One of my mailing lists has a tradition where people write 100 things about
themselves on their birthdays. I turn 37 today -- since I'm getting old, I'm being
totally lazy and using the same list as an entry here as
well.
100 things about me
100. I
am delighted at what a welcoming and tolerant place this list has come to be,
proud to be part of it, and very glad that y'all are willing to answer my
questions that sometimes range from outrageous to banal.
99. Yes, I do say
y'all.
98.I grew up in Philadelphia, where we say yous or yous all or
yiz'all.
97. And lived in Houston for 7 years after college.
96. I had
to acquire a bit of a Texas drawl before anyone there could understand me and the
transition from yiz'all to y'all sort of went along with that.
95. In
general I didn't like Houston, but there are things I miss about it: people, lots
of lakes, bars floating on the lakes, shorter commutes, the NASA TV
channel...
94. My favorite part of Texas is Big Bend National
Park.
93. The best thing about living there was meeting Rudder.
93.
I've lived in Chandler, AZ (outside Phoenix) since December 1995.
92. We
like Arizona better than Texas because there are mountains and because we can
escape the heat in a two hour drive.
91. ....but after 15 years in hot
climates, I'm sick of them and ready to move somewhere with seasons.
90.
Though our main sport right now is rowing, at other times we've done a lot of
rock-climbing and mountain biking.
89. I try to work out five times a week:
rowing MWF, weightlifting TTh. On weekends I rest!
88. I don't always make
it all five days :-)
87. I mostly row in a single (rowing shells can range
up to 8 people) made by Hudson.
86. Both of our singles are painted like the
Arizona flag (Rudder's got a thing for that design).
85. You can see a
picture of us in our singles at
and a close-up of similar boats at
the picture).
84. Right now my life feels like row, work, sleep, row, work,
sleep. With a lot of driving tucked in there.
83. I'm not in as good shape
as you'd think from all this -- but a lot of it is muscle, I swear :-).
82.
I'd like to have a bit more social life -- and a bit more sleep!
81. We wake
up at 4AM on rowing days, 4:30 on non-rowing days.
80. So we try to get to
bed by 8.
79. Which really doesn't match my biorhythms. I hated early
bedtimes when I was little and my parents imposed them on me and I don't like them
much better now.
78. But Rudder and I both find the more we exercise, and
the more demanding work is, the more sleep we need.
77. Work is pretty
demanding right now.
76. I have a forty mile (64 km) commute each
way.
75. But that's the worst thing about my job, which I really like
otherwise.
74. I work on helping people improve software development
processes in an aerospace company.
73. I've been in aerospace for most of my
career.
72. I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Physical
Sciences with a concentration in Space Science.
71. So I hate when people
automatically assume engineers are all male.
But that's pretty much the
*only* form of prejudice against women in engineering I've ever encountered.
70. I like to stay conscious of how much I owe to the people who fought
those battles before I came along.
70. I have worked on either the real
aircraft or the simulator (pilot trainer) for the: F-16, A-10, Space Shuttle,
Space Station, AH-1W, Apache Longbow, C-130, 737, 777.
69. I have a pilot's
license (VFR).
68. Though I haven't really flown much since getting it. (No
time!)
67. I have flown the following aircraft: Cessna 152, 172, 182; Piper
Supercub, Great Lakes biplane, Pitts S2B biplane.
66. I got into beading
(making jewelry) a couple of years ago but rarely have time now.
65. I've
been online since before there was a World Wide Web; I think I sent my first email
in around 1984.
64. I first realized the potential of the Web when there was
a big earthquake in the late 1980s (Los Angeles, I think) and people were able to
use bulletin boards on the net to let friends know they were OK.
63. I
joined my first e-mail discussion list somewhere in the early 90's; it was Alan
Rowoth's folk_music mailing list, dedicated to discussing new American singer-
songwriters. The list is still around but I'm not on it any more (so many other
resources grew up around it that discussion on the main list became restricted to
concert reviews, mostly).
62. My favorite music is still folky stuff,
ranging from traditional to modern singer-songwriters; my favorite is a Canadian,
Stan Rogers.
61. I really like singers and groups who mix old and new like
Stan and the band Great Big Sea, also Canadians.
60. Before someone asks,
somehow I've never been a huge fan of the Rankins, though I have a disc or two of
theirs.
59. I'm Jewish.
58. My husband isn't.
57. It hasn't
really been a problem.
56. I've been in synagogue exactly once in the last
decade, but I don't feel that makes me any less Jewish. It's a lot of things
besides a religion: an extended family, an outlook, a history. And it's part of
who I am.
55. As with gender, the only prejudice I've encountered directly
is people making unconscious assumptions or using language like "jew him down"
(meaning to bargain) or "he's a good Christian boy" (used just to mean an honest
upright person, not to talk about a specific person's specific religion.
54.
I believe some of the duties and privileges of being an adult are that you have to
do the best you can to be good and to do good, but that no one else can choose for
you who to love or how to worship or some of the other most important things in
life.
53. We have two cats.
52. The older one turns 15 today -- I
don't know exactly when he was born, but he was about five weeks old when he came
to me, about five weeks after I moved away to Houston take my first job, and I
moved a day after my 22nd birthday. So we share a birthday.
51. We've been
together since before we met Rudder or the other cat. We understand each
other.
50. If you do the math in #49, you can see that I am 37
today.
49. So I'm now officially in my late thirties.
48. Other
favorites authors (besides LMM) are Dorothy Sayers and Robert Heinlein
47.
I don't consider reading a hobby, any more than breathing.
46. I tend to
alternate between long hair and very short.
45. Right now it's shoulder
length, on the way to longer.
44. I really wish hair could get long as fast
as it can get short.
43. Except for some minor highlights, my hair is its
natural dark brown.
42. I have fair skin and brown eyes to go with
it.
41. I generally think I look better in the mirror than I do in
photos.
40. So I hope others see the me from the mirror but I'm afraid they
don't.
39. My teeth are yellower than I'd like (natural shade, not stains)
so I'm being frivolous and having them bleached in a couple of weeks. Don't worry,
it still won't be a beauty-pageant-fake smile.
38. I have a navel piercing
and just one hole in each ear. (But no tattoos.)
37. I once had my upper ear
cartilage pierced, but gave up on it and let it close. It didn't work well with
aviation headsets.
36. I enjoy shopping.
35. Like the woman in the
Shopaholic books, I tend to rotate, but in my case it's between buying clothes,
shoes, and books, with an occasional foray into cosmetics. 34. Unlike her, my
credit cards are paid off. (Er, usually.)
34. Books are my worst vice, as
far as lack of self-restraint goes.
33. I estimate we own 1500 or so books.
32. I have too many regular shoes, but almost as many sport-specific ones
(hiking boots, ski boots, flip-flops for rowing, climbing shoes, etc.)
31. I
do sometimes buy things that are mistakes (in that I don't wear them much). I try
to get rid of these, at least eventually.
30. I still wear a size 4 but some
of my older clothes in that size are too tight. I don't understand this, unless
they're changing sizes again.
29. What I lose in paying for less fabric I
make up in getting more shoe leather -- small body, big feet.
28. We've been
to six of the seven continents.
27. The only one missing is
Africa.
26. But there's still lots and lots we want to see on all the others
as well.
25. I've only been to 27 of the 50 states -- have been to most of
the coastal states but few of the interior or northern boarder ones.
24. I
drive the tinest little silver convertible you've ever seen, the Mozzie (short for
mosquito).
23. I keep threatening to measure and see if it will fit in
Rudder's Very Large SUV, the Orange Crush.
22. I also have a 4WD compact
pickup.
22. And yes it does get to go off-road occasionally.
21. We do
a lot of photography on our trips, mostly of mountains and waters rather than of
people.
20. What we'd really like to do is to sell those or maybe photos
with articles, so we could make a living taking the trips we like and working from
home the rest of the time.
19. We really do think our photography and
writing skills are good enough (or nearly).
18. But we know that so are a
lot of other people's.
17. We talk about taking a year off to travel around
the US and buying a vehicle to do it in.
16. We figure the ideal would be a
horse or toy trailer -- living space in front, room in back for bikes, kayaks, and
all the books I'd want with me.
15. We don't have kids or plans to have
any.
14. We both like other people's kids, it's just that 24-7 thing that
scares us.
13. Kind of a shame because I think that year-long trip would be
fun with a kid old enough and young-enough to enjoy it -- say in the 4-12
range.
12. I don't smoke.
11. I did in my teens, but never more than a
pack a week or so, not enough to build a dependency -- quitting was mostly a
matter of deciding, "This is stupid".
10. I don't know much about wine,
though I like it.
9. I know more about beer -- we used to brew our
own.
8. This is good because good beer is much more affordable than good
wine.
7. I think I'm a fairly good cook.
6. One set of friends thinks
I'm a gourmet cook -- just because they happen to have been over for some of my
better efforts. It's nice to have some people think you're better than you are :-
)
5. I've had friends call me up when they needed to check a random trivia
fact instead of looking it up themselves -- because they were sure I'd know or
know where to find out.
4. I did!
3. I'm also very good at remembering
words -- spellings, song lyrics, poetry, passages from books.
2. I'm not
nearly as good at remembering important information.
1. This list was a bit
harder to compile than I'd thought and you probably haven't learned much you
didn't already know. But I hope it was fun!