PLP 2010 Profile: Michele Zehr

Name: Michele Zehr
Age: 36
Birthplace: Born in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Grew up mainly in Northern New York (near Watertown) & Oklahoma, but have also lived in Hawaii and Michigan
Current Digs: Charlottesville, VA
Occupation: Advocate for Survivors of Sexual Violence at S.A.R.A (Sexual Assault Resource Agency)
Favorite part about the job: Working "in the trenches" to end sexual violence and witnessing healing take place while supporting and empowering those who have survived it.
Your first job ever? First volunteer job was serving as a "Pooper Scooper" at a dog show at the age of 12. First job for pay was serving tables at a small restaurant when I was 16. I think I was a better pooper scooper.
Favorite book? A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Favorite movie? The Matrix , The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and Apollo 13---all in a tie
Comfort food? Ben n Jerry's "Half Baked" Ice cream
What's in your car CD player right now? Ani DiFranco and Govi
Next journey? I view my life as a constant journey
Favorite Virginia vacation spot? Any part of the Appalachian Trail where it runs through Virginia
First political memory? Realizing that President Carter and Carter Peanuts were the same family and I remember President Reagan's Election
Whom do you admire and why? I admire single working parents. I have no idea where they find the energy to work all day and then come home and have the energy to raise children
Best advice you ever got? From my mother, "You can't worry about the stuff you can't change"
If you could have dinner with any one currently living, whom would it be and why? Jim Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13, because he is a man who demonstrated the very definition of a human being at his best during a time when the only other choice was catastrophe, and he became humbled by it, not egotistical or full of himself. I also give this credit to the rest of the crew and would like to meet them all.
Describe a perfect day. Getting up whenever I wake up (with NO annoying alarm!), which probably means 10:00 a.m or after. Then I'd like to take my partner out for brunch and go for a long motorcycle ride together on my Harley on the Blue Ridge Parkway and end up at a quiet log cabin in the woods (void of any technology or cell service) that has a fire pit and stream where we could spend a sunny afternoon enjoying nature and then light a cozy fire after the sun goes down.
One thing most people might be surprised to learn about you? I survived a lightening strike in June 2007 while hiking the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.
Ambition, political or otherwise? A major ambition is to maintain balance in my life, regardless of what gets placed before me.