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Today's Featured Biography

 
Cindy Schairer Kalman

UPDATE: I retired 9/30/11, since Eric had been retired for 4 years at that point. It's been blissful! Since then, I've been taking both swimming & piano lessons. I still gotta nail that darn butterfly, but I'm getting there. And I'm in the middle of intermediate piano level. I love them both.

We're still in LA, still hiking, and now have a wonderful Australian Terrier named Posh. I was teaching Adult Literacy, but am taking a break since my student stopped.

My brother Roy, had his first child in 2008, here in LA. Many babysitting gigs have followed. My sister Cheryl had her first (& only) at the age off 44 last year. Shelby is adorable (a completely unbiased opinion!)

Hope everyone is doing well!

PREVIOUS:
Wow, it's been a long time! Hope everyone is doing well. I think the last time I was in contact, I was living in Portland, Oregon with my first husband in 1988. We moved to Fairfield, Connecticut for his residency at Yale. I wish him well.

A lot has changed since then, all for the best. I married the love of my life, Eric, in 2005. We lived in Darien, Connecticut for 6 years, not far from Greenwich, and up the street from his family. I began working at Ernst & Young, a Big 4 accounting/ audit firm, in 1999. I specialize in health care and pharmaceuticals, with Pfizer, Wyeth, and Aetna having been my clients. I have a CPA license in 5 states, In pursuit of partnership, E&Y relocated us to LA county to service one of their largest clients. Then the big California bust! I found a new job, still doing healthcare auditing, for a large health system client in California. It's CEO has been active in the Obama administration, trying to reform healthcare.

But as you can imagine, this kind of job also comes with a lot of stress. (What job doesn't?)

To manage the stress part, I have stayed athletically involved all my life, including running for 14 years. Darien is known as a big tennis town, so while I was there, I played tennis for 6 years, the last 3 competitively with a USTA league! My team made it to New England district playoffs the second year, and I was chosen to play. What an experience! It was surreal. Much like what the US Open must be like. (Okay, we weren't THAT good, but we were pretty good!) Media attention, nerves, etc. I had already moved the second year they made it, but this time they won the district! It was a phenomenal experience.

Our recently discovered love is sailing! Since I learned to swim late, I first had to get over my fear of drowning. So my first lessons in Long Island Sound were capsizing like crazy. Many bruises later, I can handle a 16.5 ft keelboat, which for me is a big deal. My husband is a natural. Sailing will be a lifelong pursuit for the both of us.

We have discovered fantastic hiking trails here in LA, who knew? We are next to the Santa Monica Mountains, including Malibu Creek State Park, which means we are near Santa Monica and Malibu. We are certainly getting the LA experience. In addition to being able to see the Malibu wildfire smoke plumes from our backyard and not being allowed outside for a week, we've experienced 3 earthquakes, coyotes in the backyard, snakes and scorpions in the house, police helicopter searches in our yard, and star sightings at Trader Joe's!

Big family events:
1) My brother Bart's son, Lucas, made it to the National Spelling Bee finals in DC in 2004. What a wonderful experience for all! His oldest son, Doug, has finished his 3rd year at Boston U, is majoring in international relations, and wants to work in the UN. He is well on his way, interning for the Massachusetts legislature.

2) My sister married a physics rock star in 2003. He swims with the physics Nobel Prize winners, and is going for tenure next year at Notre Dame.

3) My brother Roy moved to LA in 2002 to attend acting and film schools. He is still trying to make it here in Hollywood, and it's been really nice to reconnect with him.

Best travel: Too numerous to mention them all, but the best:
1) Costa Rica at Christmas 1997 with my sister and her friend. We roughed it, which I think made us appreciate it's beauty even more. We also met the Eagles at the beach, with Joe Walsh coming to our dinner table to talk to us for about 45 minutes. I think he was wondering what 3 American women were doing in such a remote place!

2) Our 2005 honeymoon to Italy. I absolutely fell in love with Rome, and Eric fell in love with Florence. I know what our future vacation fights will be about!

Would love to hear from you! My alternate e-mail is [email protected]

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