Viking Disease Strikes Hands and Feet
My old friends and teammates will remember my notorious feet with toes so crooked I could hang upside down by them. Back in high school in Sterling, Illinois my podiatrist, Doctor Heffelfinger, gave me my first foot orthoses. He also showed me how to tape each toe to prevent blisters from forming between my phalanges […]
“You Don’t Look Sick” Fibromyalgia Awareness May 12, 2025
If I have the courage to confess my vulnerability, to share my struggle with a hard to diagnose, difficult to treat, invisible illness ravaging lives, can my words help others in pain? Three decades ago, my chiropractor in Switzerland, suspected my back problems were due to more than injuries. He surmised that I had fibromyalgia […]
Not Always Easy Flying easyJet
Though fewer people are flying abroad this summer, visitors are welcome everywhere in the UK and Europe. For travelers, who dare to hop the Big Pond, easyJet airlines offer low cost flights to most anywhere from the UK or Switzerland. In 1995, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou founded the company to provide affordable air travel to the […]
Raclette – a Franco Swiss Favorite For 400 Years
Natives living in the French Savoie region or in the Swiss Alps will argue ’til the cows come home over who first invented raclette, but everyone who tries this traditional cheese/potato dish agrees it’s great. Raclette is thought to be at least 400 years old and remains popular today. For centuries, herders in Europe’s mountainous […]
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X-Pat, a feisty globetrotter. Teacher, writer, coach, speaker, and trailblazer with the down-to-earth, open-armed persona of The Heartland and a European twist. I have lived in four different countries, speak three languages and raised two bi-cultural kids with one très bon Frenchman. My passion is inspiring courage, breaking barriers, and creating connections.
Down and out? Hopeless and helpless? No matter where you are in your journey, my stories can help pick up your spirits, make transitions, gain new perspectives or just escape the daily grind.
If you deny a woman’s history, you erase her identity. I reveal the athlete’s untold story, from the passage of Title IX through forty years of social change. What makes it different from other sport biographies is the voice of a woman who walks the talk, who dribbled the ball and tells the story. Learn more by clicking here