25 Random Things About ME (and a secret)
For those who asked:
25 Random Things About ME (and one secret)
1. Birds "talk" to me. It's a family trait.
2. My earliest ambition (age 8) was to become a herpitologist.
3. I worked with what was termed "severely retarded" children aged 12-19 with developmental aptitudes of 2-6 month olds. All had their own language.
4. I was saluted by Bill Clinton with a lamb chop in the White House.
5. I always wanted to live in the wilderness. I'd make a good hermit.
6. I'm scared of cows (but you knew that.)
7. I used to be afraid of ants.
8. Otherwise, I'm brave.
9. I was born with a curl like Sweet Pea.
10. I'm a printer and I miss it.
11. I can fix a press and if I drove I'd be a mechanic.
12. I've never applied for a driver's license.
13. I'm a trained philosopher.
14. I expect to learn how to play the sax at 60.
15. I had imaginary being friends, and a mailbox for them.
16. I still have a serious romantic and erotic crush on a cartoon character (Sherman).
17. My father wanted me to become a lawyer.
18. I couldn't tell my left from my right foot as a child. I still make mistakes giving directions.
19. I have an excellent sense of direction (if I'm walking.)
20. I sometimes believe I'm the reincarnation of Dylan Thomas; It would serve him right.
21. I wrote a 54 page paper, a feminist analysis and critique on penis envy & homosexuality in Sigmund Freud for my high school English class (to make up for spending all my time in the bleachers - without a game.)
22. I graduated with high honors from SJSU & wrote a 78 page paper on John Dewey, "Experience as Art in A Nuclear Age" while having no idea I was in the honors program. I still haven't picked up my gold key. I skipped graduation.
23. I'd be a brain surgeon if I could have gotten through a statistics course.
24. After high school I vowed never to think in numbers.
25. I read everything there was to read in the children's library by the time I was 11, then was thrown out of the adult library for attempting to check out A History of Yoga which was about as big as me.
Bonus (secret): I didn't weigh up to 98 lbs until I was 24 and married. (Oops, that's a secret!)
Your turn.
25 Random Things About ME (and one secret)
1. Birds "talk" to me. It's a family trait.
2. My earliest ambition (age 8) was to become a herpitologist.
3. I worked with what was termed "severely retarded" children aged 12-19 with developmental aptitudes of 2-6 month olds. All had their own language.
4. I was saluted by Bill Clinton with a lamb chop in the White House.
5. I always wanted to live in the wilderness. I'd make a good hermit.
6. I'm scared of cows (but you knew that.)
7. I used to be afraid of ants.
8. Otherwise, I'm brave.
9. I was born with a curl like Sweet Pea.
10. I'm a printer and I miss it.
11. I can fix a press and if I drove I'd be a mechanic.
12. I've never applied for a driver's license.
13. I'm a trained philosopher.
14. I expect to learn how to play the sax at 60.
15. I had imaginary being friends, and a mailbox for them.
16. I still have a serious romantic and erotic crush on a cartoon character (Sherman).
17. My father wanted me to become a lawyer.
18. I couldn't tell my left from my right foot as a child. I still make mistakes giving directions.
19. I have an excellent sense of direction (if I'm walking.)
20. I sometimes believe I'm the reincarnation of Dylan Thomas; It would serve him right.
21. I wrote a 54 page paper, a feminist analysis and critique on penis envy & homosexuality in Sigmund Freud for my high school English class (to make up for spending all my time in the bleachers - without a game.)
22. I graduated with high honors from SJSU & wrote a 78 page paper on John Dewey, "Experience as Art in A Nuclear Age" while having no idea I was in the honors program. I still haven't picked up my gold key. I skipped graduation.
23. I'd be a brain surgeon if I could have gotten through a statistics course.
24. After high school I vowed never to think in numbers.
25. I read everything there was to read in the children's library by the time I was 11, then was thrown out of the adult library for attempting to check out A History of Yoga which was about as big as me.
Bonus (secret): I didn't weigh up to 98 lbs until I was 24 and married. (Oops, that's a secret!)
Your turn.
posted by Lorna Dee Cervantes at 3:29 PM
3 Comments:
1. My earliest ambition (age 5) was to study dinosaurs. (I didn't know the word "paleontologist" yet.)
2. My first published poem appeared in the Sunday edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, when I was 16, in an article about the Poets in the Schools program.
3. I've never gone to grad school.
4. However I did go to vo-tech school, several years after I finished college. When I fill out surveys that ask for your "highest level of education," I'm never sure if college or vo-tech is higher.
5. When I was a kid I was very interested in all kinds of science, but I decided not to be a scientist when I found out how much math I would need to take.
6. I've translated poetry from Spanish, modern Greek, Russian, German, Portuguese, Italian, and French. I've never studied any of these languages formally, except Spanish very briefly.
7. Between the ages of 5 and 18, the only place I ever traveled to was Iowa to visit relatives, except for one trip to Wisconsin and once briefly into North and South Dakota.
8. I was 53 before I first ate corn tortillas and huevos rancheros. (But you knew that.)
9. I've been outside when the temperature was 30 below with 40 mph wind gusts.
10. When I was something like 15 or 16, I taught myself to play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (the first movement) on the piano.
11. My favorite book when I was 8 years old was a field guide to North American mammals. I read and reread the book until the cover fell off.
12. In vo-tech school I learned typesetting and printing. Afterwards I worked as a typesetter for about a year and a half.
13. One of the reasons I became a poet is that I doubted my ability to learn useful practical skills.
14. I still doubt my ability to learn useful practical skills.
15. I've never been able to read most literary criticism or philosophy.
16. I've never learned how to write a basic research paper. (I found an accredited college program where writing papers wasn't required.)
17. The grade school, junior high, high school and college I went to all closed within a few years after I finished.
18. I also still have a serious crush on a cartoon character (Daria). I've had to face facts though -- it would never work out.
19. From about the age of 9 to about the age of 13 I read mostly comic books. They're remarkably good for strengthening your vocabulary.
20. I graduated from high school with honors, though I didn't find out about the honors part till I got the notice for the 20 year (or was it 30 year?) class reunion.
21. I skipped graduation for high school and college.
22. I can sing "The Internationale" in English, Russian, Spanish, German, Italian, Tagalog, and the original French.
23. One of my favorite foods is watermelon pickle.
24. I've never drunk coffee.
25. Up until I got a computer at home a few years ago, I typed my poems on a portable manual typewriter that I've had since 1972. I still prefer manual typewriters.
Bonus: I was once in the back yard of one of the actors who was in the original "Ocean's Eleven" movie, the one with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, etc., made in the early 1960's. (I'm not saying who -- that's a secret. Sshhh!)
You've been selected as having one of the Best Random Things on the web on your list. No kidding.
Come to BestRandomThings.com to see your Thing and many others.
Thingmeister Jeffrey
25 things about me and a secret (my thanks to you and your art):
1. I was born with a hole in my heart, but it slowly closed in on itself by the time I was in preschool and began to learn English.
2. When I was in the third grade, I wanted to be a race-car driver.
3. Until I learned about the power of a space shuttle and made up my mind to become an astronaut.
4. But then I understood that my mind works only with words- not numbers.
5. So I decided that I would be a writer and be single forever.
6. Sometimes I feel I like I’m both- but in reality, I’m neither.
7. I used to talk to ghosts like they were my only true friends.
8. And today I beg them not to show themselves to me.
9. I used to daydream about my father breaking boulders in the quarry above the college where I now teach.
10. I secretly wish I could be like my mother, who swept the gutters in front of our house in her tight Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and purple pumps.
11. But instead I live in my Chuck Taylors and black hooded sweatshirt.
12. Reading “Cannery Town In August” when I was in high school made me feel like I have something to say.
13. When I was studying at UC Berkeley, I fell in love with Miles Davis and Wordsworth on the same day- and wrote a paper that proved the existence of their connection.
14. Today I read my writing from my Berkeley days, and I can’t believe I used to be so lucid in my thinking.
15. I have a healthy fear of becoming cliché.
16. Everyday I fear that someone will find out what a fraud I am.
17. I am a thirty-two year old woman, and I feel like I’m going through a second puberty.
18. Recently, I discovered my ability to act a complete fool around beautiful, dangerous men who survived addiction and violence and act like children.
19. And this makes me look at my husband with complete awe.
20. I’m a pacifist who secretly wishes I could be a mercenary against evil-doers.
21. Chavela Vargas’ sad songs make me happy like no alcohol can.
22. Recently I’ve noticed hummingbirds trailing me on my afternoon walks.
23. I think my husband and I were siblings in a past life.
24. Children look at me like we’ve been friends since birth, especially the ones who can’t talk.
25. But there’s a good chance I’ll never have one of my own.
Pssst- un secreto: the highlight of my teaching began before I even graduated from college when I taught my little sister to love herself. She is my greatest creation.
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