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Bird's Blog

Poetry, musings, observations, commentary, rants, confessions...and who knows what else!

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Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Teacher, writer, poet, grandmother, lover, wine-drinker, chocolate eater, beach comber, hiker, traveler, Giants fan, San Franciscan. All work on this blog is copyrighted material.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

8 Random Facts About Me

Boneman tagged me a few days (weeks?) ago and as Infini has tagged me as well, it's time to get one tag done before startin' the other. The pressure is on.

BTW Boney - you asked in a comment on the Hilary post if I was willing to choose between two evils because one was a Democrat. And you asked as well if I would vote Democrat if Dan Quayle got the nomination. You may find your answer in these 8 random facts about me.

1. I own 4 pairs of glasses: bifocals, reading glasses to go over my contact lenses, long-distance glasses to go over my contact lenses, and another pair of reading glasses to wear when I am not wearing my contacts. Crazy, huh?

2. Song Sung Blue by Neil Diamond played on the radio immediately after the first time I ever made love. I was never much of a Neil Diamond fan, but I have a softness in my heart for that song - or maybe I really have a softness in my heart (and somehwere else as well) for the generous lover who gently, playfully, expertly guided me through my first time. Bliss. All girls should have such a first-time experience.

3. Years ago, I managed somehow to get reservations for 6 for Thanskgiving dinner at the Awhanee Inn in Yosemite (mind you, people wait for months on a list to get into the Awhanee for Thanksgiving – I called at the precise right moment – sheer dumb luck). However, I had to cancel the reservation – no one else in my family wanted to go. They are nuts. I was even more nuts for not forcing them. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

4. In high school, I interviewed Hank Aaron for my high school newspaper – this was shortly after he broke Babe Ruth’s record. Way cool. I was at the ballpark when Bonds broke Babe Ruth’s record last year. Not as cool though, not at all.

5. I am the first woman in my family to earn a college degree, and the first person in my family to earn an MA. Yes, it IS a big deal! Still.

6. In my very first presidential election, I voted Republican. Can you guess who I voted for?

7. Right after high school, I thought I wanted to join the Navy. Even went through the testing. They offered me OCS (Officer Candiate School). But I changed my mind. Can you imagine – Captain Bird? About 5 years later, I gave the Navy another shot and actually did enlist –even took the oath. But back then, women had to wait about 6 – 9 months before they could ship out and it wasn’t unusual for life to take a turn and the woman would not longer want to ship out. The Navy then let’s you off the hook easy as pie. Which is what happened to me. But if I had gone through with it then, I was slated to go to air traffic control school. I wonder who I would be now if I’d actually joined the Navy long ago.

8. When I was a very little girl, I thought angels sang at Mass. I had a crisis of faith (and this before my First Communion) when I learned it was not angels, but nuns, singing.

And who to tag? Apparently I’ve got to tag 8 random bloggers. Hah!

Mrs. B - who I hope is having a fabulous summer.

Kate - finally visited her blog and found it fascinating – but I just hovered – will have to go back and comment soon.

Infini – one good tag deserves another.

Mara - cause I loved her Botox Pelosi comment at Bogs’.

Polly – ‘cause I dig her picture.

Firebird - in hopes she’ll do her list in poem form.

Thursday Next (aka Miss Jane) - who writes quite beautifully and thus must have some beautiful random facts.

The Redheaded Woodpecker – but only when that pile of papers to grade is finished.

I’d tag Aunty B and t/. (or is /t.? - uh-oh, I'm losing it!), but I think Boneman already did.

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19 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

hmm,

#6 - Abraham Lincoln?

bird, you can tag me if you like -- will be happy to ignore you along with all of the others :)

fun post!

/t.

July 12, 2007 7:07 PM  
Blogger Bird said...

now/t.! i should fly over to Mo Po or Code Po and drop a steamin', streamin' green and white bird poop bomb on you for that abraham lincoln comment. you really know how to ruffle a bird's feathers.

SQUAWK! SQUAWK! SCREEEECH!

abraham lincoln indeed.

July 12, 2007 7:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

bird,

you should
at very least
fly by and squawk at the lamb

/t.

July 12, 2007 7:31 PM  
Blogger Infinitesimal said...

i did mine.

and the baby pic meme is the last one at the end of the page.... awwww don't i look cute??

July 12, 2007 7:56 PM  
Blogger Bird said...

geesh - are we all online this evening? we should get a life! hahaha!

i will check out your cute baby photo. it may take a bit for me to post - I am in the midst of packing - I am moving.

July 12, 2007 8:00 PM  
Blogger Little Lamb said...

/t. is no fun with these things.

I want to say Nixon.

Yes a college degree for the first one in the family is something to be proud of.

July 13, 2007 3:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

bird,

i see now
wherein & hitherto
yon error lie -- alas, lass, she be mine... arrr

"...my very first presidential election, I voted Republican."

not

"I voted for the very first Republican president."

we're clear

so, i'm with the lamb here, nixon -- "a vote for nixon is a vote for dick"

/t.

PS, /t. is not mean & /t. is too fun with these things

July 13, 2007 9:21 AM  
Blogger Helene said...

I posted a MEME for ya... a bit different than yours here, but a bit-o-me in any event! Thanks for the tag. I think they are fun.

Good for you for being the first to get a degree in your family! Thats huge! My Mom was for her family!


Love your first time story... mine was in college. I just broke up with my HS boyfriend (of 2 years)and I was sick and tired of being a virgin... I was turning 20 the next week. So I went to a Frat party and picked out the hottest guy I could find... had my way with him and when the theme song from my Senior Prom was playing. I ended up dating him for 2 years... and he wasnt a great lover... bummer! lol

What do you think of the Republican candidates this far? I am thinking I am going to have to cross parties and vote Democratic AGAIN!!! grrr


Have a great weekend!

July 13, 2007 11:33 AM  
Blogger Bird said...

i need to clariy - I'm not the first in the family to get a degree - just the first woman in the family to do so - but I am the first to get an MA.

Kate- about Republican candidates -oh dear - they scare the hell out of me. Not one seems to have any common sense, most of them are flip-floppers (I suppose I shouldn't hold that against 'em - the Dems are flip-floppers too). But what worries me the most - they don't seem to believe that the American public can handle or deserve more than just a soundbite or generalities. Sigh.

I am all for crossing party lines and voting for a Dem (I am a Dem in exile - though I'll be switching my party designation very soon - returning to the fold, so-to-speak, for the primaries). But I would cross lines for a Repub - if there was one I believed in - though then again, maybe not. that republican party platform trips me up.

now /t. and LL - you have aged me a bit more than is necessary. Nixon is not the correct answer. Guess again.

July 13, 2007 2:27 PM  
Blogger sparringK9 said...

intersting 8 boyed.

flip flopping. why do we dig on flip flopping? couldnt you have thought something years ago, and since then more facts and knowledge have come to light? and then your viewpoint grows along with you.

what is scary is the idea once you think something you must ridgedly stick with it forever. thats not good.

ideas. its ideas! whoever has them that are right for us is the winner. we could just start with some representation who is not beholding to pac's or owls in a garden, big pharma, other nations, robed illuminati or whatever. and how about someone who can say the hard truth straight up?

no more sugar daddies! dont promise what cant be given!

grrrowlf! boyed you movin? to where?

July 13, 2007 2:56 PM  
Blogger Bird said...

agreed she - ideas! we need ideas - and reasoned, rational, debate that encourages the free exchange of ideas - we've not had in a long, long time.

remember clinton's inside campaign slogan - "it's the economy, stupid!"? we need a national slogan "it's the ideas, stupid!"

i have no problem with someone whose opinion has shifted over time as a result of long hard study and reflection. that's a good thing (unless of course that person's new opinion disagrees with mine - haha!). by flip-flop, i mean someone whose opinion changes for expediency - in order to get votes, or further their career. Mit Romney comes to mind immediately on the Republican side. Dems have done it too.

yeah, i'm moving - but i ain't saying where just yet- that will be the topic of a later post. hee hee hee.

July 13, 2007 3:50 PM  
Blogger boneman said...

THAT is a tough one.....
My ex ...er...LFW voted for the reagan. Maybe that's who you also tried. Though, /t DID hit upon something....
But, it was the one election I was totally oblivious to, didn't know, didn't care who won.

It's almost the same, now (not my feelings about voting, but rather, "what flippin' good will it do one way or the other?")
It's sad that politics has actually become a profession, a career for some such as lugar and kennedy. Not getting a danged thing done, they're just eating up some fat government checks on our payroll, and, to top that, sucking up gravy from every lobbyist they can get their groping little claws in!

I know it sounds like I'm goping off, and to be sure, I sort'a am. Being from Indiana means that if the state splits down the middle, but one vote goes republican (if these dummasses ever vote demo, I'll run naked down my street!) anyway, the whole electoral vote machine goes repub.
THAT AIN'T FAIR!

(Meanwhile....who the heck was it that was running, too?)

Now, reagan's second run should have gone like dubya's was supposed to go.
I mean his points were
-make government smaller
-decrease the budget
-don't take any "guff" from small nations (Libya had just pulled an airliner out of the sky the year before)
-make government less intrusive into individual's business
-increase science budgets, especially where the environment/earth was concerned

What did we get?
-government increased three fold
-the deficit went to a historical high....(wait till george senior gets in)
-china shot down an airliner and went untouched/unscathed by the event
at his request, government became more intrusive and extremely more punitive over matters such as free speech, marijuanna reform, and political secrets
-the sciences he promoted were submarines that would go to great depths (almost sounds good...) but, then would tap into ground lines on the ocean floor for spying purposes.

When dubya was running against Arizona's McCain, I posted for McCain, and fer sure wished he had captured the vote.
#1, bin laden wouldn't have had time to find a safe cave....(dubya and his empty headed threats were as ridiculous as they come)
#2, we'de never have seen Iraq from the inside, as it were.
Because he was a veteran, I'm sure his response would have been way more productive than the moronic tunes dubya, cheney, and rumsfeld sang to us.

Well, I can't think at all, now.
Although, since you ARE from California, and as governmor, I hear he didn't do near so bad, I'll guess reagan.

July 13, 2007 5:20 PM  
Blogger Polly said...

Oh I am bird-blushing that you chose me, a fellow flier.(Well I sit more than I fly, but here you go!)
Love reading more and more about you. You are amazing... bird club anonymous...yay!

July 13, 2007 9:10 PM  
Blogger Bird said...

polly - it's amazing how many birds are about in cyberspace - hahaha! (dogs too. i've not run across too many cats or goats though.)

oh boney - reagon didn't do all that well by california. he made some mean changes in my opinion - one of which was to slash budgets on state-run mental health hospitals - which ultimately ended up in a lot of folks getting kicked out of those hospitals - many of them lived on the streets. a sad mess.

so nope, it wasn't reagon that i voted for in my first election.

anybody else got a guess?

July 14, 2007 12:07 AM  
Blogger Yes said...

Hi--uh...angels DO sing at Mass...
just not everyone hears them...

I adore your Hillary post--

I wrote your poem--thanks for tagging me! (It was lots of fun--but I don't have 8 victims, so I'll pass on that part)

Love, Firebird

July 14, 2007 12:34 AM  
Blogger Aunty Belle said...

Birdy!! AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL??? no wonder youse a Bird!

Sweet Bird of Paradise, them Angels do sing. You'll be hearin' 'em again soon enough.

I done the meme too--come over ter see...Boney tagged me, but there ain't nobody left ter tag!

July 14, 2007 12:30 PM  
Blogger Blue said...

Hey Bird,

Its been a while, but hopefully I'm back :-)

I've enjoyed catching up on your blog!!! Polly tagged me, so I've done mine now..

Hope ur move goes well!

July 16, 2007 3:36 AM  
Blogger NameChanged said...

Bird, you got me. Here I go to fulfill the obligation. However, my brain is mush, as it is summer.

July 16, 2007 10:54 AM  
Blogger boneman said...

I GOT IT! I GOT IT!

FORD!
You voted for Ford!

Yes?

July 26, 2007 1:04 PM  

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