SUNDAY STEALING
17 July 2016
1. What are your current obsessions?
Getting my new office organized and making pocket letters.
2. What are you listening to?
I'm sitting at my desk with my little TV at my elbow, listening to Law
and Order SVU. (I rarely listen to music when I'm at home)
3. Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?
It's summer with temps just about every day >90. At home I wear shorts
and a light weight t-shirt. When I go out, I change into long pants,
as light weight as I have. (Same shirt). At night it's back in shorts
and my Obama t-shirt.
4. What are you reading?
Billie Burke's autobiography. It's a fascinating story. It was
originally written in 1948, but I am very much enjoying it.
5. What’s for dinner?
Lamb pizza with sour cream and mint.
6. What was the last thing you bought?
Some Washi tape, which I need like I need a hole in my head, but it will
be good to decorate the envelopes of my grandkids wen I write to them.
7. Guilty pleasure?
The Haagen Dazs snack bars Walt and I have after dinner each night.
8. What training did you get and how do you make a living?
I didn't really have any formal training. I worked as a medical
transcriptionist and my whole "training" consisted of my boss at a typing
service tossing me a tape and a medical dictionary and saying "Here.
Learn this." I worked at medical transcription for about 30 years.
Now I'm retired and work as a theater critic (which, in a good month, earns
me somewhere between $80 and $100 for the month). I had no training
for this job either and have just learned as I go. This is my 16th
year reviewing. I hope I've learned a few things since I began.
9. If you could go back in time, knowing what you know now, and choose a
different career path, what would you train to do?
For one thing, I would finish college. I had gone all through high
school without so much as a D on my report card, and mostly As and Bs.
When I failed my first class in college (stopped attending because the
teacher started hitting on me and I was too dumb to realize I should report
him!), a college (UC Berkeley) for which I was woefully unprepared, I
figured there was no way I could cope and just gave up. With
hindsight, I wish I had continued and followed some sort of English course
to make me a better writer today.
10. What’s your best time of day?
Hmmm....I'm not sure. I used to be best in the morning, but lately
I've been sleeping late and feeling groggy when I wake up, so maybe it's
after dinner...but I get sleepy then too....
11. Do you like being on a team or are you a solo player?
I'm the person sitting on the bench when all the team players have been
chosen while the heads of the teams fight over who has to take me.
Thus, I am a solo player.
12. What’s your favorite way to create art?
Right now it's pocket letters. I am having such a wonderful time
creating them. I just finished my second "dog" themed pocket letter and the partners
haven't even been assigned yet!
13. Name three items in your refrigerator:
Patty, Maxine and Laverne. Oh...did you mean LIST three things in my
refrigerator? a bottle of Chinese sweet hot sauce (love the stuff), 4
containers of cottage cheese (for the dogs), and ground lamb for mini pizzas
tonight
14. Tell us about your first crush:"
Our parish priest, named Leonard Bose. I don't have a clue why I had a
crush on him. He was middle aged, short, bald and not very good looking. I
think I deveoped a crush because he was kind to me, and people weren't
necessarily kind to me when I was in grammar school. I always think of
him whenever I hear "On the Street Where You live," since I used to sing
that song to myself whenever I passed the rectory.
15. The first time that I became a boyfriend/girlfriend was with who,
when?
I was 13. Bill was the nephew of our neighbor, who thought we would
get along. Before I got to know him, he was in an auto accident and
hospitalized with minor injuries for a week or so. I went to see him
every day and by the time he got out, we were making plans to go on a date.
We dated for 3 years.
16. Do you remember what you did on your first date?
We went to see a Tab Hunter movie (I think it was The Girl He Left
Behind).
17. How did you meet your current (or most recent)
girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife?
Neither of us remembers. We were both members of the Newman Club at UC
Berkeley and we both went on a trip to Yosemite. There are pictures of
him and me on the same trip, so I guess we met there, but obviously it did
not have a big impression on either of us, but we've been married 51 years.
18. How did your first romantic relationship end?
Bill joined the Jesuits. He is a Brother (not a priest) and still there.
19. Do you remember your first kiss?
Oddly enough, no.
20. What do we still not know about you?
Oh lots. But you'll have to find other memes to drag it out of me.
