20 Things About Me Meme Tag

Well, it’s meme day because I got tagged and nobody explains it better than I Am Pariah, if you are new to blogging and unfamiliar with the terms.

I was recently tagged by Karen at Random Acts of Inkness to list 20 things about me. I think I may have done this sometime way back when, but when I’m tagged, I’m genetically wired to accept the challenge, even if it is boring for you. Karen is an excellent artist and she illustrates her answers. I’m a photographer and graphic arts person, so some of my entries are illustrated "my way." Rather than tag someone directly, will one or more of you accept the challenge? I just ask that you send me an e-mail when you complete the list yourself. There is no necessity to illustrate.

Yawns are accepted if you read past number 1. Double click on the thumbnails if you want to see a larger view.

1. I have four older sisters—the one closest in age to me is 11 years older than I am making her 79. Two sisters are gone now. My eldest sisters, June and Donna have died, but Betty and Virginia are going strong. Virginia and I had to share a bed until she left to get married. We fought all the time, so around four years old I took a coke bottle to bed and put it under my pillow planning to brain her. When my mom found it in the morning, I caught holy hell. This is today's Virginia showing a quilt she just completed.

2. Sunland 6576. Can you believe I remember my childhood and adolescent family phone number? Though my memory is getting fuzzier with age, I also remember the addresses of all the houses and apartments I’ve lived in since I was born. What a hoot it was when you somehow got an open line with all kinds of kids yelling back and forth.

3. I am a journal keeper and have more than 40 years of journals stored in my garage which my kids will have to figure out what to do with someday. I am on my second five year diary and highly recommend these or 10+ journals. Each page has the day’s date with six lines for five different years below it. It’s a hoot to look at what you were doing on the same day the years previous. Ten Plus is a good daily diary.

4. Since the age of six I have been on a journey to find the optimum religion, theological or philosophical belief. I’ll journey ‘til the end, but I know now that religion means community to me and I can stay within a church structure and select cafeteria style what works for me and what doesn’t, and I can add depth from other religions and theologies. This is the steeple at the Neighborhood Church in Palos Verdes.

5. I was one of the class clowns growing up, and I still love to act zany and make smart and sometimes inappropriate remarks to people who know me well. At work I’m rarely zany or irreverent so I have the good sense to know when to do it. For example, I taught my kids to snort and sing snorting sounds and have done that with my grandkids, too. My dad could actually burp entire songs, but I never mastered that task. This mask was made by an anonymous first grader.

6. I think cemeteries are very spiritual places and when I’m traveling, I often visit the older graveyards, photograph headstones, and then sometimes stay to do some depth writing. This is Marie Laveau's tomb in New Orleans from my trip a year ago.

7. My favorite food is Mexican anything and I could probably live on it easily for all 3 meals a day. Since it is pretty fattening, I vary, but multi-ethnic foods—almost all of them—are also favorites. My favorite restaurants are holes-in-the-wall. This is a student playing at our Cinco de Mayo celebration at school.

8. As I’ve grown older, I strongly dislike speaking on the telephone socially and have to steel myself to call family and friends and simply shoot the bull. I don’t like the phone at work either, but the conversations are often quick and to the point.

9. I am a frugal person by nature—not cheap or stingy, but frugal. I learned from parents who had struggled in the depression and even now I shop for bargains and take delight in doing the thrift shops, garage sales and perusing the used stuff in the local newspaper ads. About half my house is furnished with my finds.

10. Also wearing my frugal hat, I love traveling on the cheap—seeking out reasonable but decent accommodations. I’ve done my share of business travel staying in places I couldn’t afford myself, but it’s those little retreat centers and bed and breakfasts that delight me most when I’m traveling and paying. I’ve stayed many times in the dorms at Columbia University with students taking summer workshops—and I’m particularly fond of New York City and the Eastern seaboard. This was in the 42nd St. stop on the NY subway.

11. When I was in my teens, I gave my boyfriend a pair of fuzzy dice for his car mirror. When he broke up with me, I stole them back.

12. You’d think I was a male because I admit I’m a TV channel surfer if I’m watching alone. My husband did this when I was married and it used to drive me nuts; now I do it. I mostly watch news and a few shows, but I adore Saturday Night Live. This a photo of Ray, my ex husband/friend with his ladyfriend Diana.

13. Dogs have played a key role in my life since I was a child. Cookie, my current dog of 10 years, belonged to a homeless man in L.A. who got her from a prostitute being picked up on a drug charge and passed Cookie off. Johnny, Cookie’s owner, was rarely sober and didn’t keep her leashed and she got hit by a car. A friend of one of my son’s girlfriends at the time convinced me to take Cookie—and she is the love of my life.

14. Gardening in my little patio garden is a favorite pastime and I will spend hours there on sunny weekends. This photo isn't from my garden, but is an old pepper tree at my school I wish were in my garden.

15. I’m one of those women who says she is fine without a man in her life, but I’m lying. I do long for a like-minded companion to share my life with, but between getting older and some sturdier than I was when I was young, men rarely flirt with me anymore—and I’ve always been a lousy flirter. Can’t do the middle-aged singles scene anymore so if HE comes along, it will be serendipitous. Maybe I'll find him at the gym.

16. I guess I’m a perpetual student. Because I have carried life-long stupid messages, I’ve spent a lot of time getting higher education in later life and still keep picking up various certifications both professionally and in my avocation of conducting groups. If someone offered me a scholarship for Ph.D. in a subject I liked at USC, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Lord, let me always be a student and a teacher.

17. The Internet opened up a whole new world to me in the mid ‘90s—first as a professional tool and then finding like-minded souls. On a listserv of writers I belong to I have met almost every single person on it—and the same with blogging.

18. I was unable to give birth to children, but consider my three adopted childrens—two sons and a daughter who came to us at birth—to be my greatest life achievement. This is Joe, Christy and Tony at Joe's wedding a year ago.

19. I am an insomniac and have been my entire life. In an ideal world I would go to bed between midnight and 1 a.m. and sleep until 8 a.m. I am slow to fall asleep but sleep like a log until morning. Eeek!

20. All my life I have adored decorating for Christmas, trying to recreate the mythological Christmases we see in the media, I guess. My childhood Christmases were extremely simple, if we celebrated at all. One entire garage wall shelf contains my 40 boxes of decorations and ornaments. The past few years I’ve begun to scale down because it is such hard work. But, when the fireplace is burning and Christmas is up, I rest in the memory of visiting the Broadway Department Store in old L.A. and believing that those display windows were fairyland and that this was the real Santa.