)
The glorious fall days are fleeting, but Minnesota's a great place. Arriving in January, I left for 6 weeks to stay
with my sister Teresa (LLHS '72) in South Africa. At the University of Minnesota I studied how alfalfa plants get
nitrogen fertilizer from the air. Eric studied mental health and post-traumatic stress in the Twin Cities'
Cambodian community and learned to speak Khmer. We finished our degrees within a week of each other
(1989), quite a lesson in how different people cope with stress. After a month off camping in CA redwoods, we
returned to Minnesota and bought a house on a metro-area lake. I worked until 2000 on a project trying to
increase the oil content of corn seeds through genetic engineering. I did some teaching, writing, and lots of
genetics/biochemistry, grew corn, traveled to some nice places, got a few patents, and mastered regulations
for import/export and genetically-engineered corn. Neighborhood/lake issues got me into politics, where I
served on a couple of city task forces and then as a planning commissioner. Eric continued his work in
cross-cultural psychology by working with refugees at a St. Paul hospital, he served on the board of a
Cambodian association in St. Paul, and worked part-time helping (international) torture victims at a
Minneapolis center. He also began to teach and practice psychology in primary care. Our son was born in 1993
- a long-awaited event for us! We are very happy parents.
(2000- present)
California again
The perfect job in primary care turned up in the psychology job ads... back "home", close to grandparents,
siblings, and cousins. We weren't looking to leave MN, but it is good to be back in CA. We initially thought it'd be
cool to move from Roseville, MN to Roseville, CA, but Auburn is quieter and reminds me more of WC when I
was a kid. Our canyon-edge neighborhood is a nice blend of older folks and young families, it has lots of small
boys, and school is close by. Our house greatly resembles the MN one, though the water is about 800' lower
down and the canoe is in dry dock. Just call it Nintendo Central.
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