February 10, 2006
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FRIDAY FIVE (well ok 10))
Appetizer – What was a class or course you took while in school that you realize now was a total waste of time?
Shorthand. I can’t think of a single person in the last 20 years I’ve heard say they used shorthand for any reason. When I was in high school it was a given that you took typing and shorthand if you were a girl because god knows very few girls would have an actual Career. Now the typing part came in handy to this very day. Modifications though – we used little pieces of correction paper, oh jeez we also used carbon paper way back then. Then it became whiteout, then correction tapes, then electric typewriters, then electronic typewriters, and then quantum leap – computers/word processing. Next quantum leap mindreading you think?
Soup – Who is the tallest person you know?
My son is 6’7” or 6’8”, I can’t remember which and it really doesn’t make that much difference. He’s like a tree. It would take a lot to knock him over. He hates it though. Hates to be stared at. Adolescence was excruciating for that reason. 10 pounds, 2 ounces at birth. Now that’s a solid gift to the world.
Salad – What’s your favorite midnight snack?
Life begins with much waking during the night for snacks and ends the same way. Most of the time it’s just trips to the bathroom now, but sometimes I wake up just enough to worry about something and then I can’t go back to sleep, so I snack. Usually something small I can leave crumbs in the sheets with – nuts, crackers, etc.
Main Course – Have you ever found money somewhere? If so, where did you find it, and how much was it?
When I was a hippie in the Haight-Ashbury, a friend (without telling me) had some hash shipped to himself at my address from some foreign country hidden inside a silk elephant. It was so mysterious, this package, that when a second one came a few weeks later, my housemates and I opened it instead, found more hash, and didn’t tell the addressee. I sold the hash through another friend and bought my first used VW bug. That was my only drug sale ever. It pissed me off. What was my friend thinking to put me in such jeopardy? Those were some insane days.
Dessert – Where would you like to retire?
I already am semi-retired. Did so much traveling in my youth I really don’t feel that fascinated to do more now. Just want to create an oasis of peace and beauty where I can travel ever inward and of course bring loved ones with me.
Deep Thought: “Isn’t it funny how one minute life can be such a struggle, and the next minute you’re just driving real fast, swerving back and forth across the road?”
Today I am grateful for: Feet
Guess the Movie: “Hey Paula, I gotta tell you something. I’m really excited about it. For the first time- today, I woke up, I came to the store, and I feel confident to say to you that if you don’t take this Michael McDonald DVD that you’ve been playing for two years straight off, I’m going to kill everyone in the store and put a bullet in my brain.” Answer: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, 2005.
Winner: sherab_zangmo
Kidnapped U.S. Reporter Seen in New Video
By DIANA ELIAS
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 9, 2006; 4:44 PM
KUWAIT CITY — Kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll appeared in a video aired Thursday on a private Kuwaiti TV channel, appealing for her supporters to do whatever it takes to win her release and saying “there is a very short time.” (Rest of article here.)
Comments (24)
You lived such an interesting life. I find it fascinating to read your stories.
I don’t know what movie that is but that’s quite a quote!
40 year old virgin
I love your Dessert :>)
Have a great weekend.
~S
i wish i had taken shorthand at some point. i do so many interviews and i hate using a tape recorder. shorthand would be very useful for me. thank goodness steno pads haven’t disappeared. i’d be at a serious loss then.
Shorthand. Hoo-boy. I remember having to learn Morse Code. That seems a little obsolete now, too.
sherab_zangmo wins! The 40-Year-Old-Virgin it is.
I don’t know that I took an obsolete class…hmmm…have to think on that one!
Great friday five!
I’m with you on the travel thing. I already stay as close to home as I can, and it’ll only get worse if I manage to retire.
Mind reading? I’d be afraid to know what’s going on between someone else’s ears.
you must be a tall mom too, since children seem to get that extra kick of height from their moms. i saw a really cool article about nba basketball players in the oregonian that talked about it and charted the mothers of the players.
You have the greatest stories.
Your son is a giant!
I took a version of shorthand called “notehand” in HS and never used it for anything at all.
I can’t think of an obslete class I took most were useful maybe algebra never have used it and took it in HS and college. Your son is tall. My girls are tall at least two of them are six feet. My husband was 6’3 and I am 5’10 so they didn’t have a choice and thier feet are big to stablize all that heigth. How are you haven’t really heard from you. Want to go to Starbucks one day next week or to lunch, Judi
wow…you sure sound like an interesting person! I want to travel a lot…i wonder if I would get tired of it…hmmm…
thank you so much for the comment!
-katie
a neat five. Have a great weekend…
God. I wished so much that she would just stop playing that movie.
And wasn’t that girl freaky?
I would love to retire to a small town and own a diner.
Then have people who have read my books which I have yet to write seek me out and ask my advice and question my questions.
That would be wonderful.
I’m not a midnight snack person– sometimes I’ll break down and grab something just before going to bed– maybe nachos, last night 2 hotdogs (what possessed me?), and I’m uncontrollably addicted to cookies, so please keep them away! (Or be sure to make me some for my birthday, annicersery, father’s day, ground hog day…!)
On the Zillow website– it’s amazing how much info you can gather on a person/place now. just a little scarey.
I just watched a movie that you might like, if you haven’t seen it already. The Vanishing, the original Dutch version. Very creepy little thriller with an interesting villain.
I’m sick about Jill Carroll. I’m not a religious woman, but I believe what I’ve been doing for her would qualify as praying.
Shorthand useless? Welllll since you shared your hash-selling story I just HAVE to share this one with you! Aways on back there in Those Daze, my then-boyfriend was into ahem *sales*. I would take phone messages and write them in shorthand to keep prying eyes from interpreting. We got ripped off one bright day and called the police to inform them. Instead of going after the culprits, WE became the object of their desire. Amidst their dusting the house for fingerprints and prying into every nook and cranny… they found some of my shorthand notes. Said notes were taken to their Crime Lab (ah Arlo G, where are you when I need a tune), inspected, detected, photographed and attempted to be decoded. Alas, my shorthand thankfully was not “normal” and they couldn’t figure out what I’d written. Ha!
Zillow is just unbelievable. Really interesting and scary too! I’ve spent a lot of time looking around my neighborhood and am shocked by how much the houses are going for. We’ve been in the same place and aren’t planning on going anywhere so I’m a bit out of the loop as to house prices.
Still it is kind of creepy that all of that info is available.
i hat computer classes, because people can just figure it out by themselves. and if they can’t they’re robably in their 60′s +.
ther than that.
i am jealous that you got a practically free VW Bug.
i’ve wanted a Bus for about… 6 years(?)
I worked in offices for many years and used my shorthand plenty. I liked writing it but I hated typing it up. My high school offered Pittman shorthand, where most schools offered Gregg. In these days we type our thoughts so quickly, which I think makes them flow all the more rapidly. It seems so anyway because now by the time I write an idea in regular script, I feel like I’ve lost others that I haven’t gotten to yet. But when I write in shorthand, I can better keep up with myself. By the way, with all our technology, there are still some bosses out there who like to dictate and have their words read back to them on the spot. My sister’s is like that.
My son would be envious of your son. The elephant story reminds me of getting a package from a friend studying in South America or Mexico (she traveled a lot) and it was postage due and when the postal worker handed it to me after I paid the postage it went crunch. I must have been the only person who knew what the crunch meant but it scared the #### out of me.What was she thinking?!!? Any suggestions of what to do for Jill Carroll?
I took shorthand in high school and actually used it to take lecture notes in college. It kept people from asking to borrow my notes, if nothing else. I’ve never used it again and I’ve forgotten how to do it now.
The typing class was really useful, though.
I hope your neighbor can stay in her home. I will say a prayer for her. You didn’t answer the question from a personal sense. love to you, Judi