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I’m never quite sure how to fill in these About Me type pages. Do I start from the womb and work my way up? Surely nobody wants to know about the time I was 5 and decided to “cut out” windows in our screened in porch and then when found out, proclaimed the devil made me do it?? Or the time I ate a daisy and was pretty sure I was gonna die at the tender age of 8! Not that there isn’t plenty to entertain with, in addition to some of the tougher stuff, but I’m assuming anybody reading this page simply wants to read about the author of this site, why it and I am here.

The Early Days

I started out online in 1999, after the birth of my youngest daughter. Because her days and nights were mixed up, (and so was I by this time!), it became necessary to stay awake, so aside from delving into my lifelong love of writing, I also began surfing the net in search of some form of work. I started reading about affiliate marketing and the concept of getting paid to promote products and services. I found “Net Detective“. I had a fondness for all things PI related due to the fact that my previous job was in that field.  SO, I began promoting Net Detective with my free webpage creator and cheesy free webhost. As I continued to learn and research affiliate marketing, I started to teach myself HTML, with the help of my first ever online friend, Lisa Irby, who I’m so pleased to see is still online and thriving more than ever. The patience of Job, this woman had with me, and my table-challenged self! Somewhere along the line, I bought Photo Impact (I stayed terrified of Photoshop for the first three years!) so I could create a few of my own graphics, and it was becoming very clear it was the design element I cared about far more than pimping other people’s products. I immersed myself in books, tutorials, this long before the arrival of YouTube or much video at all online. I was blogging at a time when people looked at you funny when you said the word “blog”. I Googled before Google had taken over the world. The internet was still young, dialup was still the norm, and the idea of becoming a “web designer” was exciting to me beyond words.

From the Web to the Oscars

After months of intensive self taught training, I spent $70 (no GoDaddy yet!) for Darlanne.com and putting that site online was one of the proudest moments of my professional life. My focus was on Christian design and it managed to support my two girls and I up until the Dot Bomb fiasco. I had to look for other work to survive. Randomly one day I found what I thought was going to be a quirky type of job that ended up being my full time employment for the next almost 7 years. In a nutshell, I worked via telecommuting (ie in my jammies!) for a media firm. I monitored morning radio shows, entertainment TV programming, award shows like The Oscars, cable shows, basically transcribing and summarizing important elements of each segment. I got so good at it that I monitored Rick Dees in the Morning (later Ryan Seacrest, as well as Mark and Brian KLOS) live as it aired without any pre-recording. It was a wonderful job for many years and paid well enough to support my daughters. The only drawback was my hours. I worked mornings, afternoons and also evenings, I was allllwwwways working. In all those years, I never took a vacation day and only missed two days of work for illness and moving, despite that by now I had been hit in 2004 with endometriosis, a very painful debilitating female illness. But I tackled it with exercise, healthy diet and lots of hard work in between my regular working hours. I had fought back too hard in life to overcome some major problems, and did … never looking back. This was not going to beat me.

I never let go of the my love of writing, graphics and design, and by now, photo retouching. I launched Retouchables in that same year, 2004 and it was my side business. Looking back I’m not sure how I found the time at all but life was simplistic and I had much to be grateful for.

Mountains Here We Come

In September of 2006, my daughters and I made a sudden bold move. Out of the blue we moved up here to Big Bear. For anybody not knowing, Big Bear is a very popular mountain resort town, located 50 miles up in the San Bernardino Mountains. We found a teeny tiny but adorable house right by the lake and left everything behind for a new start, a fresh beginning in a breathtaking new environment. A month later, my mother followed suit and moved to a house a few blocks away. A year later my sister and family also moved up here. This left only my love still in our old town but with his ever devoted constant nightly calls.

In July of 2007, my girls and I moved into our dreamhome, a beautiful almost 2000 square foot house, a few blocks from the lake. Other than missing my love and working through more endometriosis pain that resurfaced several months prior, life was hopeful.

World Comes Tumbling Down

In Aug of 2007, my love came up, bringing all our family storage and a new computer.
5 days later … my job was gone.

The company had found new technologies to do what I and others did. It was devastating but I was determined to fight it. I decided that the “reason” in that “everything happens for a reason” cliche must be that I was meant to pursue my other loves and enjoy what I do for a living. I had to study up on CSS, XHTML, learn some PHP in order to compete, and also began writing up a storm. The next almost year was spent in one large tornado type of existence. The endo had embedded itself deeply again. I worked many days with labor-type pain. We only made it through any of those months through hard work and the help of a dear friend who saw us through it all from continents away … along with the support of my family, and my love’s devoted calls.

Almost 11 months into it, reality set in and it was clear we were not going to be able to keep our home. My health was suffering, made debilitating by the stress of it all. Almost a year ago now, we had to give it up.

As the Dust Settled

With my girls and I now relocated in a less than desirable cramped situation, I spent the next several months still working just as hard as I had before, and with many other elements going on beyond my ability to influence or change. Life spiraled out of control. Nothing got better. Things only got worse, despite the fact that my efforts were never ending and sleep little. With the economy on it’s downward spin, there was just nothing else to do but continue my insanity. Pain, work, work, pain, pain work, a little sleep, pain, less sleep, work, rinse and repeat. The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result. Something had to change. I wasn’t even enjoying my beloved design work any longer.

My Blessings

I was on zombie auto pilot and only existing, all the while missing out on the fact that suddenly my older daughter was turning 18. Where’d the time go???? My baby, grown up and so much precious time missed because this life can be so hard on so many of us. My youngest, now 10, drawing me daily pictures to sneak and put on my office chair to surprise me and “make Mommy smile”. My kids are special. Of course I’m not biased or anything! But they truly are gems in this world so different than when I was their age. At the very least, no matter how many failings in life or circumstances that didn’t result in worldly success, my greatest accomplishments shine in their beautiful eyes each and every day. And for that I’m rich beyond words.

Hypno What?

Somewhere in between all the chaos and this hurricane only slightly resembling our lives, I discovered Hypnosis.

Of course I knew of hypnosis. Who hasn’t seen those spiral thingies that make you dizzy, and who hasn’t heard the term “You are getting veeeery sleepy”!? In all reality, I knew nothing about actual hypnosis. And it’s amazing to me that in this modern world we live in, so little is known about this amazing mental miracle tool we’ve had ALL this time and either never knew or cared that something this simple can solve SO many problems, and quickly!

I started studying it, researching … mainly for my pain issues. I don’t even recall much of the early days when I began my interest. I only know that I started eating, drinking and sleeping all things hypnosis related. I felt like my eyes had been open and the fog lifted, and while NONE of my problems just went “poof”, it’s a foundation, a starting point. Discovering hypnosis has allowed me to begin taking that vicious cycle and direct it on a new path. It’s a brand new way of looking at things and realizing just how powerful our minds are.

Faith

Let me just take a moment now and clarify. I view hypnosis as a tool. I am not a new age believer, I don’t deal in past lives. I’m strongly a Christian and firm in that faith. At the same time I don’t subscribe to the whole “God put Adam in a trance so therefore hypnosis is validated.” It’s a tool, a method of approaching issues, and a simple solution to many dilemmas in our lives. It’s not my religion. That’s fine for those who do believe in the spiritual aspects. But for myself, it’s easy. Hypnosis, specifically, hypnotherapy, is an amazing problem solver, pure and simple.

New Student, New Day!

I now had a new focus in life, a real viable answer to my life’s problems. And somewhere in the midst of all that, I realized I wanted to learn as much about it as I possibly could. I signed up with HMI, the 40 year old Hypnosis Motivation Institute, under the wonderful teachings of hypnotherapy pioneer Dr John Kappas. Since that time, my current certifications include:

• Foundations in Hypnotherapy – Hypnotherapist’s Union Local 472
• Smoking Cessation Certification - AHA (American Hypnosis Association)
• Emotional Freedom Technique – AHA (American Hypnosis Association)

I’m currently an advanced training student and look forward to the day I graduate proudly from their wonderful program.While it’s gratifying in it’s own way to be creative and artistic, something I am through and through, to me there’s nothing more rewarding feeling than helping guide others past their problems. The sense of fulfillment in this is like nothing I’ve felt before in my life.

With this site on the web on and off for 10 years, an entire decade, it’s changed along with me. It’s been through the occasional identity crisis as I have, but one thing continues to be true. Despite obstacles in the way and some pretty challenging situations, I’m always still learning, still seeking, and trying to find the lesson in it all. With the site’s second transformation of the year, I think it now encompasses all of my own eclectic quirkiness, as it should.

My Loves:

• God – I’m anything but a perfect person. My flaws have flaws, but doesn’t a day go by that I don’t turn to Him.
• My daughters – Wacky, zany, and as close as two sisters can be. They are why I live and breathe.
• My family – We’ve been through a lot, and alas they are loved deeply.
• Honesty – It’s the foundation for all relationships and friendships, and peace within cannot exist without it.
• Creativity – It’s as essential for me as air, I must have it.
• Writing – Been doing it creatively since age 10!
• Music – My tastes are far reaching and a potpourri of genres. I love Elvis, Duran Duran, classic rock, Michael Jackson & the music from West Side Story.
• Movies – As mentioned, West Side Story has been my favorite film since I was 5 years old and holds special meaning to me relating to my father’s murder.
• Swimming – You’d think that’d be a breeze in a resort town by the lake but the water is freezing up here. I miss a good ole fashioned pool and the beach.
• YouTube & Twitter – About the only social networking sites I participate in.
• Pink, black, animal print, old Hollywood decor.
• Simplicity – Sometimes we pay a price for today’s high tech luxuries and fast living. A simple lifestyle is what I crave the most.
• Foods – Chocolate, Chinese food, cheese, ice tea (not all together of course!)

Hates

• Hypocrisy
• Racism
• Judgmental people
• Contention and hostility
• STRESS
• Snow (pretty to look at, hell to shovel!)
• Tomatoes
• Email spam
• That electric blue color on cars!

Thanks for visiting!