Auto-Tagged

I ran across a post with this list meme. She says at the end, "I'd like to "tag" everyone or anyone who reads my blog and would like to participate" so I'm picking up the thread until I think of some blog subjects on my own.


Five things I was doing ten years ago:
1. I returned to Vernonia after two months in California (during part of which I was helping Shmeen get ready to marry Shman) and finalized plans to come back permanently. In the midst of this planning, Denver D came through on his way to Santa Fe and asked if he could move to CA with me instead. YaYaWOT's husband's advice was since I was going anyway and it would be cheaper to move back with someone, I should say yes, even if it didn't work out.

2. Looking for social service work in the bay area. It took me some time to realize that with all the schools of psych around here no one would pay me more than $6/hour to do what I knew how to do. One executive director called me (after her assistant advised me to fax my resume) to ask, "If you don't have a master's degree, why are you bothering?"

3. Eating a lot of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (favorite flavors: Cherry Garcia and Phish Food).

4. Being 29 and becoming 30.

5. Doing tremendous amounts of yard work.


Five things on my list of things to do today:
1. Go to the gym. This will involve designing a new routine since it's a new month. [Done and done]

2. Maybe get a haircut. Definitely recolor whether I get a haircut or not. [Not done, either one]

3. Return Knitty's phone call. [Yep]

4. Drop off Zirpu at the movie theatre and buy a bathing suit at the nearby Sports Authority. The elastic has blown out of my current suit to the point where I can't feel it on my body. I always wind up checking to make sure it's covering my lower back before walking into the pool area at the gym.

[I did drop him off, but there were very few bathing suits at SA since "they're changing seasons." I was advised to come back in two weeks.]

5. Write at least one more blog post. [Yes]


Five snacks that I enjoy (right now):
1. Dried apricots.

2. Tortillas, toasted on the range, with melty butter. (I'm big into Trader Joe's "real handmade" tortillas right now).

3. Avocados.

4. French fries. Preferably not curly fries, and without ketchup.

5. Cheese and crackers.


Five things I would do if I was a billionaire:
1. Endow a grant fund for middling students at my college. Start 529 plans for every child I know.

2. Buy a new van for the food bank. Give the food bank an endowment for higher salaries for the Food Bank Director and the Program Coordinator (and/or for medical benefits for same).

3. Pay off our house and build a bigger back bedroom. Buy the house No and KT live in from my mom and give it to my brother. Also buy reconstruction for that house.

4. Take the train around the US and Canada, Pullman class, and get off the train to wander wherever I feel like it. This train trip would also include travel in interior Alaska, even if not by train (though preferably not by Vomit Comet).

5. Take Zirpu to every Cirque du Soliel show and to Teatro Zinzanni year-round.

That's more like ten things. Oh well.


Three bad habits I have:
1. Biting my nails.

2. Not reading the mail that comes from my retirement account companies.

3. Not closing drawers. Zirpu pointed this out to me the other day when I mentioned that he doesn't throw away his empty soy milk containers.


Five jobs that I've had:
1. Baking cookies at an Ultimate Cookie retail location on Haight Street.

2. Selling clothes, from t-shirts to vinyl dresses, and intimate wear at Daljeet's on Haight Street. I also worked at the warehouse, doing shipping and receiving.

3. Being a day camp counselor at the Jewish Community Center. A few years later I was asked in an interview, "Why do I get the feeling you're Jewish?" which was such an unbelievably illegal question that I was speechless.

4. Landscaper at the university.

5. Main propagandist - oh, I mean, Newsletter Editor - for a snake oil pyramid scheme company - oh, I mean, a health supplement multi-level marketing firm (now defunct).


Five things you don't know about me:

Hmm, having already responded to the seven weird things about me meme I'm drawing a blank on what to put here. What you don't know about me now, I don't want you to know.


To quote the person I got this from:

I'd like to "tag" everyone or anyone who reads my blog and would like to participate.

In The Spotlight

So, there's no chance in hell that I would get tagged with a blog meme, like "take a photo of your fridge" or "five things you must eat before you die" (and yes, I know about these because I read some food blogs). But... I just started reading Boobs, Injuries, and Dr. Pepper from time to time and she got tagged by someone else for this interesting meme In The Spotlight (see rules). The person who wrote it says, "If you are not tagged by anyone and would like to participate in this meme, then I officially tag you now. (You're Tagged By Christy of Christy's Coffee Break)!"


So, I'm tagged. One of the rules is that I have to tag five people; I'm not going to do that, because I don't know how. However, if you want, Christy will tag you if you just go to her blog. I can't cut and paste the questions I choose, so I will write them out in the answer in bold, so you can see what the question was.


What I hope to have at the end of my year of blogging is something like 365 entries, mostly intelligent and intelligently written. I established this blog to make myself write every day. With the exception of when I was away from home, so far I have accomplished that (this is my 157th post). I hope what I write is intelligent; certainly there are days that are much worse than others, but I hope the overall effect is better rather than worse.

However, I would be satisfied to see that I wrote every day.


My favorite childhood memory is this: I don't remember when this was, but I know I was younger than ten. There were several nights when Mom came home from work and announced that we were going to Baker Beach for a cookout. She would load up the Weber Smokey Joe and a cooler and off we'd go. All of my memories of this include Saj, and at least one girl from the neighborhood, J Jump Joyful or DeeKay.

One night most of the parents in the neighborhood came (this is how I remember it, though it seems unlikely in retrospect). That meant that there was half a classroom's worth of kids at the beach, and we had hot dogs (I liked mine burnt, and still prefer them that way) and s'mores. The picnic sites were up from the beach, in the trees, sheltered by the wind, though I don't remember the wind; I don't even remember wearing a jacket. We ran around on the beach, started digging to China, and made sand angels at the picnic site.

The sun went down and the park ranger drove through the parking lot. Our Horizon and the other families' station wagons were parked in the lot, but the ranger didn't come up to the picnic site. At least an hour later when we were leaving the beach, we got to the gate and it was closed! JJJ's older brother got out and determined it wasn't locked, and we went home. It was very exciting for us kids to imagine that the park ranger hadn't made us leave when the beach closed.



Another favorite one is of the April Fools' Day in my second or third grade year when Mom had all the neighborhood kids over for breakfast before school - and served hamburgers and French fries!

My favorites... EVER

Mick LaSalle, the SF Chronicle's movie critic, over at sfgate.com has proposed that everyone list their favorites in the following categories, with honorable mentions listed in parentheses. His post, response, and the responses of his readers, can be found here.

I know this is one of those meme things, but here goes, if you're interested. If you want to check any of them out, you can always Google (my favorite search engine).

Oh, I reserve the right to change my mind.

Movie M. Butterfly (The Big Chill)

Film Director Kenneth Branagh - maybe

Play Three Sisters (True West)

TV Show Star Trek: The Next Generation (As Time Goes By)

TV Movie or Mini-series A Town Like Alice (The Cathedral)

Playwright William Shakespeare

Album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Novel Shogun (Sometimes A Great Notion)

Short Story The Day After Superman Died by Ken Kesey

Composer Bob Dylan

Classical Piece Pictures at a Gallery (The Four Seasons)

Opera The Mikado

Actor Edward Norton

Actress Judi Dench

Dancer Gene Kelly

Beatle John Lennon

Poet William Carlos Williams (Nikki Giovanni)

Non-Fiction Book Lies My Teacher Told Me (How The Irish Saved Civilization)

Painting Paris Street, Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte (Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by George Seurat)

Singer Aretha Franklin (Nancy Griffith)

Sculpture Z'Art by Phil Dix (The Kiss by Auguste Rodin)

Architectural Structure Golden Gate Bridge

Philosopher Richard Bach

Marx Brother Groucho (Harpo)