Paulette Kirby; Outdoor Enthusiast
Despite growing up in “noisy” Chicago, Paulette has always had a yen for the great outdoors. Hiking has always been her favorite outdoor activity, and she has added kayaking, trail biking, as a result of meeting Randy, and most recently in the last year and a half, trail running. She met Randy 16 years ago in Buffalo, Wyoming at her first road race. After the first leg of the race, she was exhausted and dropped down onto a park bench. Randy was seated at the other edge of the bench. She said, “This was my first time out doing competitive biking, and I had never even seen people in bike shorts before. Randy had his full gear, and I assumed he knew what he was doing.” She was in great pain after the first leg and asked him what she could do to reduce this pain she was feeling in her rib cage from exerting so much effort. His response to her was, “Just get behind me and suck my wheel.” Her immediate thought was, “Is this guy a pervert?” She later found out that this was jargon meaning that she should stay closely behind Randy and benefit from his drafting.
They rapidly became friends on the biking circuit and were married in Sedona, Arizona 15 years ago. Paulette hired a minister. To this day, she teases Randy that she was just a fake. The apparently New Age minister asked if she was metaphysical. She said, “I wasn’t certain what the term meant, and I told her I was raised Greek. Does that help?” About her last name, she commented, “I was willing to change my name to Ericksen, but Randy said it didn’t make any difference to him, so I have maintained my maiden name, Kirby.”
Paulette started college at age 16 and received a B.S. in Nursing from Lewis University in Joliet, Illinois. She had started in vet school, but her mother refused to pay her tuition unless she changed to some more practical field. She loved the school dances. She said they were virtually all black dancers, except for one gay white guy who hung out with her. She said the African-Americans would tease her and say, “White gal, you don’t know how to shake yo’ boody.”
She was a nurse for 20 years and went on for her M.A. as a Clinical Nurse Specialist at South Dakota State University when she and Randy briefly lived in Sioux Falls. Just recently, she received her Nurse Practitioner’s degree from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and has been a practicing nurse practitioner the past year and two months in an internal medicine practice. She also serves as a nurse practitioner for Planned Parenthood and as part-time faculty for SDSU’s nursing program in the Black Hills.
She finds her work at Planned Parenthood very satisfying, as she is dealing with young patients 18-mid 30s whom she does not normally see in her internal medicine practice. “These young women, as well as occasionally young men, come to me frequently with much trepidation because they do not know how to share their needs, having been frequently rejected by those who don’t understand, including MDs. I was especially pleased when one young man in his mid-thirties told me, ‘You’re the first person I feel comfortable with to share problems.’ Working with young adults and helping educate them is most rewarding. I definitely feel I am doing much more to prevent pregnancy with these young people than the folks on the corner with their signs,” she remarked.
Paulette has been a back-packer hiker for as long as she can remember. “I started biking with Randy and running with the Club only a year and a half ago.” She doesn’t keep mileage logs but does run three to four times a week, both road and trail, though she definitely prefers the latter. She also indulges in kayaking. Since joining the Club, she has competed in a number of the short road races and the 30km Big Horns run in Wyoming last year. She swore she would never do it again, due to the long flat miles at the end of the race, when she was exhausted. However, she has reconsidered and has now signed up for the 50K this year. When I asked her what her favorite run was, she replied, “Well, I’ve only done one of each, starting with “Freeze your Fanny” last year Valentine’s, Big Horns etc. My favorite is really the hash runs.” She and Randy have become avid Hashers and have hosted Hashers at their home and have served as Harriers. Her Hash name is “Scat Scratch Fever.”
She admitted she misses the noise of multi-ethnic Chicago. Her own warm, engaging personality is quite a contrast to the more stoic Dane she lives with. “I surely do miss all that multi-ethnic, multicultural urban scene. Had I not met Randy, I’m not certain I would’ve ever married, as I need a lot of space,” she reflected. Fortunately for Paulette, and vice-versa, I’m sure, Randy and Paulette respect each other’s different personalities and needs. Paulette concluded, “We really respect each other a lot and provide each other space.” I offered that maybe this is why their marriage works so well. Paulette readily agreed.