What is your favorite hangout?
I love to go dancing! I really enjoy West Coast Swing at Evan’s at the Presbyterian Church in Highland. I also love eating at Sal’s Place in downtown Highland. They have great food! The best burgers ever! And also The Vignette. Both have different but warm and friendly atmospheres as well as great food. Mostly? I hang out here, in my shop. I’m a workaholic! But I also love to walk along the Hudson River and up that mile hill in Highland.
Tell us something we never would have guessed about you.
I used to be a clothing designer and a hat designer. I play tennis, I love tennis and I also love to dance.
What keeps you here?
All of my stuff! But I really love it here. Of course I dream of being a snowbird and escaping the winter months but that’s not good for business. So I’ll settle for a few weeks off in January where I can play tennis in the warm weather.
What would you change?
I’d love to see Highland continue to grow in terms of having more business downtown, letting people know how much there is here — great shops, restaurants, the rail-trail, the Walkway Over the Hudson and the river-front access! The more business that come in the greater chance we have of a renaissance which is where we should be!
Where would we find you on Sunday mornings?
At the flea markets! Where else?
What is your favorite virtue?
I love being able to place many things in a small space and make it look beautiful. That’s one virtue I know I have. Just look around.
What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt?
Well, accidentally I became a landlord and you know what? I actually enjoy it. I never thought I would but this building has several upstairs apartments that are gorgeous! Metal circular stairways leading up to a loft with a gorgeous view! In the future I’d love to utilize the kitchen in this building to have gourmet coffee and tea and some pastries and gelato. This is a great space for people to enjoy themselves, peruse the shop, go out onto the deck and gazebo and hear the water running. That’s my vision.
Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here?
Bernie Schaffer. He’s in his mid-eighties and works full-time at his plastic factory in Rosendale, and he’s helped to design so many green-minded inventions like this snake-plant that can re-produce the air-cleaning quality of 100 plants or his sauna, that can revitalize a person while improving our air-quality. He’s amazing! His plastic company works hand-in-hand with the Woodcrest community in Tillson that produces state-of-the-art prostheses.
What qualities do you admire most in others?
Being straight-forward, sincere. I love when people are natural and jus themselves. Generosity is also a quality I admire.
What is your idea of happiness?
Being able to do whatever I want, whenever I want and wherever I want!
What is your idea of misery?
Being unhappy!
What talent do you wish you had been given?
I wish that I had been gifted with a greater sense of focus. I’m so organized in my physical space, but not in other areas. Every morning I think, ‘you should meditate to become more focused,’ and yet every day I think, ‘I have to get somewhere, I don’t have time!”
What is your main fault?
Being late. I hate it, but it’s true. I wish I could change it. I try to change it!
For which fault do you have the most tolerance?
Being late! Because no one has tolerance for that except those that are chronically late! I’m very forgiving in that respect!
What is your favorite motto?
The squeaky wheel gets the most oil. I know it’s played but it’s so true. In my life it has been — both ways!
