April 15, 2005
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Friday Five
Appetizer
What was your first “real” job?
Not counting summer jobs during school years, my first real job after I dropped out of UC Berkeley in my senior year was secretarial in a little factory that made aircraft parts. (see Chapter 6 of my autobiography) It was so nervewracking it gave me claustrophobia for months afterwards. Literally, I could not stay in a confined space for lengths of time. Even had to get up during movies and go out in the lobby and come back. I was one tense little girl back then.
Soup
Where would you go if you wanted to spark your creativity?
Any time I have for creativity at this point goes toward finishing my life story and for that I have to be home with no interruptions. For each chapter, I scrapbook first and that takes me some time to collect all the photos and letters and other bits of evidence in chronological order. Plus I’ve started paying more attention to descriptions of what was going on in the world at the time. Once the scrapbook is done, I start writing. So every chapter seems to take me several months at least. Hope I get done before I croak.
Salad
Complete this sentence: I am embarrassed when…
I wear one navy blue and one black sock together and don’t realize it till it’s too late and I’m out in the world. I’ve lost the ability to discern between these two colors except in certain kinds of light. So I sew a little bit of green thread into the navy ones and red thread into the black ones. Same with slacks and shirts.
Main Course
What values did your parents instill in you?
That racism and homophobia and the death penalty and hunting animals for sport and sexism were all the work of fear and arrogance and greed and were to be opposed.
Dessert
Name 3 fads from your teenage years.
Wearing your boyfriend’s class ring taped so it would fit. Pleated plaid skirts. Saddle shoes. (See Chapter 4 of story)
Deep Thought: “I don’t think God put me on this planet to judge others. I think he put me on this planet to gather specimens and take them back to my home planet.”
Today I am grateful for: Hot water
Guess the Movie: “I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel.” Answer: Elf, 2003.
Winner: TheExWifeIAlwaysKnewIdBe.
Detainees? What Detainees?
by William Fisher
NEW YORK — The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military’s most senior leaders, want Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to approve new guidelines that will formalize the George W. Bush administration’s policy of imprisoning so-called enemy combatants without the protections of the Geneva Conventions and enable the Pentagon to legally hold ”ghost detainees”, a human rights group is charging. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 9:03 pm
+ = thenarrator’s back!
- = Soggy soggy weather.
Comments (12)
I need to start writing my own autobio….
Some fads from my high school days: Loud mufflers on big V-8′s. Double-knit tops with ring-pull zippers. Big Hair for everyone.
1. I was the stockboy in Housewares at the very old Bloomingdale’s on Main Street, New Rochelle (the very first branch Bloomingdale’s). I worked weekends, after school, that kind of stuff. I think of it as real because they assumed I’d graduate from high school and just stick around. I was pretty good at it, but I hated working in the dark all day. I guess the first non-short-term, non-during school job though was New York City Cop. Though I’d already had more than a dozen employers before that.
2. Different cities. Even if by that I mean little towns. New places create new thoughts. It just works for me.
3. My reading problems show up in public situations. It’s far worse than being seen naked (hell, I’ve gotten paid to be seen naked – that doesn’t matter). People just look at you with this disgusting look of pity if they figure you’re illiterate.
4. My dad told me: “There’s no one on earth that you’ll meet that you can’t learn from.”
5. We all just wore pocket T-shirts (spots for cigs) and jeans, total conformity despite our best claims. Stealing electrical signs (especially 7-up signs and clocks) for some reason was considered very cool. Never admitting that you were afraid.
Yeah! I know the movie! It’s Elf!
Elf wins!!
You must have some pretty great parents!!!
My mother had values much the same as your parents. She seemed to have an empathy, an understanding of other peoples plight. She also fought a perpetual depression or manic/depression. I somewhat understand her depression now. How she raised seven children – kept us clothed, fed, nurtured, between her bouts of mania (joy/anger/scrubbing the house till it shined) and depression (silence/sleeping/dragging herself out of bed to do what had to be done) is amazing.
My father – quite the opposite – gone often times, on military missions (tours of duty). He was charismatic. Rarely if ever did he admit to faults, would sometimes tap dance in publicor break out in song in the pizza joint. He espoused conservative views, but was a womanizing, carousing, entertaining individual. Often times, he seemed critical of his children, without taking the time to talk with us on a personal level. I was both in awe of him and afraid of him. It seems odd, now that he at the end of his life, to be taking care of him and getting to know him. He is still an ultra conservative ****, but now admits to some of his faults and his childrens success (as small as the success may be). What did I learn from him? Maybe that you do have to have some time for yourself, to enjoy yourself without guilt. And a work ethic – to do the best you can.
Thanks for stopping by. We’ve done the assessment, and are working on the recommendations. She has 12 weeks of counseling, meetings, driving school. I know this is a life-long matter she’ll haveto deal with. She has already had many hardships to deal with in her short time on this earth – I wish I were better equipped to help her thru, unfortunatley I was often a contributor to those hardships. We are searching for information help us thru. I believe in my heart she is a strong,caring, person that will do well in this world – after all she has managed to live thru 17yrs of life with mom.
First real job: Data entry in a shipping and receiving department of an independent bookstore in Houston. This sounds like a BS title, but it was exactly what it sounded like. I’d sit all day at an early model Compaq computer with the little tiny screen and enter the data into a *word processor* (SamnaWord). I suggested moving over to a real database, and I’d do that work, but no… Just a big list, thanks very much. Every day they’d print out the whole inventory on a huge roll of green-lined tractor-feed paper, from a daisy-wheel printer. The last three hours of work were very, very noisy. I left when I realized I wouldn’t ever get a chance to just look at the books.
Creativity spark location: On the road. Usually into to the mountains. Sometimes to the tidal flats and estuaries.
“I am embarrassed when…’” I’m always embarrassed. Thus, I’m never embarrassed.
Parental values: Uhm… Maybe that’s a ‘blog for me to write on my own site.
Fads: I remember being picked on by other kids for having the wrong kind of shoes, but I can’t for the life of me remember what kind I should have had, or why it mattered.
I’m just so impressed that you came up with such a clever sock solution – albeit a tad amazed that you’d continue owning socks of such near colors in said situation, I’d either say to hell with socks or only wear fuzzy purple ones with monkeys on them, still I think your solution is elegant.
{{{{Lionne}}}}
Oh the 3 fads. GOod God! I thought I was the only one that remember tape around the boyfriends class ring!
Forenza Sweaters with tanks underneath and long pearls.
RYC: Yes, it is! I got it from BourdonMusic’s site.