I see that there is a web ring called 100 Things About Me. This is more things than I can muster, but it seems a fine way to approach this About Me exercise. So:
10 Things About Me:
1. I have lived in Colorado, Montana, Minnesota, Washington,
Alaska, and now in Montana again. Alaska was a life-changing
experience, teaching me about light and wildness. Montana is home.
2. I have worked as a box-office cashier, nursesâ aide, grocery
clerk, office clerk/ secretary/executive secretary, waitress,
assertiveness trainer, clinical/psychiatric social worker, grants
writer, grants reviewer, program manager, and human services agency
administrator.
3. For most of my adult life, I was a career-focused workaholic.
My professional expertise was in the field of domestic violence and
sexual assault, especially offender treatment.
4. Chronic illness changed my life, and I don’t yet know entirely how.
5. I have been writing for about eighteen years; thinking about writing for fifty.
6. I have SETI at Home on my computer, searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.
7. I share my home with two dogs, two cats, one parakeet| one| two parakeets, about a dozen goldfish,
and, on occasion, another human. I share my garden with many squirrels,
sparrows, finches, chicadees, nuthatches, the rare racoon, and pretty
much anything else that comes along.
8. Writing is my anchor, which I too often cut loose from.
9. My grandmother, a loving, deep-spirited woman, had a great influence on my life.
10. I donât know the answers.
I hope you enjoy these poems, which are filled with questions.
UPDATED 09 July 02006: I still cannot come up with 100 things about me. So I Googled "SB is…" and added a few of those (color coded below.) I made others up. I slipped in a few facts. I quit counting.
This is a narcissistic exercise; who would want to know 100 things about a stranger on the internet?
Some of these may be true, but this is not a True or False quiz; no cookies for correct answers. In fact, the correct answers will not be revealed.
- SB is a pseudonym for a Bonobo ape who lives in a highly classified linguistics laboratory somewhere in New Jersey.
- SB vowed, in the early 1970’s, to not marry until/unless the ERA was ratified.
- SB talks to herself, out loud, even in the presence of others.
- SB has declined seven marriage proposals, one of which was too
weird to be taken seriously, and one of which was seriously insane. - SB is Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging; or
- SB is Introverted iNuitive Thinking Perceiving
- SB has seen the sun skip once on the sea at summer solstice in Alaska.
- SB is seriously flawed in that it does not assist the application …
- SB is, by inborn temperament, a gatherer, rather than a hunter.
- SB has always known she is a Venusian
mistakenly born in a human body. She has been saving up for years for
corrective surgery, which is available only at a secret clinic run by
Swedes in the Andes. - SB detests hypocrisy, dishonesty, "crazy-making", moral cowardice,
and bigotry. Having some experience and sophistication in these
matters, she is aware that humans tend to detest, in others, their own
worst traits; so she suspects that she is, in some spot where her own
vision is blurred, a bigoted, dishonest, cowardly, crazy-making
hypocrite. - SB is Antimony [Not to be confused with antinomy, a type of paradox.]
- SB has left several secure and well-paying jobs to avoid getting too comfortable, because she is overly fond of comfort.
- SB has a cup of organic Dagoba cocoa with cinnamon every night at bedtime. This is only one of her many self-indulgences.
- SB suspects that she has a passel of half-siblings scattered about
the world. One of them may have been born in Denver, Colorado on May
13, 1949, and be named Sharon Lee … something. - SB was mistaken, several times, many years ago, for a beauty queen.
- A graphologist at a county fair, after giving SB’s friend a very nice reading, looked at SB’s handwriting sample and exclaimed Oh my god, what happened to you?!
- SB is an inconstant friend.
- SB once ran an organization called MEN, Inc.
- SB is generally readily classifiable, though quite variable …
- SB is an only child, and has always been an orphan.
- SB is fiercely loyal, wildly generous, and passionate in her attachments.
- SB believes in the apparently radical principle of equity: that
all persons ought to have equal access to health care, education, and
employment opportunities; and that bigotry and discrimination ought not
be tolerated, let alone enshrined in our laws or Constitution. - SB is rigid, judgmental, demanding, and unforgiving of minor faults.
- SB is boring as a stick.
- SB is a Thinker, or perhaps a Scientist; an Analyst, or an Observer; an Architect, or a Mastermind.
- SB is stoic about discomfort, and can be an entertaining companion on a rainy camping trip.
- SB has been to Italy, and to deep old Mexico, and coming back to
the States each time felt like leaving a wedding, or a carnival, or a
garden party, and entering a hospital. - SB has not traveled more than five miles from home in over a decade.
- SB believes that the other animals are much smarter than we think they are, and that we are much more limited than we believe.
- SB believes in thinking, in reason, in the scientific method —
and that there may be much we are unlikely to discover using these
methods. - SB is directly compatible with most earth observing operational research mission profiles.
- SB talks to trees.
- SB has frequently been described by very religious people as deeply spiritual and blessed with the gift of prophecy. SB has no idea what this means.
- SB is the pen name of an internationally recognized eighty-three year old Swiss physicist.
- SB is very organized, and very messy.
- SB has never been away from home.
- SB is moody, volatile, comedic, and intense.
- SB has been known to pass her own mother on the street without recognizing her.
- SB is a multi-channel system to record and archive sound.
- SB’s past is more interesting than one might expect.
- SB is about as even-tempered as they come.
- SB thinks that religious belief which cannot endure the cold eye of science is delusional and should be treated as such.
- SB, today, at the glimpse of a thin, sharp man, felt with fresh
pain the cutting excision of a beloved, many years ago; death’s harsh
claim. - SB tries to remember, each day, that to live this day is a decision.
- SB is an ancient, cranky cocker spaniel, a stand-in for a
20-something male would-be poet. He overfeeds her, and grooms her
himself as she is afraid of strangers, cars, water, and the sky. - SB loves to travel, and keeps a suitcase packed with essentials (a
stone, a feather, a candle, a seashell) ready to go at a moment’s
notice. - SB believes in light, and how it changes everything.
- As a consequence of long, deep solitude, SB has become unsuitable
for coupled life. Or perhaps: unsuitable for coupled life, SB has
enjoyed a long, deep solitude. - SB loves toys, tech or plush, and has more than is good for her.
- SB’s future is more interesting than one might expect.
- SB is stable with 70 neutrons.
- SB has no sense of smell.
- SB suspects that she may be in the last generation to live a long,
comfortable, well-fed life. This causes her guilt, and grief, and a
certain desperate appreciation; a wonderment that life should be so
kind to her; unkind to so many others. - SB is a fragment of someone’s imagination. A fragment, only. A
scented lily, a marigold, an aging cat. Perhaps a number: zero, one,
zero, zero. Can you prove otherwise?
