Continuing the endlessly fascinating "100 Things About Me" meme....
58: My only residual from polio has never been noticeable to anyone but me. My left leg is weaker than the other. I never start up a staircase with my left foot.
59: In the convent one summer, we somehow found a cache of musical instruments and sheet music, and we formed a small brass band and practiced outside at night during recreation. I played the sousaphone.
60: My favorite of all the old polkas, waltzes, and schottishes we played was Johann Strauss' waltz "Freut euch des lebens"--"Enjoy Life while the lamp still glows. Pluck the rose while it still blooms."
61: I went to graduate school in Harlem and lived in Brooklyn. Took the D or the Q train straight through both ways.
62: Since classes did not start until 6 p.m., I spent my mornings at the Art Students League studying anatomical drawing.
63: I met my friend Lida at the Art Students League. Lida has been a gift from the gods of art and beauty.
64. Favorite Spanish drink: Calimocho--half Coca Cola (I use diet coke) and half red wine.
65: I loved the Saturday morning Shabbat service at Shir Tikvah. Still have a copy of the prayer booklet.
66: My last meal? My mom's potato pancakes.
67: In the summer of 1959, my Latin teacher, who was on the college's Fulbright committee, said she would recommend me for a Fulbright scholarship to Italy to study Latin. I left the convent instead.
68: When I was young, DC was the last place in the WORLD I ever would have thought I'd like to live, but I've been here for 19 years the end of this month. (And thanks for the ride to the airport, LuAnn!)
69: I got my MFA on what would have been my mother's 101st birthday. She was long dead, or she might have had a heart attack.
70: I paint pictures for the sheer fun of it. The paint does all the work!
71: (zzzzzz...more to come)
I just finished a book about nuns in the 16th century in Italy..... Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant, loved it. I definitely would not choose to be a nun. But not all the nuns in the nunnery actually chose to be nuns either.
ReplyDeleteShammy: I think I've read that book, too. In the 16th century, their male relatives shunted lots of women to the convent, whether they wanted to go there or not. That's not true these days so much. It'd be pretty rare to find a woman in a convent now who has not chosen of her own free will to stay. It's a strange place, but the best thing about it is the other women who are there. They tend to be honorable and brilliant, and many are very creative.
ReplyDeleteI played the Sousaphone myself in high school. The band director said if I was going to be in the band (with my boyfriend) I was going to have to play something. My father would not let my use his old coronet - too unfeminine - and the school supplied the Sousaphone. I took it to County Band, and brass ensemble contest! It did not improve my geeky status, as you might imagine.
ReplyDeleteEllen: But the sousaphone was great FUN to play, and compared with the cornet (which I also played in grade school), like falling off a log. Here's to being all-around odd!!
ReplyDeleteAll so interesting - as you always are! The D.N.
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