In a vain attempt to wake myself up

Here’s the deal: it is, as of this writing, September 26 at 4:30 p.m. I had a root canal this morning – wasn’t bad! But I was desperately tired afterward. Thought I’d watch JEOPARDY!, fell asleep before the TV at 11 a.m.. So I ate lunch, took a nap and feel even groggier. Need to blog something, because I haven’t in four days, and tomorrow night is choir night, so it won’t happen then either. But the things I WANT to blog about require a focus I simply don’t have.

Ah, I’ll do that Curious as a Cat blog. But I had to go from July 2007 to June 2009 to find questions I was willing to answer, AND I hadn’t answered recently.

1) When was the best time, or what was the best experience, you’ve had with a sibling?

With Leslie, it would have to be singing, either with our father or by ourselves. With Marcia, it may have been playing Man from U.N.C.L.E. I was Napoleon, she was Ilya.

2) When do you feel the loneliest?

Often it’s at parties when somehow I’m left out of the conversations.

3) If a one-year period of your diary were to be published with your name attached, what year would you prefer?

Well, it’d have to be recent. I don’t think 2011 had any scandalous behavior. And NOT, let’s say, 1978.

4) What was the most powerful moment of silence you’ve ever experienced?

Every year, when the lights go down on Christmas Eve before the lights come up and we sing Joy to the World.

5) What one school subject has turned out to be the most and least useful or worthwhile? Is that a surprise?

Least: shop. No surprise. I was lousy mechanically then, and it hasn’t much changed.
Most: It’s math, and it’s no surprise either. Ratios are particularly great when cooking and the recipe calls for 10 32-ounce cans, but they only make 28-ounce cans now, then 28:32=10:x, which turns out to be 11.43 cans. Useful.

6) When (at what age, or during what event) did you have the least self-confidence?

1976-1977, after the divorce.

7) Do you remember the first time you were on the internet? What did you do first?

My library boss at the time – she who shall not be named – got Internet connectivity, but only herself and her chosen one. She treated it as though it were a paid database. She had done this presentation at a conference about the Kobe, Japan earthquake of 1995 and how she was able to find, with her fine librarian skills, info about that then-recent event online. When the rest of the librarians FINALLY were allowed on the Internet some months later, I had to look up that same event. Even pre-Google, I was able to do so reasonably quickly.

8) With whom do you like to talk on the phone the most?

Sister Leslie, mostly to catch her when she’s not at work, and I’m not falling asleep. Three-hour time difference.

9) What is the hardest secret you’ve ever had to keep?

The spouse of a friend of mine had committed suicide and the young children were told a story about an accident. It wasn’t that hard keeping the truth from the kids but from mutual friends. When she finally told her kids, I was released from the fabrication.

10) Why do we give people hugs?

Because hugs are good. At my previous church, I was dubbed by one woman, now deceased, as the Trinity hugger. “Which,” she noted, “is better than being known as the Trinity mugger.” I do not get enough hugs per day.

11) What is the most beautiful sound you’ve ever heard?

Waterfalls. Love them.

12) Who do you feel is the most underappreciated actor (male or female) in the history of Hollywood?

Una Merkel (pictured). My late friend Vito was obsessed with her, namechecked her all the time. I just love the name.

13) If one thing you own were to become a religious relic, what would you pick?

Obviously, my red Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers.

14) If you could change one thing about the building in which you work, what would you change?

The cubicles were put in without regard to the existing overhead lighting. So periodically, the light about six feet in front of my desk will go out, because no one has walked by that area in the last 15 minutes.

15) If you had to choose between them, would you rather vacation in the mountains or near a lake?

Always pick the water. Maybe it’s the Pisces thing. And I find the mountains isolating, whereas I look over the expanse of the lake and I find it liberating.

16) What is one thing that repeatedly makes you angriest?

Politicians who lie about what they believe.