About | My Site

All About Bonnie

I grew up in the small southern Indiana town of Orleans. After graduating from the local high school, I then went on to graduate from Indiana State University in 1975 with a BS in Marketing and a minor in Economics. I lived in Amherst, Massachusetts for a short while, then moved to Zionsville, Indiana in 1976 where I worked in the restaurant industry for nine years, managing Ground Round and Grisanti's Restaurants. With my love of education, I decided to move back to Terre Haute in 1988 and work on my MBA. After earning that, I began teaching at Ivy Tech Community College as their instructor of Business Administration, starting in August of 1993. I continued to further my education be earning a Ph.D. in Educational Administration, Leadership and Foundations, and rose to the rank of Professor. I retired in 2020 and moved back to my hometown of Orleans, Indiana in October of that year.

While I was living in Terre Haute, I had taken my love of all things Victorian and opened a retail shop called Feminine Mystique-Victorian Era Gifts and Collectibles in August of 2017. When I moved back to Orleans, I brought the shop with me, opening the doors on March 23, 2021. I purchased a beautiful older building just a block off state road 37 that was the former town hotel in years past. It was the perfect venue for my Victorian shop. I absolutely love meeting all the new people who come in, making new friends, and sharing some of the history.

Although I never had any human children, I've had several dog and cat children instead, My current babies are Jake (13 years old), Nilla (7 years old) and Frankie the cat, who is 6 years old. I had finches for a few years, but Frankie ultimately put a stop to that.

I love, love, love automobile racing--particularly NASCAR. I attended the Indianapolis 500 for 10 years but lost interest when Rick Mears retired. After that is when I fell in love with NASCAR, and my current favorite drivers are Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe (from nearby Mitchell, Indiana) and Kyle Larson in the Cup Series, Noah Gragson in Xfinity, and Zane Smith in trucks.

I am very creative and like to draw, embroider, paint rocks, work puzzles (jigsaw and logic), and have just invested in a second-hand 35mm camera so that I can experiment with photography.