FOUR JOBS YOU’VE HAD IN YOUR LIFE
1) Library page
2) Karaoke party hostess
3) Receptionist for Donny Osmond’s security detail
4) AOL online chat hostess for Comic Relief (I huddled backstage with my laptop and did chats with the comedians – famous goldurn people!! – for AOL users. I still have my press pass. Awesome!)
— oh, and I’ve got to put this one on there: I was a lingerie model for one STUPID evening with my good friend Jackie – at a private party – a house full of dutiful husbands, there to buy lingerie for their wives. Jackie’s cousin worked for a lingerie company or something – and they do these parties – like a Tupperware party, only with lingerie. It is a RIDICULOUS story (if you knew Jackie and I, I mean) and we still HOWL with laughter about it. The two of us sitting out on the back steps of this gorgeous palatial house, grumpily wearing hundred-dollar lingerie, drinking BUDS from a CAN. Like – we were SO the trashy help. It’s one of those classic stories of your life. Crazy stuff always happened when Jackie and I were together.
FOUR MOVIES YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER
1) Only Angels Have Wings
2) GI Jane
3) Center Stage
4) Maltese Falcon
FOUR BOOKS YOU COULD READ AGAIN & AGAIN
1) Balkan Ghosts – by Robert Kaplan
2) Wrinkle in Time – by Madeleine L’Engle
3) The Book of Abigail and John Adams
4) Hopeful Monsters – Nicholas Mosley
FOUR CITIES/PLACES YOU’VE LIVED IN
1) Los Angeles, CA
2) Philadelphia, PA
3) Boston, MA
4) San Francisco, CA
FOUR TV SHOWS YOU LOVE TO WATCH
1) Breaking Bonaduce
2) Six Feet Under (when it was on)
3) Forensic Files
4) Grey’s Anatomy – yup. I’ve converted.
FOUR PLACES YOU’VE BEEN ON VACATION
1) Ireland
2) Ireland
3) Ireland
4) Ireland
This year, however, I will be branching out. Stay tuned!!
FOUR WEBSITES YOU VISIT DAILY
1) Alex http://www.livejournal.com/users/abillings/
2) Cult News http://www.cultnews.com/
3) Arts and Letters Daily http://www.aldaily.com/
4) Today in History http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html
(Argh – there are so many more! But these are the first that come to mind)
FOUR OF YOUR FAVORITE FOODS
1) Mexican
2) A big yummy well-done hamburger
3) Anything that involves pesto
4) Grape Nuts
FOUR PLACES YOU’D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW
1) Glendalough
2) Narragansett Beach
3) Lounge Ax on a Monday night circa 1993
4) On the green velvet couches in my apartment on Wayne Street in Chicago – watching 30 something with Mitchell (re-runs every night at 11 pm) before we went out. Yes. At that point in my life my evenings didn’t even BEGIN until midnight. What??
From Beth
Oh I LOVE “Wrinkle in Time”. If we are talking about the same book I read it as a kid and then read it about three more times right after that because it was just that good.
Yup – I NEVER get tired of that book!!
Just checked it on Amazon and we are talking about the same book….MAN does that bring back memories. I can even remember how old I was and what I was doing when I read it. You know, thanks for the idea…I think it’s high time I bought myself a gift. GLEE!
Yay!!! Awesome book!
Four Jobs I’ve Had:
1) Answering Service Operator – yes, the old-fashioned kind with the thingies you plug into holes to make connections. “Peters, Piper, Pischel and Peck, good afternoon!” I worked the swing shift. When rush hour was over (5-8 pm, when everyone called in for their messages), we’d sit around and drink those hideous canned cocktails, you know, like banana margarita, and they’d be warm (no fridge). I made $2.20 an hour. OMG.
2) Tele-psychic – NOT for Dionne Warwick’s company, but for her chief competitor. I’d float in my pool in Palm Springs while wearing a phone headset and deal tarot cards along the side of the pool. Sometimes a breeze would blow the cards into the pool and I’d have to dive for them. Awesome. “I see a very – um – chlorinated future for you.”
3) Intergovernmental Law Enforcement Coordination Manager – basically I put together the task forces to handle investigations that crossed agency lines, like when a ship with Liberian registry pulled into harbor with drugs, guns and illegal aliens onboard. Fun stuff. Lots of gruff manly law enforcement bonding (imagine that!).
4) Executive Assistant to a big-shot political appointee whose beliefs were far different from my own. Ick yuck puke gag. Drafted speeches on subjects I didn’t agree with, attended meeting after meeting after meeting, sent out 800 holiday cards a year.
“I’d float in my pool in Palm Springs while wearing a phone
headset and deal tarot cards along the side of the pool.”
WHAT?????? I need photos of this. I want. that. job. That is GENIUS!!
I know, right? Totally cool. Umbrella for shade, a pitcher of iced tea, and me doing my damnedest not to make splashing noises while I read the cards.
Two things.
Since you mention Kaplan I can put this here. Instapundit has a link to an interview with Robert Kaplan about Imperial Grunts.
http://instapundit.com/archives/027747.php
There were 3 more books after Wrinkle in Time. Amazon is selling all four as ‘The Time Quartet. I haven’t read them but they’re on my wishlist.
david n – thanks for the interview, i’ll check it out. I find Instapundit so tiresome now that I never visit him anymore. heh heh But I’ll go see the Kaplan – thanks!
Oh, and there are tons more books along with the so-called “time quartet” – she spins off into the next generation as well – I highly recommend all of them. L’Engle is my favorite author.
One book which I don’t think is listed under the ‘time series’ but which really should be is Many Waters. It’s about the same family, with the same wrinkling in time … it’s one of my favorites of all of her books.
Is Many Waters listed?? I love that book.
Grape Nuts?! :)
Jen – hahahaha Yup. It’s my favorite cereal. Ever. Even over childhood favorites like Cap’n Crunch. Nothin’ like a big ole’ bowl of Grape Nuts!!
Dave N – speaking of Imperial Grunts – he states in the introduction to the book that this will probably be a long series about the American military – comprising maybe 5 or 6 books on different aspects of it – on America’s imperialism and how it manifests itself – the new imperialism, different branches of the military and how they fit in, yadda yadda. It looks like Kaplan is planning this as a huge series – which will have breadth and scope. It’s a really challenging project – and I’m really excited about it.
Grape Nuts is my one exception to the “no liquid on a solid” food rule, as it is physically impossible for Grape Nuts to go soggy.
And they’re good heated, too!
Lisa – Yes! That is one of the main attractions, for me – its eternal crunchiness.
David N – that is a marvelous interview – thanks so much for sending me that way. I love it that he uses Herodotus as one of his writing guides – This was one of my favorite sections:
That’s good advice for any writer, actually. And that’s one of the main attractions about Kaplans’ books – the people he allows you to meet.
Perhaps I’ll pick up some of his books. After all good SF and Fantasy is hard to find. I spend most of my time perusing used books stores looking for something written before the prevalence of bad writing in quantity overcame quality writing. Neither Asimov nor Heinlein will ever pen another novel. And Spider Robinson is not as prolific as either.
Hahaha. Grape nuts. Do you remember that old skit on SNL from the seventies where the family was eating “Quarry” cereal or whatever it was called? Basically, milk on rocks. I always think of Grape Nuts when I see that.
loved the green velour couches!!! i got a huge pang of nostalgia and sadness at the thought…more innocent times or are we just old???
mitchell – I know – I have the same thing when I think of those couches. Nostalgia – weird. They weren’t even MY couches!
Milk on rocks … hahahahaha
The crunches made while eating Grape Nuts can be heard across state lines, it is true.
i know..they were Kenny’s. Next time we are together we must have a thirty-something marathon!!! u still have the tapes???
I still have them! I really need to get those things on DVD – 30something is not yet on DVD and the tapes will deteriorate. I know there is some kind of petition out there, too – to get the 30something seasons released on DVD – but it hasn’t happened yet!!!
Oh, what a show.
Love Ellen. Love Melissa and Lee.
Why do i now have a craving for a Mexican Grape-Nuts-and-Pesto-Burger? ;-)
Oh, and say Cap’n Crunch and I immediately think of Allison’s Cap’n Crunch and sugar sandwich from The Breakfast Club. Of course.
Yet another silly meme
Bitter says everyone’s doing it, but I’ve only seen hers and Sheila’s lists. Consider it stolen. Four jobs youve had in your life: Dishwasher, chemist, process engineer, manager Four movies you could watch over and over: Casablanca, Patton, Blazing Sa…
Yet another silly meme
Bitter says everyone’s doing it, but I’ve only seen hers and Sheila’s lists. Consider it stolen. Four jobs youve had in your life: Dishwasher, chemist, process engineer, manager Four movies you could watch over and over: Casablanca, Patton, Blazing Sa…