I was born Catherine Ann Watson, the eldest daughter of Allen and Betty Watson, on January 28, 1958. My sister Jeanne was born in 1960. I was raised in Akron, Ohio, although I have lived and studied elsewhere. People often mistook my sister and I for twins although we were 2-1/2 years apart. Jeanne is now married and lives with her husband and two boys in California.
My belief in the pursuit of knowledge has led me to collect six degrees from three universities in the fields of music, French, English, and international business. In my free time, I have belonged to an orchestra in London, audited mutual funds in Luxembourg, dined with the solo horn player of the Paris opera, worked as a journalist, joined a fencing club, soloed an airplane, dated a former Scottish monk, cuddled a young leopard, restored castles, won an award for outstanding drill team commander, interviewed the head of the Parisian police dog division, shown a world-class show cat, translated a farce from Old French to modern and directed a performance of it at The University of Akron, and wrote the only French thesis at Kent State University in a period of at least ten years.
I received a B.A. in Music, a B.A. in French, and the first-ever B. Music in Music History and Literature ever awarded by The University of Akron. I spent a year in the MBA program in international business at UA before taking a professor's advice and applying for the top international business program in the country (so said U.S. News & World Report for about 6 years), the Master of International Business Program (MIBS) at the University of South Carolina. (MIBS - including study in Paris and an internship in Luxembourg - was by far my most demanding degree, and it is the one I value highest.) A year after finishing MIBS, I went back to school full time, with an assistantship, to obtain an M.A. in French from Kent State University. I chose to specialize in Old French, and my interest is in 12th century romance. My 100-page thesis is titled: "Courtly Love Gone Awry: An Analysis of Courtly Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages as Portrayed in the Arthurian Romances of Chretien de Troyes." Two years later I returned to school yet again, but part time, taking one class each term, while I worked full-time. It took five years, but in May 1998 I completed an M.A. in English at Kent State, specializing in Middle English, especially 13th and 14th century. I decided that to voluntarily write a second thesis would seriously jeopardize my reputation as a sane human being, so I took the non-thesis option. My most harrying experience in literature (French or English) was reading the whole of Beowulf in the original Anglo-Saxon. I'm glad I did it, but it's not something I'd care to repeat.
I have been employed since April 1997 in the Finance Department of University Hospitals Health System in Mayfield Heights, just west of Cleveland. It's a heck of a commute, but I listen to books on tape each day, so I don't mind it too much unless the weather is bad. My specific area of responsibility is third party reimbursement, almost exclusively Medicare and Medicaid. I perform a lot of financial analysis and do some forecasting. There are four of us in reimbursement; a manager I was fortunate enough to follow from my previous employer, and two colleagues.
I have been a member of American Mensa since 1984. I served a two-year term (1994-95) as Local Secretary (equivalent to president) of the local Mensa group, East Central Ohio Mensa. Overlapping that time (1995-97) I was assistant to the Regional Vice Chair, who oversees 15 local groups in seven states. At that time and since, I have served on several national-level committees. The December 1995 issue of Mensa's national journal, the Bulletin, included a feature I wrote about Marissa Patterson, a 4-year-old member of our group who was at that time American Mensa's youngest member. At that time Marissa could read at a twelfth-grade level, could tell you what a pancreas does, and could name every state and its capital. You may have seen her on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, or any of several other television shows or articles. In a nutshell, Mensa is a social group for curious people with eclectic interests. The only qualification is that you score in the top 2% of any of a number of standardized intelligence tests.
I met Brian Anthony Rock on the only blind date of my life in 1988, while I was still living in South Carolina. My mother pestered me until I agreed to meet him next time I was home in Akron. I did; on our first date we went to a Chinese restaurant, then to see "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" We went out several more times, I moved back to Akron when I got a teaching job in a local business college, and I slowly came to appreciate him. He proposed to me in the Arizona desert, and we were married on June 29, 1991 in a small but elegant ceremony on what was perhaps the hottest day of the year. We now live in a 1927 Tudor Revival house in Akron that we are slowly trying to restore/renovate.
We have four delightful Egyptian mau cats. The mau, as you can see
elsewhere on our Web site, is the only natural breed of domestic
spotted cat. Tintagel has had an illustrious show career in both
the Cat Fanciers Association and The International Cat Association.
Klaatu and Albion have been somewhat less illustrious, but we're
proud of them nonetheless. Baksheesh is too shy to be shown, but
she's a superb lap cat. We don't breed, and have no desire to do
so. We just enjoy living with and showing our cats.
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