In All Fairness

[shiredancer]

I asked to know more about who_took and as a result she has opened herself to questions, so... I figure I owe her the same opportunity. So I'll take a turn at the "ask a question, any question" thing. Although I can't imagine anybody having anything to ask! I spill all my own best secrets here on LJ, although I've not yet gotten to everything. "Yet" being the operative word... give me time and enough morose middle-of-the-night bouts of insomnia, and it will probably all come out. Now, is that a threat or a promise?

The slumber party proceeds apace; it's not as bad as I feared it would be (but only two little girls showed up, so that makes it a lot easier). Why do they love "Trading Spaces" so much? If anybody ever did things like that to my house, I'd shoot 'em with their own staple gun (for all that I don't believe in any guns at all), and not a jury would find me guilty.

Good things that have happened lately: Good chats, Daisy's back online, Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize, and... best of all... my husband bought a lock for our bedroom door. Whoot! No more sneaking downstairs to avoid our middle-of-the-night 10-year-old marauder. Although the fireplace is rather romantic... Okay, so at least we have options now.

Some questions for y'all: Anybody here listen much to Richard and Mimi Farina? And has anybody at all here ever heard of Mary Laswell's "Suds in Your Eye" books? Just curious, you know.

Comments

LOL! You have the BEST stories, anyway!

[who-took.livejournal.com]

So I'll ask: Tell me your favorite story about yourself. Anytime, anywhere, doesn't even have to involve getting arrested or being taken for a ride by a New York cabbie.

Hmm...how many different forms of dance do you know, and if it hasn't been answered before, what is the first one you learned and when? And how hard is it to learn to belly dance? That's enough for now, but I'm sure I can think of more. ;-)

Re: LOL! You have the BEST stories, anyway!

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Awwwww... Who, that's a tough one! I could easily tell you an embarrassing story, or one that makes me look foolish, or tells of my many mistakes... but I've never thought back on my past in terms of my *favorite* story (or experience). However, Linaelyn has asked a question below that dovetails with this, and I think actually my experiences in Greece are definitely among my favorite memories (and sufficiently embarrassing and foolish to count for all the self-depracating nuances that seem to matter so much to me). So, just like you, I think I will turn that answer into a post, and quite soon, so as not to leave you hanging. Yipes.

I can answer the second question, though, easily. Here are the types of dancing I know: belly dance and Middle Eastern; Polynesian (Tahitian, Hawaiian, Maori); international folk dancing (Greek, Balkan, Israeli, Turkish, North African, English, Scottish, French, Canadian, Scandinavian... etc.); American country dancing (contras, squares, polkas, rags, waltzes) but NOT the square-dance club style of smooth, polished dancing -- more the downhome funky old-timey style; swing dancing; a little bit of country line dancing; some generic stage dancing; and good ol' rock & roll. I can fake a lot of other things, and do a decent Charleston. I danced on stage first in West Side Story at 16, then about 20 I tried ballet and was told that my legs were all wrong for it(!) so tried belly dancing after seeing a troupe perform at the Novato Renaissance Faire and becoming enthralled by it. Belly dancing, after my attempt at ballet, felt *very* natural to me, and I did not find it that difficult to learn. Learning to perform in front of others, though, was really, really hard for my introverted personality and took about 10 years; I finally learned to cultivate a complete alter ego to put on stage. People who have just seen me perform frequently do not recognize me as the dancer, once the costume is off.

Ah, you've done it now...

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

I get to ask a question, eh? (Or was the offer only for Who_Took?)

What Happened in Greece, during your trip there with your younger brother in the 1970's? What was the most important thing you learned about life on that trip? What did you learn about yourself?

btw, I finally got around to reading your *jail story*, and hey, I was almost in your shoes there at Diablo Canyon, 2 years later. But the protest got cancelled, for conflicting with some important folk-music festival in Santa Barbara, and rescheduled a week later when I had another commitment, so I didn't get to spend my time in jail.

My spouse wasn't demonstrating on the other side, but his two best-friend/housemates were drafters at Diablo Canyon. Quite a few engineers supported themselves through Cal Poly that way. Their logic was, "hey, yeah, it's a stupid place for a Nuke Plant, but at least *we* can be making the $25/hour, and not give it up to some yahoo who can't tell left from right on the diagrams". You do know that the project was delayed for almost a decade because someone mislabelled "north" as "east" on every sheet of the plans, and construction was 90 degrees off for almost 3 years before they discovered the problem? Hah!

Re: Ah, you've done it now...

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, you do get to ask a question! But you're quite right, it looks like I *have* done it now... leave it to you to zero in on the single most self-revealing story I probably have to tell! As I mentioned to Who above, I'll have to put this in a separate post... and give it some thought. Let's see, how to make this not just the tell-all it is?? And at least I get away with two answers in one post -- I'm ever the laziest poster.

And whoo-hoo -- another Diablo protester (well, almost)! I just knew we had a lot in common, Lin. Yes, I remember that second protest -- it seems to have been a bit of a fizzle, as I recall. And LOL, I certainly remember all the hoopla about the upside-down-and-backward plans. What a mess; I felt quite justified in my protest after that surfaced. I'm just as glad no major earthquakes have struck in that area... although if one does, I sincerely hope I'll be proven quite *wrong* in my fears, and that the lousy thing will stand.

Watch for the Greece post soon!

[realdaisygamgee.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask you some stuff, but then I remembered: I can ask you in person.

WHOOOOT!!

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Yes, I imagine we're *all* going to be asking... and answering... quite a few questions next weekend.

back!!

[chrystimd.livejournal.com]

Tell me about reading LOTR for the first time. I kind of know how it came to be, but tell me as much as you remember about the rest of it. Did you tear through it? Savor it? Read it right through immediately as soon as you were done? Weep? Laugh? Wish you could write like that? Did you ever imagine where it would lead you, eventually? Isn't it awesome?

Love you!

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Oh my, reading LOTR for the first time... that was pretty magical. I think you know that it was my first fella who gave me The Hobbit to read, and then encouraged LOTR. This was when I was 16 and in love for the first time, and kept devouring all the wonderful books he pushed my way. Plus there was the heady experience of having to sneak out with him, he being 27 and forbidden by my parents. So I would wait in the local park for him, lying in the sunshine reading LOTR every day after summer school. And I always associate LOTR with sunshine, and green grass, and the only time in my life that I had such long, lazy afternoons to just get lost in another world (at 17 I started my first job and have been working ever since). Yes, I tore through it -- I was captivated by the adventure, I adored Pippin, and I wanted to be in Middle-Earth. But I savored it as well, and was amazed by the depth of the story. I did my share of crying at the end, and immediately started all over again... The Grey Havens just chewed me up and spit me out. I think I didn't discover, or bother with, the Appendices until after my third straight-through reading, and that just knocked me for a loop. Somehow I was able to bear it when Merry and Pippin ended up riding back to their home in Crickhollow together, singing... but when I learned that they got married, and got old, and went to Gondor and DIED... I just sort of lost it. I think I always resented Tolkien for adding those appendices, and wondered why he just couldn't leave well enough alone. After that I'd occasionally reread just my favorite (Merry and Pippin) parts, and over the years began to question the depth of Tolkien's portrayals -- wondering *why* Merry wasn't more concerned about Pippin after the Palantir, how they could possibly shake off the orc captivity so breezily, what really happened to Pippin when he killed the troll, and all that. And you know the rest, Chrysti! It took 32 more years for THoU to come into being, but it's the answer, as far as I'm concerned.

Love you!

[chrystimd.livejournal.com]

Awww, sweeting. That almost makes ME cry, thinking of you reading it the third time and discovering the appendices. ((((((Younger Sally))))))

The association with that last lovely summer gives me chills as well. I always associate LOTR with the first time I read it too, foist upon me by a dear friend in Jr Hi (he was never more than a dear friend, truly.) I assoicate it with study hall and bus rides home and there is a faint smell of honeysuckle that still runs riotous to this day near my mom's mailbox. I remember when Gandalf fell I ran up to Mike in the hall the next day and smacked him in the back of the head. He told me to keep reading! I can see the grin on his face now.

Well, you didn't ask, but your answer made me wax nostalgic. Love you more!!