Questions and Answers

I completely stole the following memes from Ursamajor.

The Four Things Thing

FOUR THINGS YOU USE EVERYDAY
Bed, toilet, toothpaste and toothbrush

FOUR JOBS YOU'VE HAD IN YOUR LIFE
Babysitting, All jobs at Burger King, circulation desk at University Library, Admin at University

FOUR TV SHOWS YOU WATCH THE MOST
None

FOUR PEOPLE YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE LAST
HRH, Aunt J, Doctor, Paula

FOUR MOVIES YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER
Sliding Doors, Ever After, An Affair to Remember, The Sting

FOUR THINGS YOU WANNA DO IN LIFE
Keep my job, adopt homeless cats (but not to excess – three at most), NOT go on vacation with my mother, find someone who loves me and I love him in return

FOUR FAMILY MEMBERS YOU'RE CLOSE TO
YS, Grandma, LB, Mom (yes, I bitch about going on vacation with her, but that doesn't mean I'm not close to her)

FOUR PLACES YOU'VE BEEN ON VACATION
Mexico City; Cairo, Egypt; Yellowstone; Washington, D.C.

FOUR COSTUMES YOU'VE WORN ON HALLOWEEN
Rabid Race Fan, Black Cat Burglar, Pink Elephant, Gypsy (classic early teenage chance to wear too much jewelry and make-up)

FOUR SCHOOLS YOU ATTENDED
Ashcroft (kindergarten), St. Robert Bellarmine (grade school), Bishop Borgess High School and University of Michigan-Dearborn

FOUR OF YOUR FAVORITE PIZZA TOPPINGS
Spinach, artichoke hearts (damn Michigan), onions, mushrooms

The Childhood Thing

1. What was the first car your family had?
Country Squire faux wood paneled station wagon (first one I remember)

2. What was the name of your first pet and why?
Kitty, because it was a stray cat and wasn't supposed to stick around.

Hmmm, there's no #3 in this

4. What was the name of your elementary school?
Answered in above "meme."

5. Who was your first best friend?
Lisa who lived next door.

6. Are you still friends today, and if not, what happened?
We're not good friends but we see each other at different large family functions, like graduations and weddings.

7. What was your favorite board game?
Payday or Clue

8. Did you play house or other make believe games?
Of course.

9. Were you a Dungeons and Dragons geek?
Never in a million years, I knew that it existed, but that was about it.

10. Did you sleep with stuffed animals as a kid?
Yup, had a very beloved duck which I called Guck (I was about three), an authentic Smoky the Bear animal (which I could have bought in Vegas at FAO Schwarz for $60).

11. Do you still sleep with stuffed animals?
There are some in the bed, but I'm not really sleeping with them – to me that means I'm hugging it.

12. Who was the first person you looked up to when you were younger?
I honestly don't remember looking up to anybody in particular. How sad is that?

13. Who was your favorite relative?
Great Grandma – she always had gumdrops in her candy dish and had a very cool old house in Detroit.

14. Were you short or tall in elementary school?
I've always been average-sized.

15. Were you teased in school?
DUH!

16. What was the name of your favorite teacher?
I had a total crush on my 9th grade English teacher, Mr. Gavin, but I wouldn't call him my favorite. Bloody hell, but the whole school thing was a damn long time ago. Mr. Czarny was a very cool Biology teacher and I remember Andrea Cislo made him blush when discussing a woman's biological system. He said that a normal menstrual period lasted 3-5 days and she raised her hand to ask if it wasn't more normally 7 days. At the time I was mortified, but pretty impressed that she had the guts to ask it. Mr. Czarny, as I remember, conceded that perhaps we young women in the class might know more about it than he did.

Sister Carmen, my Spanish teacher in high school, was definitely a favorite! She was down to earth and very funny and when one of the guys in the class would ask how to translate bad words, she would say that they would have to wait until 4th year as that would be Spanish for Perverts. She was a great teacher.

17. What was the name of your least favorite teacher?
Easy! Emily Spinelli, one of my Spanish professors in University. She was and from all accounts is still a first rate bitch. Examples (and oh, are there many): Every semester in college I would get laryngitis at the end of the term. Damn near everybody in the University knew this as I did work the Circ Desk in the Library. I even had little flash cards that I drew up that said things like "I'm fine. How are you?" "Yes, again." "Yes, I've been to the doctor." Etc. You get the picture. At the end of the semester, Spinelli would assign a topic and each student had to give a speech on their topic. Twice I managed to have laryngitis (the first time I didn't, but my friend Alison had talked to Emily to see if I could give it from my desk as I was a freaking basket-case. She allowed it, but I think she docked me because of it. I'm telling you, she was a BITCH!) The first time I got laryngitis she wasn't happy but I had a doctor's note and she couldn't say anything. The second time I went to her office with a doctor's notice and croaked out, 'I know you're not going to believe me, but I have laryngitis again." And she pointedly crossed her arms over her chest and said coldly, "You're right, I don't believe you." The professor with whom she shared an office just looked at me sympathetically. There wasn't much she could do about it though because I had the doctor's note and if I went to the Chair of the Dept. very obviously unable to speak she'd look like an ass.

Another example: I had had her for something like four classes, had gotten all A's and I needed a letter of recommendation for a summer internship scholarship. I went to ask her for the letter and she said, "You don't want one from me. I'd have to be honest." I just gaped at her as I had done nothing wrong and as I said, gotten STRAIGHT FRICKIN' A's. I think I stuttered, "What did I do?" "I don't think you treated me very fairly this past semester." The past semester she wasn't there for one of the exams, she had the secretary bring the exam in and pass it out, but didn't stay to monitor. Some people in the class cheated (for the record, I did not), even though they totally didn't have to. There was a first class suck-up in the class by the name of Nancy Gump and she ratted to Spinelli when she came back from whatever conference she had attended (probably the "Spain is the greatest country of all, while Latin America sucks ass" conference – she was most disdainful of anything from Latin America). Spinelli approached the class and asked that the people who cheated own up and come forward. As I said, I didn't cheat, so I didn't go forward. So, I say to her, "But I didn't cheat." "Yes, but you didn't tell me who did." Or some such bullshit. I went to the Dean (no, I didn't snitch on her, my name wasn't Nancy Gump) and asked for a letter as I had had him twice for Spanish. In the end I didn't get the scholarship – no, I don't blame her, but the point is that she's a nasty little person.

She also judged you by whom your friends were. Since I hung out with the cheating crowd, she hated me (and she knew I hadn't cheated as I'd bet a large sum of money that Ms Suck Up Gump herself included names) and anybody with whom I hung out, after the initial crowd graduated (they were older than me as I had jumped ahead to Spanish II in my freshman year – thanks to Sr. Carmen's fine teaching).

I think that's enough examples of her hideousness, for now.

18. What was your best subject in school?
Grade School, it was Spelling! I was utterly depressed when I got to high school and found there was no Spelling classes. At University my best subject was Spanish – much to Spinelli's dismay. She *HATED* it that I could skip class, and ace the friggin' tests.

19. What was your worst subject in school?
High School – Chem Study (honors Chemistry class that didn't get honors credit – stupid ass system) and Trig and Analysis (it was called Trig in my day, not Pre-Calc). College – Accounting. God, that class sucked complete ass.

20. Did you do well in Physical Education?
Not at all. I'm not the least bit athletic or coordinated. I even took a squash racket to the head.

21. Were you clumsy when you were younger?
Not really clumsy – moreso, not that graceful.

22. Who was your favorite band as a kid?
Bobby Sherman when I was in 3rd grade. A little later, it was Shaun Cassidy and Andy Gibb.

23. What was your favorite movie as a kid?
Mary Poppins

24. Did your parents read to you?
The only book I remember being read to us was Brighty of the Grand Canyon. I don't think Mom ever finished reading it to us. And remember nothing about it except that it was about a donkey in the Grand Canyon.

25. Did you have a favorite book?
The Boxcar Children and Nancy Drew

26. What was your favorite restaurant as a kid?
We went to McDonald's maybe once a year. Other than that, we would go to this place (long gone) called Lum's once a year right before Christmas after our visit to Santa Claus at Wonderland (also gone) Mall.

27. What TV or movie star did you have a crush?
Do you know how damn hard it is to think that far back? *thinking* This is hard (not just because I'm old), because we weren't really allowed to watch TV or see movies (except G-rated) and I'm afraid that I didn't get crushes on cartoon characters. Randy Mantooth from Emergency!

28. Do you now wonder what you were thinking?
Hell no, he's still pretty hot.

29. Who was your first crush in school?
Danny Pilot.

30. As a child, what kind of car did you want when you grew up?
A VW Beetle

31. Did your parents spank you?
Oh yeah!

32. Did your parents fight a lot when you were a kid?
Nope. I actually didn't know my parents had names because they called each other "Dear" and "Honey" and shit like that.

33. Did your parents get divorced or stay married?
Divorced.

34. If they got divorced, how old were you when it happened?
26

35. Did you ever run away from home?
No, I didn't have any idea where I'd go.

36. How old were you when/if you first got glasses?
3rd grade – 8 years old

37. Did you need braces or a retainer?
No, and it pisses me off a little now because my teeth are not perfectly straight – but there was no money for such frivolities when I was of age. LB and YS both got them.

38. If you're male, how old were you when you had your first wet dream?
Next...

49. Both sexes when did you start shaving?
14, but I know I wasn't really allowed to.

50. Girls when did you start wearing a bra?
I can remember the bra. I can remember it was bought at K-Mart (shit, everything I wore was), but I can't remember if I was 12 or 13.

51. What was your first kiss like?
I remember who and where, but I don't remember the kiss itself.

52. What did you do on your first date?
It was a blind date (of course, I think I've only had blind dates). His brother was hot but too old for me. The date was my age and looked nothing like his brother (this was anomaly to me as all my siblings look alike). We were supposed to go to a Moody Blues concert but it was canceled or he didn't get tickets or whatever, so we ended up at a Catholic Central dance where he proved to be the quintessential nerd (right down to the glasses, pudginess and white button-downed shirt) and didn't dance – just sat there on a folding chair. Then we went to a pizza place on Telegraph so that my friend Kim could check him out. It wasn't hell, but it was boring and not fun.

53. How old were you when you first drank?
My parents let us sip beer from FF's glass and on Sundays we could have our own tiny aperitif glass of champagne, but first real beer outside of the house that my parents didn't know about? 16?

54. Where was your first house?
Redford, Michigan