tagged!- with black eyed susans
Better View On Black. Found on the grounds of the Perkins School for the Blind, down the street from us.
My excellent flickr buddy Tim tagged me, so now I'm tagging 10 more friends. I know some folks hate these- though I enjoy getting to know more about friends- so if I've tagged you and you're annoyed just let me know and I'll choose someone else. :-)
Tagged- 10 things you might not know about me
1- If I was thinner I'd probably dress like a victorian biker chick. Note: I didn't say if I was younger.
2- I've always thought I could only be happy living in rural or urban settings, disdaining the homogenization of suburban life. And I DO miss living in those settings. But now that I'm living in decidedly suburban Watertown MA I find I'm rather enjoying it.
- A block to the east is Perkins School for the Blind, of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan Fame, with it's lovely grounds.
- A block to the north live a neighbor who plays for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a neighbor who helps run the Arnold Arboretum, and a neighbor who engineers hybrid delivery vehicles.
- A block to the west lives a retired gentleman who grows the most spectacular cottage roses and morning glories you've ever seen.
- A block to the south is the Charles River along which I walk nearly every day.
3- When I was 15 years old I thought I wanted to be a home economics teacher. Now more than 40 years later I still find myself sewing and cooking and finding practical solutions to every-day problems. Maybe I shoulda stuck to that.
4- I hate it when people ask me my favorite color, because it forces me to say "green" when what I really want to say is "half-way between viridian and forrest".
5- Much as I would prefer to be thinner than I am, I understand that being a fat child shaped my life in very positive ways. It led me to the library- in the few years before I learned how to make friends- where I developed my passions for reading and books. It made me cultivate different ways to make myself noticed. It helped me develop an "individual style". It made me a champion of "otherness" and "the underdog" that has remained with me through life. Counterintuitively, in a lot of ways it's made me happier.
6- I think a society that requires "gender absolutes" is ridiculous, unkind, and unrealistic.
7- When I visited my sister recently she took me to a deli where she gets a breakfast sandwich that was one of the truly guilty pleasures of our childhood... a toasted "hard roll" (light and crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside- I've never found one outside New York or southern Connecticut) filled with crispy bacon and ketchup. I professed to be appalled that she would still eat such a thing... but I've been secretly craving another one ever since.
8- I don't learn very well through manuals or on-line tutorials. I like to learn from a live person who gives me tasks to accomplish. Which explains why I'm still such a mediocre photographer. Though I get lucky sometimes.
9- When I was 20 I worked for three summer months in Cromer, England and then hitch-hiked around some of europe for a month. I actually managed 30 days for about $30 dollars. I would have been raped by a guy with a gun in the Black Forrest if I hadn't kneed him and climbed a tree. I accidentally closed the door on the fingers of a French little old lady who offered me a ride in her car and broke three of them. I stole food from farmer's fields and felt guilty about it for years. I learned to love yogurt. I sat in the fog on the peak of a mountain above Lake Lucern and thought I had found enlightenment. I saw "The Potato Eaters" by Vincent Van Gogh in Amsterdam and discovered how cathartic art can be. I by-passed Paris because it was too costly and have regretted it ever since. I spent a night in the Koln, Germany train station with a delicate stranger stroking my hair and protecting me from the thugs leering at me. I lost 25 pounds because of hunger and walking. It was the most idyllic summer I ever spent and I always thought I would get back. But I haven't.
10- I've developed an untoward fondness for excellent tequila in my 50s which I can't really afford (damn you PJ & Michael!) and also a much better sex life. Could they be connected?
11- If I could pick only one place to spend a month it would be Italy. The food. The vistas. The photographer's mecca. (and apparently I can't count to 10)
Highest I know of on Explore!... #464 on 8.30.09 Thanks everyone!
tagged!- with black eyed susans
Better View On Black. Found on the grounds of the Perkins School for the Blind, down the street from us.
My excellent flickr buddy Tim tagged me, so now I'm tagging 10 more friends. I know some folks hate these- though I enjoy getting to know more about friends- so if I've tagged you and you're annoyed just let me know and I'll choose someone else. :-)
Tagged- 10 things you might not know about me
1- If I was thinner I'd probably dress like a victorian biker chick. Note: I didn't say if I was younger.
2- I've always thought I could only be happy living in rural or urban settings, disdaining the homogenization of suburban life. And I DO miss living in those settings. But now that I'm living in decidedly suburban Watertown MA I find I'm rather enjoying it.
- A block to the east is Perkins School for the Blind, of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan Fame, with it's lovely grounds.
- A block to the north live a neighbor who plays for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a neighbor who helps run the Arnold Arboretum, and a neighbor who engineers hybrid delivery vehicles.
- A block to the west lives a retired gentleman who grows the most spectacular cottage roses and morning glories you've ever seen.
- A block to the south is the Charles River along which I walk nearly every day.
3- When I was 15 years old I thought I wanted to be a home economics teacher. Now more than 40 years later I still find myself sewing and cooking and finding practical solutions to every-day problems. Maybe I shoulda stuck to that.
4- I hate it when people ask me my favorite color, because it forces me to say "green" when what I really want to say is "half-way between viridian and forrest".
5- Much as I would prefer to be thinner than I am, I understand that being a fat child shaped my life in very positive ways. It led me to the library- in the few years before I learned how to make friends- where I developed my passions for reading and books. It made me cultivate different ways to make myself noticed. It helped me develop an "individual style". It made me a champion of "otherness" and "the underdog" that has remained with me through life. Counterintuitively, in a lot of ways it's made me happier.
6- I think a society that requires "gender absolutes" is ridiculous, unkind, and unrealistic.
7- When I visited my sister recently she took me to a deli where she gets a breakfast sandwich that was one of the truly guilty pleasures of our childhood... a toasted "hard roll" (light and crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside- I've never found one outside New York or southern Connecticut) filled with crispy bacon and ketchup. I professed to be appalled that she would still eat such a thing... but I've been secretly craving another one ever since.
8- I don't learn very well through manuals or on-line tutorials. I like to learn from a live person who gives me tasks to accomplish. Which explains why I'm still such a mediocre photographer. Though I get lucky sometimes.
9- When I was 20 I worked for three summer months in Cromer, England and then hitch-hiked around some of europe for a month. I actually managed 30 days for about $30 dollars. I would have been raped by a guy with a gun in the Black Forrest if I hadn't kneed him and climbed a tree. I accidentally closed the door on the fingers of a French little old lady who offered me a ride in her car and broke three of them. I stole food from farmer's fields and felt guilty about it for years. I learned to love yogurt. I sat in the fog on the peak of a mountain above Lake Lucern and thought I had found enlightenment. I saw "The Potato Eaters" by Vincent Van Gogh in Amsterdam and discovered how cathartic art can be. I by-passed Paris because it was too costly and have regretted it ever since. I spent a night in the Koln, Germany train station with a delicate stranger stroking my hair and protecting me from the thugs leering at me. I lost 25 pounds because of hunger and walking. It was the most idyllic summer I ever spent and I always thought I would get back. But I haven't.
10- I've developed an untoward fondness for excellent tequila in my 50s which I can't really afford (damn you PJ & Michael!) and also a much better sex life. Could they be connected?
11- If I could pick only one place to spend a month it would be Italy. The food. The vistas. The photographer's mecca. (and apparently I can't count to 10)
Highest I know of on Explore!... #464 on 8.30.09 Thanks everyone!