A monkey on my back, and yet I couldn

Brooke Dooley spent her early years in the Champlain Islands of Vermont, learning to skip stones, climb trees, make mud pies, and participate in all other manner of idyllic play. By age 13, she had moved onto teaching herself to code computers for fun, and has been a self-professed and proud geek ever since.

Spidey is slowly advancing! Retreat!

At various points in her professional career, Brooke has been paid to be a traveling horseback rider, improv comedienne, seamstress (making floats for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and costumes for the Rockettes’ Christmas Spectacular), social worker, web designer, commercial radio producer, snarky video store clerk, newspaper advertising salesperson, graphic designer, bookkeeper and preschool teacher. There was a time where she was paid to dress as a spaceman and walk slowly around a convention center. It is for these, and many other reasons, that she is glad to have found a place at CPA Site Solutions.

Oxen whispering.

Barry Lopez said “Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion.” Inspired by this sentiment and largely inspired by Anecdote. Participants take the stage to tell true stories from their own life with no notes. Brooke is inspired by truth, bravery, authenticity and laughter.

A Dendur Moment.

In her spare time, Brooke loves studying the history and art of Ancient Egypt, knitting anything imaginable, reading voraciously, getting lost and finding her way home again and splashing about in various bodies of water (weather permitting). While she doesn’t want to brag, Brooke is reasonably sure she can beat anyone at Super Mario 3, that kid from The Wizard excepted. Brooke’s greatest dream is to one day own a miniature animal farm. And no, she’s not kidding about that.

Dream dinner party with 5 (living) celebrities:
Judge Judy, Dolly Parton, Carrie Fisher, Dolph Lundgren, Dali Lama

You are a super hero and are given the choice between power of flight or invisibility. DECIDE.
Totally flight. Invisibility is for tricksters. Flight is for dreamers.

You are given the chance to have dinner with one dead celebrity. Who do you choose?
Dorothy Parker. We’d make each other laugh exchanging snarky quips. I’d impress/freak her out by reciting many of her poems from memory.

Five books that changed your life:
The Little Prince, Tao Te Ching, Cat’s Cradle, Anne of Green Gables, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Five movies that you’ll never get tired of:
The Empire Strikes Back, Gone With the Wind, John and Mary (the best movie no one’s heard of), The Jerk, Say Anything…

Five Television series that you feel would change Television-Haters’ minds:
The Wire, Deadwood, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Six Feet Under, The Golden Girls

Five bands/artists that kick off the Soundtrack to Your Life:
The Clash, Lee Hazlewood, Robyn, Prince and the Revolution, Dolly Parton

What’s the nuttiest thing you’ve ever done?
I traveled to the Dominican Republic alone for my 31^st birthday, with zero ability to speak Spanish. I stayed in an eco-plantation high in the mountains about Puerto Plata, made friends with the ex-patriots in town, hiked though a tropical stream, snorkeled coral reefs, and sailed on a catamaran. My birthday meal was a chicken cooked at a local hang out, a shack on a peninsula where the ocean met a river. It was me, my ex-pat friends, a bunch of intoxicated Dominicans, and a handful of Hell’s Angels. At one point, I had a monkey on my left shoulder and a parrot on my right. When I asked the owner if they were friends, he grimaced and said “NO. NOT friends.” I feared for my life in that moment. Best. Vacation. Ever.