Sunday, January 21, 2018

Sunday Stealing

1. Have you ever tried to learn (or re-learn) a foreign language as an adult? Which one? What worked for you?
I studied Latin and French in high school and loved French so much I chose it as a major in college.  I have never really had to use it, though, except very briefly when we visited France.  I also sorta-kinda learned Portuguese through osmosis from 10 years of hosting various Brasilian students in our house.  There was a  time when I considered myself "conversant" in Portuguese, but have lost most of it since the 1980s.

2. Do you donate blood? Do you know your blood type?
I donated blood for many years, since the 1970s, but a few years ago, it began to get more difficult.  They changed the staff at the blood bank and nobody knew me any more.  It began to be more difficult to find a vein (sometimes it took two people to find a vein) and it actually started to hurt, which it had not done for all the years I donated.  I have a couple of free t-shirts because of the blood they spilled on the shirt I was wearing, trying to find a vein. I think my veins have changed because it's more difficult for them to do a blood draw in the lab too, so I'm taking time off from blood donating right now.
My daughter and I both donated blood together many years ago, when she was still in high school, and they told us our blood type.  Jeri, who was an excellent student, said "See...even when I take a blood tests, I get an A-plus"

3. Have you ever been in a play or musical?
I was, believe it or not, the romantic lead in our senior high school play.  That's the only time I performed, though I raised children who performed (and some still perform) all the time.

4. Do you use certain text or ring tones for specific people? Who gets their own? Or do you just use the default on your phone?
The long story is here, but the short story is that I have not been able to create or assign special ring tones to my new phone, so I have to use the default.  My husband's ring tone is a dog bark (default) because of all of the dogs we have hosted and my daughter's default ring tone is a duck quack because she lives in Boston, where I remember seeing "duck boats"

5. When did you get your first digital camera? Do you still shoot on actual film, or all digital now?
It was a Christmas gift from a friend in 2000.  She was learning digital photography and thought it would be fun if we learned together.  I can't remember the brand of camera, but it stored photos on 3" floppy disks that were inserted in the camera.  I came home from vacations with piles of floppies to deal with!  I haven't used a "film" camera in at least 10 years, probably more.  Now I just use my cell phone.

6. 
What do you think someone else would say the most daring thing you’ve done is
? 
I lead a pretty un-daring life, but flying 9,000 alone to spend a vacation with a friend in Australia was pretty daring. I had never traveled to a foreign country without Walt, so that was a different experience.  Of course, as soon as I landed I had a friend to take care of me, so the "daring" part ended!

7. Do you talk with your hands?
I don't think so.  People who look at me will have to answer.  I'm not aware of it anyway.

8. Do you have a lucky number? What is it, and what is the story behind it?
There is no special story behind my lucky number, 7.  It's ridiculous that I have always thought of that as my lucky number because it has never brought me luck in anything.  I guess I just like the way the number looks.

9. What kind of milk did you drink, growing up? And now?
Until I was in the 7th grade, I always drank regular full-fat homogenized milk.  Then the doctor put me on a diet and I had to learn to like skim milk.  When I went off the diet, I discovered that the full-fat milk gagged me because it was so rich.  Now I don't drink milk, except in cereal and I will use whichever is in the fridge -- usually fat-free, but occasionally I splurge and buy half and half.

10. What is your favorite kind of pie?
I love several kinds of pie.  Maybe pumpkin is my favorite.  I also love pecan pie and some fruit pies, especially blackberry and peach.  I like apple pies, but not any pie made with canned apples.  My mother was a killer apple pie maker.  I miss her pies.

11. Are you a note taker?
Never have been.  When I started writing theatrical reviews, I tried taking notes, but (a) I could not see where I was writing and (b) when I got home, I couldn't read what I wrote.  This is a sample of a note I took for Funny the World when I was writng "Today at Logos."  I still can't figure out what it says.


(My journal entry tells me I finally figured out that it said that a tall man in a striped knit cap was looking at the music section and finally purchased a copy of "Elementary Training for Musicians.")

12. Do you have an eclectic mug collection, or is your stuff all matchy matchy?
We have a few matchy-matchy mugs from various tube stations in London that we bought at the transportation museum and a set of mugs from various international capitals that we got as a gift from Walt's sister, but I drink my coffee out of a thermal mug that I bought at Peet's because it keeps the coffee hot.

13. Do you have a junk drawer in your house/garage/at work/wherever?
What do you think?


 
14. What is the longest amount of time you’ve worked at one job – and what was/is it?
I have a weird work history.  In an office, the longest I worked was 12 years as transcriptionist and office manager for an ob/gyn office, but at the same time I worked at home transcribing for a psychiatrist for 30 years.

15. How old were you when you took your first commercial flight? To where did you fly?
It was the end of my sophomore or freshman year in high school, so around 1957.  I won 5th place in an essay contest about the merchant marine and the prize was a one-way cruise on the President Cleveland cruise ship from San Francisco to Los Angeles (essentially overnight).  My mother and sister and I took the cruise, spent the day in Los Angeles going to Disneyland and then took our first flight, back to San Francisco on Southwest Airlines. 


In the 60s, I flew frequently to LA.  Southwest charged $19 round trip.

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