I'm finally able to access MS Word again...it keeps freezing, or simply not letting me into the programme. Anyway, I stored some of Becky's meme's on Word, for a rainy day--she sends me these things several times a week.
My computer--after several tries is sort of letting me in to the 'net tonight. Feel like posting SOMETHING, so...
So, here's the first half of one I did a month ago, and never posted--mainly 'cos it's so long, and I didn't think anyone would care to read it, as it's not terribly interesting. One of those "tell us about your life," things.
Becky’s Big Fifty meme (In two parts)
PART I:
1. Did you ever stick up for someone? Sure, plenty of times.
2. Describe your neighborhood bully.
His name was Ronny. He was a big boy, who was sometimes my friend, and sometimes my enemy. He was the first one I ever heard use the bad “f” word—which caused me to get my mouth washed out with soap, when at age 11, I asked mum just what “f__k” meant, anyway? (By the way, the taste of Ivory soap? Really awful. Don’t eat soap.) I still remember how Ronny kicked in the spokes of my new tricycle, so in retaliation, I clocked him in the side of the head with my toy cowboy pistol…he went home crying to his mum, and I got spanked with hairbrush on my bottom, and sent to my room for the rest of the day. Ronny of course, got away with messing with my bike, so I really didn’t feel REAL sorry, he-he.
3. Did you ever hitchhike?
Twice, once in Wyoming when I was 19, and several years ago, I tried to hitchhike to the community college 8 miles away, after my Ranger was in dock for a week, getting new brakes put on. No takers, so I had to stay home.
4. Did you have a paper route?
Yup, a couple of them.
5. Write about a babysitting/child minding experience.
I only babysat a kid once in my whole life and hated it…I was a pet-sitter as a teenager, not a child minder.
6. Describe a great fort you built or a great game you played as a child.
Oh, we were always building tree forts (tree houses) out of plywood and scraps of lumber that dad got for us, and also snow forts for snowball fights…we also would rake up the thick carpet of long soft pine needles from the grove of eastern white pine trees out in back of our house, and make “walls” for a “house” and play house or make it into a spy headquarters. It was great fun!
7. Write about an enemy who eventually became your friend.
There was this boy, in my first couple of years of high school, that tormented me…hit me over the head with books, stole stuff from me, called me names, made other kids laugh at me…he was horrid. One day, he hit me real hard over the head with TWO books together. I mean, it REALLY hurt! Well, I, as they say, saw red. Without thinking, I whirled around, grabbed the boy by his lapels and literally lifted him up off the floor and slammed him into a locker. Then I stared into his face and said very calmly, “leave me alone,” walking away immediately afterwards. He never bothered me, after that—nor anyone else. I basically scared the daylights out of everyone. I was incredibly ashamed, by the way. I would never be proud of something like that…but, I do have my limits, and the pain was my breaking point. My head hurt for two days. Anyway, in my junior (3rd) year of highschool, we found ourselves sitting next to each other in a class…and he was having trouble, so I helped him…and slowly, we sort of became friends. By my senior (4th) year of high school, we were actually pretty good friends. Go figure.
8. Did you ever fall through ice?
Only up to my calves. No big deal.
9. Write about a time you cheated and were caught.
At a birthday party, we were playing “pin the tail on the donkey,” I was blindfolded and could see, but didn’t tell anyone…I was caught and the mum made me go home. My mum was angry, I was crushed. Never did that again!
10. Write about a favourite picnic spot you had as a child.
Promise you won’t roll your eyes? It was the goldfish (carp) pond at Albany Rural Cemetery.
11. How did you get along with your cousins?
Meh. I never see them. Some treat me like the poor cousin I am, a couple are quite nice, most though, just ignore me. Haven’t seen the bulk of them in decades.
12. Write about the stray animals you brought home.
Oh gosh, that would be like a volume of War and Peace, ha-ha! Cats, dogs, wild bunnies, wild turtles, garter snakes, frogs, a pigeon.
13. An event that made you realize you were growing up.
My 8th grade graduation…after 10 years in a small village school, where I knew most people in my world personally, from classmates to the teachers, the principal and the janitor…then going to a huge high school literally ten times the size of my school, a 45 minute drive away. Biggest life change, to that date.
14. Did you ever send away for something that turned out to be a disappointment?
Oh sure. The David Cassidy fan club (I was 10 or 11 years old)…big rip off…all I ever got was some stickers.
15. A recent minor disillusionment you’ve had in the past year?
Dr Who Series 4, the ending of episode 12, where the Doctor regenerated—I totally wasn’t prepared for that, and it seriously threw me for a loop and upset me terribly…and I realized that I was becoming too obsessed with Who—I was using it as an emotional crutch to help me get through my days…not healthy, that. And so, after 25 years of happy adoration of the show, I realized I was taking it too much to heart, and knew that I must back away from it. It was sad though, having something I loved and trusted for so long, taken away from me. I still love it of course, but I no longer watch it every single day, and stopped writing stories and visiting forums and Who-sites all the time, like I had been.
16. What was it like to go shopping with your grandma? mom? dad? friends?
Gran died before I was five. Shopping with mum, I liked shopping with mum…except for school clothes. That was a total drag. But mum often treated me to ice cream sundae’s at the Woolworth’s soda fountain, or toys, a record, or maybe a hot dog or something. Dad? Rarely ever shopped with dad, he was an impatient man and it never was much fun shopping with him.
17. Write about a time you performed in front of an audience.
Well, I’ve only done that several times. I apparently did a great job playing “Nancy Springer,” for a spoof of the Jerry Springer show, for a class presentation to a big group, in the Netherlands. My classmates kept calling me “Nancy Springer,” for a couple of years afterwards, which is pretty funny, ‘cos I’ve never SEEN the Jerry Springer show, except on television adverts for the programme. I had to watch some clips online the day before the presentation, and ask people who watched it (I was, apparently, the only one in our group who DIDN’T watch the show) to get a “feel” for the host’s gestures and way of talking.
18. Write about a difficult decision you had to make.
Well, easily, that would be signing mum’s life support shut off orders.
19. Write about a time you found out something about yourself.
In college, a maths professor helped me to discover why I couldn’t do maths—even tho’ I was trying really, really hard to…she had me assessed by a professional and he told me I had dyscalculia.
20. What did you do last summer?
Nothing last summer. I was hard up for cash having had a pay cut and temporary layoff at work, also, I was quite ill, and also was working 6 to 7 days a week, too exhausted to do much of anything. All I did was start a fund-raiser for Accord Hospice where I wrote 100 one-hundred word stories in 100 days (which was really 97 cos I was too sick to write one week, and had to have substitute writers)
21. Write about learning to skate, to ride a bike, to climb a tree, or to turn a cartwheel.
I have Developmental Coordination Disorder, so I can’t skate. I taught myself to ride a bike when I was around 9 or 10, by coasting down hill, and then starting to pedal. I started climbing the ancient apple tree in the field next to our house, when I was around 10..it was low to the ground and really gnarly and easy to climb. I’ve never been able to turn a cartwheel—I was a fat kid.
22. Describe learning to drive.
First learned in a AMC Rambler that had no power steering, no power brakes, (no power anything) and a manual choke inside. I learned first in the enormous car park of the local regional farmer’s market (where all local and international produce was unloaded and stored in warehouses) in our village. Later, I learned to drive on the 20 some odd miles of roads in the 472 acre Albany Rural Cemetery. Just before my test, I tool half a dozen lessons from a professional instructor, in city driving and parallel parking.
23. Did you ever get lost in a strange town?
Oh yeah. One time, when I was staying in Leeuwarden—where we were housed in a dorm a 15 minute walk from Northern College campus---I somehow got turned around and couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to get to the college…or back to my dorm. Thankfully, I came upon the canal, and figured out where I was..I was alone though, and for a couple of minutes, I admit, I was just a wee worried.
24. Were you ever locked in or out?
Oh hell yes. The day of dad’s funeral…I locked my house and car keys inside the caravan, and had to break my bedroom window, to get back in---which entailed a step ladder a saddle blanket and some broken glass in my leg. After that, I bought a crowbar to pry the front door open with.
25. Did you ever witness a birth?
Just puppies and kittens. I’ve cut imbilical cords and given mouth to mouth, nursed and (very sadly) buried baby animals. I missed my nephew’s birth, ‘cos no one told me ‘till after the fact.
