25 Things About Me*

* Inspired by lynn at sprigs (check out her 25 -- see my bloglinks! And while you're there, click on her 25 peeps picture a couple of times.)

Pablo Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. In his Nobel lecture he said, "All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are." So, here's my 2 cents worth.

1. In dreams I am often young and thin with long blonde hair.
2. In real life I am no longer young, or thin, or blonde.
3. My back hurts.
4. I hate to sleep alone. (Fortunately I doon't have to!)
5. My great grandfather had 2 wives at once.
6. I wish I had more self-discipline. (I was once fired from a teaching position in a private school because they said I was "too unstructured and undisciplined." --Who, me??? Naaaahhh....)
7. I do not blame my parents for this. Once, at a parent-teacher conference, the teacher told me my little boy was "spacey." We ALL are, I told her. The whole fan damily is spacey. She thought I was kidding. I wasn't.
8. I used to travel with a theater repertory company. My parents weren't happy about this.
9. My mother was afraid that I would run off and paint flowers on my cheeks and live in a commune, and grow vegetables. I once smoked pot. ONE TIME.
10. I don't drink or smoke. (Or swear, much. Well, I drink milk, and water, and orange juice, and stuff. Cocoa. I love Pepsi.)
11. I once visited the Statue of Liberty with a boyfriend named Jim, who whistled the Russian National Anthem the whole time we were there. I wonder what ever became of Jim?
12. I love the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (and Vivaldi, and Corelli and most Baroque music). Bach had 31--or something--children. I wonder how he ever found time to compose all that music???
13. I also like Bluegrass.
14. My favorite actor is Mel Gibson (!) My favorite actress, Meryl Streep.
15. I grew up in the Mojave Desert. This makes me a Desert Rat, although I was born in the Year of the Rabbit. I am a Taurus, with my moon in Aries and Aquarius rising, which supposedly saves me from total Bulldom. --but makes me unstructured, and undisciplined. An astrologer friend told me I am "Split right down the middle,"--half of me "very straight-arrow, and the other half off-the-wall crazy." Half Albert Schweitzer, half Mickey Mouse.
16. I have blue eyes.
17. I have 5 sons. And 7 grandchildren. One of my sons has a Master's of Social Work degree, works as a therapist with children, and has a black belt in Karate. He can kill with his bare hands! Three of my sons are attorneys. One lives at home, works with mentally handicapped people, and exists in an alternate techno-world of video games. All of them write and perform their own music. And march to their own drummers.
18. I survived melanoma.
19. I miss my mother and father, and my grandpa and grandmas. I hope to see them again sometime.
20. Annie Dillard is my favorite writer. (tho' I really love too many others to mention.)
21. My favorite poet? Walt Whitman. No, let's see...Dylan Thomas. Or, William Stafford. Maybe. It used to be Edna St. Vincent Millay. Could be TS Eliot, or Elizabeth Bishop, or....
22. I want to understand quantum physics. If there are eleven dimensions, I NEED to know ALL ELEVEN. I wonder if there really ARE unnumbered alternate universes? Is string theory TRUE?
23. I will probably never know these answers. But, maybe I will. It's something to look forward to when I die.
24. I don't want to die.
25. I've published 3 books--a novel, a book of poetry, and a poetry textbook. And some loose poems, here and there, and lots of articles. And a couple of short stories. I have a lot of stuff laying around in boxes gathering dust.

PS. My teeth aren't teeth, but pearls. In spite of the "Uncle" thing, I enjoy being a GIRL!


(BTW, today is Pablo Neruda's birthday. Celebrate!)