Some very important people in my life

Every once in a great while, we meet someone who touches our life in a very special way.  We call these people friends.  Below are some of mine and what it is about them that makes them such special friends to me.


Brian and MartiIf ever there was a more blissful couple, they could not have been very much more so than Brian and Marti. Brian and I met in the seventh grade in 1982 and have been best friends ever since. Brian and Marti became an item at about the time they graduated from Stevenson College at UCSC in spring of 92 and got married March 27, 1999. They own a house in Santa Cruz.  Marti works at UCSC's Lick Observatory and Brian works in the Santa Cruz office of Zocalo Internet.



Denna and her horseDenna, shown here with her horse, Estoreka, graduated an Animal science major focusing on Equine Industries at Cal Poly Pomona. She and I have been friends since high school. Since then I have watched her grow up to be a remarkably strong and intelligent woman. She now lives in Palo Alto with her boyfriend and enjoys one of the most interesting lifestyles I have seen.



Lugu on the rocks of the Shangrila RiverEcho came right out of the blue one day and sent me an e-mail from her home town of Beijing, China. She graduated from a University in Beijing and is currently attending London Business School.  She is quite the photographer and has the ability to read and write English every bit as well as the most literate, well spoken Americans I know. To her, each day, each experience, and each person she meets is an adventure, and she has become quite the world traveler.  On the Destinations of Interest page there is a link to a page chronicling two trips we took together while she was in America.


"Lulu" is an ICQ pen-pal of Echo, ("lugu"), who began corresponding with me a few years ago.  She lives on Hainan Island in China, which many people state is in many ways like Hawaii, and hopes to be able to travel the world some day as her friend Echo does. In 2003 I got the oportunity to see her while on a tour of China.



Cher is yet another pen-pal from Asia who has begun corresponding with me.  She lives in Taiwan and works for an international cosmetics company, a job which sends her to many places in the region.



Chuck and Claudia in Aviak hangar infront of R-22 (13Z)Chuck was my partner at Good Samaritan Hospital. He and I started flying helicopters at Aviak at the same time. Shown here with his wife Claudia and their two and a half year old daughter Tikwa.Tikwa crawling on carpet



Stephany's GraduationStephany, (shown here at her 2000 graduation ceremony from Evergreen College, where she received her Registered Nurse certification), and I have been close friends since we first met when we both worked at San Jose Medical Center in 1994, and later at Good Samaritan Hospital. She is a very appreciative person and has a vital spirit that brings out the inner child in everyone.



Rosie and Kathie sitting under a treeKathy and Rosie are another blissful couple. They live together in Sacramento, and became committed to each other in 1998. Kathy works as a teacher's aid and Rosie operates a tree nursery in Elk Grove called Magpie Nursery.



Jenny was my significant other during the Summer of 1991, during the time I attended Summer Language Institute at UCSC, and we have remained good friends since then.  She has a zany, yet sensible personality and a mix of culture and counter-culture that makes her a lot of fun to be with.  Jenny now lives in San Francisco, where she works at an employee owned grocery co-op.



Sabine next to R-22 (13Z)Sabine is another student pilot at Aviak. She came here from Germany in 1992 to learn how to fly helicopters and since moved back to Germany.



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