And Now for Something Completely Different

Gee, I'm still not caught up with my blog.

Meanwhile, Liz over at Los Angelista's Guide to the Pursuit of Happiness has come up with a fun exercise. It's all about getting to know your favorite bloggers a little better. Hey, it doesn't involve waiting for photos to upload? I'm so _in_!

1) Do you have any tattoos? If yes, what are they and why did you get them? If no tattoos, why not?

No, no tattoos. Largely because I used to donate blood regularly and I think I'd like to do it again in the future. That's always one of the questions they ask. If I were going to have a tattoo, it would be my own drawing of a fountain pen, about an inch and a half long. It's one I doodle often. Where I would want it would be on the heel of my left thumb, which I think would be just way too sensitive. No one gets real needle tats on the palms of their hands do they?

2) What's the best hike you've ever been on?

Ooh, that's a tough one. I guess I'd have to say the hike that really turned me onto hiking.

I was in Iceland about ten years ago with my mom (yeah, she was teaching there!) and my eldest brother. We stayed in a primitive hostel at the base of a glacier and went out to explore a big gorge that had been formed by runoff. We decided to split up for a couple of hours. Mom stayed along the riverbed. My brother started climbing the sides. I went up top and hiked across this broad undulating meadow.

All by myself, heading toward the glacier. Perfect combination of sun and cool breeze. I finally realized that the cool air was coming from the ice. I sat on the edge of a cliff and looked down at it for a while, and then headed back.

That an another hike, this time with my brother on the island of Heimay off the coast of Iceland, were really transformative. I'd grown up spending a lot of time outdoors, but not hiking because it was northern Indiana, and that's just not hiking country.

3) What musical artist have you never seen in concert but you wish you had?

Like, someone I actually have had the opportunity to and didn't? Or the fantasy concert?

The fantasy concert would be, so unimaginatively, the Beatles in a small venue. I don't do a lot of concerts because I don't like huge venues. (I go to McCabe's a few times a year, though!) But anyway, I got into the Beatles because my other big brother's ex-girlfriend scribbled her name across his Rubber Soul album and he gave it to me in disgust. I really connected with those songs.

Or, or no! I take that back. Jim Croce. I love the way he talked and joked between songs in the recordings I have. Yeah, Jim Croce.

The more realistic... 8 1/2 Souvenirs. I love their music. Jazzy, with a sense of humor. But sadly, they haven't released a CD since 1999, so I guess they're gone. Sniffle.

4) What's your scariest memory from childhood?

Ah. That didn't take too long to come into focus. First I thought about accidents I had (there were kind of a lot in the year or two after my dad admonished me to settle down and act like a little lady and I kind of became reckless in response to that b.s.), but this one was the gut level scariest. The time my big brother (of the fabulous hikes, who is such a wonderful guy) jokingly closed the basement door when I was down there and then turned off the lights.

I'd probably gone down to get milk out of the basement refrigerator, including much moaning about being the milkmaid around there. I must have been fairly little because that brother went to college when I was 8. The only light switch was just inside the door at the top of the steps. In order to get close enough to turn it on, I also had to get close enough to get knocked off the stairs--which didn't have a railing and still doesn't (have I mentioned my parents built their house themselves, by hand?) --when the bro opened the door. Which he did repeately, keeping me stuck between the nasty dark and a fall. Eek.

If you haven't grown up with a basement, you have no idea the vast amount of terrors that can be imagined in them. Ours also had a creepy well pump in a dark recess that made noises like a monster picking it's teeth. Being not only stuck in the damp dark, but having to plead to be let out was just horrifying.

I don't think he realized until he let me go just how awful it was.

5) It's 2017. Where are you living and what are you doing?

My house will be paid off next year (2018). If development hasn't become too heinous, I may still be here. If I am, I am writing and doing photography for a living and traveling somewhere interesting or to visit friends and family at least 6 times a year.

I have a feeling, though, that 10 years from now is kind of unimaginable. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have dreamed I'd be in Acton. I could be living in Owens Valley, writing and watching the mountains go through changes and being involved in local historical and conservation efforts. I could be living in France. I could have gone the other way and moved back toward the center of Los Angeles, if my friends are still around.

But this does make me think. I really should take more time and envision what I really want to make happen and how to get there. Thanks for asking. This was fun!


Okay, fellow bloggers. It's your turn!

If you wish to do this meme:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions. (They probably won't be the same ones you see above!)
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.