Apparently, today’s Sunday Stealing is yet another swap bot production.
1. Write about the best decision you ever made. How did you make it? Was it reasoning or gut instinct?
Putting money away for retirement. My employer was matching it at some percentage. It was neither reasoning nor gut instinct; it was “I might actually live to be 70, so maybe I should do that.”
2. What ONE thing would you change about your life? How would your life be different?
I could spend dozens of blog posts musing that, if I did X, my life would be different in so many different ways. Jobs, and especially relationships. Too many variables – think multiverse – so that’s a hard pass.
3. What is the hardest thing you have ever done? Why was it hard for you? What did you learn?
Burying my father was hard because there was a lot of familial strife. And because he was my father, a complicated guy. If I learned anything, it was that, at that moment, it was right to stay the course I believe he had wanted us to take.
4. What is your greatest hope for your future? What steps can you take to make it happen?
I hope for my daughter, and I worry for my daughter. I try to be an educated citizen. Naturally, I vote. I try to be kind and a good listener.
I discuss issues in my blog – though not as often as I could because, frankly, it exhausts me, it doesn’t convince many people who weren’t inclined to that POV, and it tends not to bring me joy.
Talking with myself
5. If you can time travel, what will you tell your teenage self?
Not a damn thing because he wouldn’t listen anyway.
6. Write about the most glorious moment in your life so far.
This probably isn’t it, really, but still. When I was in high school, there was a Red Cross training event in Manlius, NY, near Syracuse. At the end of the week, there was a talent show, and somehow, a couple of guys, one a blues guitarist, asked me to play with them. I stood on stage, people expecting me to sing. Instead, I played the comb. The whole thing was about 3 minutes. I got a standing ovation.
7. Write about a moment you feel brave.
There was a kid whose parents ran a falafel shop on Delaware Avenue in Albany. He wandered into traffic, and I went out and scooped him up before he could get hit by a car. It was only scary after the fact.
8. What made you happy today?
The blog post I wrote for October 25th.
9. What do you dislike most about growing up?
We lived in a district where we walked to school. So our superintendent of schools almost NEVER called for snow days, even when the drifts were a foot taller than I was.
Using time
10. Write about ten activities you love the most and why you love them.
Singing in choir, listening to recorded music, and writing this blog – because it feeds my soul.
Reading books, reading certain online articles/websites, playing word games (Boggle, Wordle)- because it feeds my brain.
Collecting Hess trucks, watching recorded NFL football games while fast-forwarding between snaps and during commercials – because it’s fun.
I buy books that I take forever to read – because it supports local authors.
I am doing genealogy – because it gives me insight into my roots and myself.
11. Do you have an embarrassing moment that still makes you cringe? Write about it in as much detail as you feel comfortable!
It’s hardly cringeworthy at this point, but I still remember elements of it. I was in a class at school – I don’t even remember when or what class, but probably junior high. We were all supposed to give a talk about whatever. The outline was on the chalkboard in the back of the room. I broke my glasses shortly before this exercise and couldn’t READ the chalkboard in the back of the room. So, I used binoculars to read. It got a big laugh, and I was mortified.
12. What has been your best trip so far?
Maybe the 2011 family trip from Albany to Niagara Falls to Toronto to Peterborough, ON in 2011.
Moi? Unique?
13. Write a list of 5 things (physical or personality-wise) you love about yourself, and why they make you unique.
I’m desperately curious about a lot of things.
When necessary, I can be loud enough to get the attention of a crowd.
When I was three, I fell down a flight of stairs; as a result, I have a scar around my soul patch where hair won’t grow.
I’ve given over 22 gallons of blood and continue to do so at least twice a year, even though it’s more difficult now as my injection site has developed scar tissue.
I’m told that I read well in public.
14. Discuss 5 things you wish others knew about you.
When I say I don’t care about a choice – I don’t care what kind of restaurant we go to, I mean it.
Conversely, when I get insistent, I REALLY mean it: no anchovies! (I have two specific examples, neither having anything to do with food.)
I am more introverted than most people believe; I’m just fakin’ it, as I wrote.
Here’s something that seems obvious to me: I am thinking a lot of the time about the best way to do something, what I can do to remove obstructions, how to be aware of being in someone else’s shoes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
The rest of the time, there’s music in my head.
15. Is social media a blessing or a curse?
Yes. While it’s a way to keep in touch with people I used to know IRL, there’s too much noise.