Friday, November 18, 2005

Detective Work Exercise

I enjoyed everyone's postings so much I had to do one of my own:

 

1. My favorite childhood toy was a doll, Thumbelina. I bought real newborn clothes for her at thrift stores, and diapered her with cloth diapers.

I took her to Brazil and one of my aunts fell in love with her, and so I let her have it for many years until I had daughters of my own, and then I asked for her back. The quilt she has is my feeble attempt at hand quilting, and I downloaded instructions to crochet her a cap because her stockingnette (from my OR days) is just to hide the condition of her hair. She's also missing the winding key that made her move like a real baby. Working for a year as a medical assistant in a crazy pediatric practice made me lose my fascination with babies.

2. My favorite childhood game was "buraco," which means hole in Portuguese and I'm told it is similar to canasta. I could usually beat my grandparents at it.

3. The best movie I ever saw as a kid was Sleeping Beauty as a young child in Brazil. I also loved the Sound of Music.

4. I don't do it much but I enjoy swimming. It would have to be much warmer water than when I used to swim in Lake Tahoe.

5. If I could lighten up a little, I'd let myself dance more. It usually takes a few glasses of wine.

6. If it weren't too late I would go back to school.

7. My favorite musical instrument is percussion...drums of all kinds, but that was really hard to answer.

8. The amount of money I spend on treating myself to entertainment each month is however much I want to. I don't have a problem treating myself.

9. If I weren't so stingy with my artist, I'd buy her some day of the dead fabric.

10. Taking time out for myself is necessary to survival.

11. I am afraid that if I start dreaming I'll never get anything done.

12. I secretly enjoy reading People magazines, wherever I can. The first time I read this I couldn't think of anything that I secretly enjoyed until I read Gemia's confession. I suppose it's kind of tacky to be interested in the lives of the rich and famous.

13. If I had had a perfect childhood I'd have grown up to be me still, because I think a lot of who I am is the product of nature instead of nurture...and I was well nurtured.

14. If it didn't sound so crazy, I'd write a book about my life.

15. My parents think artists are eccentric.

16. My God thinks artists are...well my god is just energy and I'd rather not tend towards anthropomorphism.

17. What makes me feel weird about this recovery is that I didn't know I was ill.

18. Learning to trust myself is probably easier now than ever before as I draw from previous successful life experiences. Trusting my artist is another matter altogether, as she doesn't have a bank of successes.

19. My most cheer-me-up music is varied and loud. Currently I'm hooked on Keane. My younger daughter turned me on to them. And also Coldplay.

20. My favorite way to dress is jeans. I have a denim skirt and dress for when I need to dress up! Posted by Picasa

3 comments:

Pat/SWquilter said...

You didn't know you were ill? You crack me up! Best answer I've seen to that question, just cause it's so funny. My own personal take to another of your responses is that it's never too late to go to school! I've always loved going to school and since I graduated from college and joined the work force, I still treat myself to classes whenever the mood strikes me -- Spanish, black & white photography, etc. There's really nothing I want to know enough about to get an advanced degree - what I really want is all my time to myself so I could sew more - but I love to know a little about a lot of things. At this stage of my life,I only want to take classes for the pure enjoyment of it, but a good friend of mine has gone back to school to finish up her bachelor's and is talking about going on to get a master's. She's a few years younger than me, but not all that many. If you really want to do it, go for it!

Pat

Hilda said...

Yeah, Pat, I know it's not too late to go to school. I just don't have much access here in the middle of nowhere, and plus I'm a lot more judgemental than when I was younger and would have a hard time learning from some people. (I hope I pulled off diplomacy with that answer.) I just wished I hadn't squandered my VA benefits and made better use of the schooling I was entitled to. I haven't shut my mind to learning though, and there are so many more venues now for it.

Pat/SWquilter said...

I definitely agree that you haven't shut your mind to learning. I had really good experiences with the instructors for the Spanish classes I took, and for all of the photography classes but one - that guy was a crazymaker! Well, as I write this, I realize that there were two photography instructors that I didn't really "connect with" but I did learn something from the class I guess and it gave me some darkroom time, which was the most important issue. Location is important for conventional educational opportunities though -- thank God for online instruction these days!

I think this detective work exercise is the best one I've done so far -- really enjoyed the insights I got -- about myself as much as about others!