What you...
Don't know...
Deborah (over at 32 Poems BLOG) asks us for our secrets, for the things our readers don't know about us. Now, since my sister reads my blog... there isn't much I can say that's really "something nobody knows" but for most of you... these are unknown tidbits:
1. I have a brain tumor. A small and boring one(for the last 30 years), but a brain tumor nonetheless. I also have epilepsy and must avoid strobe lights.
2. When I was 4, I was in a "dance recital" at Baltimore's City Hall. The recital was an intermission spectacle for the annual frog-hopping contest. I had to wear a TUTU around my head and a purple pom pom taped to my right hip. Even at that tender age, I found this embarassing..
3. My father ran for sheriff of Baltimore City. His slogan was "If a sheriff doesn't do his job, YOU don't get your day in court. He lost. (Statistically, Baltimorons do NOT like going to court).
4. I (we) have not mowed the backyard since buying this house July 8, 2004. For shizzle.
5. The radiator in my car is shot, and so every single time I drive... I have to pop the hood, pour antifreeze in.
6. I type with two (sometimes 4) fingers. I am a slow typist.
7. I had starring roles in many high school plays including "The Pajama Game" and "I Remember Mama." I was Mama.
8. I never drove a car until I was 27.
9. I graduated high school with a 2.4 GPA but got a full ride to college. Figure that out.
10. I know it makes me a bad person, but I LOVE to watch Judge Judy, Judge Mathis, Judge Joe Brown... shit like that. But if you call while I'm watching it, I'll turn off the TV so you don't know...
Deborah (over at 32 Poems BLOG) asks us for our secrets, for the things our readers don't know about us. Now, since my sister reads my blog... there isn't much I can say that's really "something nobody knows" but for most of you... these are unknown tidbits:
1. I have a brain tumor. A small and boring one(for the last 30 years), but a brain tumor nonetheless. I also have epilepsy and must avoid strobe lights.
2. When I was 4, I was in a "dance recital" at Baltimore's City Hall. The recital was an intermission spectacle for the annual frog-hopping contest. I had to wear a TUTU around my head and a purple pom pom taped to my right hip. Even at that tender age, I found this embarassing..
3. My father ran for sheriff of Baltimore City. His slogan was "If a sheriff doesn't do his job, YOU don't get your day in court. He lost. (Statistically, Baltimorons do NOT like going to court).
4. I (we) have not mowed the backyard since buying this house July 8, 2004. For shizzle.
5. The radiator in my car is shot, and so every single time I drive... I have to pop the hood, pour antifreeze in.
6. I type with two (sometimes 4) fingers. I am a slow typist.
7. I had starring roles in many high school plays including "The Pajama Game" and "I Remember Mama." I was Mama.
8. I never drove a car until I was 27.
9. I graduated high school with a 2.4 GPA but got a full ride to college. Figure that out.
10. I know it makes me a bad person, but I LOVE to watch Judge Judy, Judge Mathis, Judge Joe Brown... shit like that. But if you call while I'm watching it, I'll turn off the TV so you don't know...
9 Comments:
RE: high school dramatics.
You also had a starring role in You Can't Take it With You. Don't forget that one!! It was your first starring turn since, in fact, you had a chorus role in The Pajama Game. (Although you sang a mean chorus of 40 and a half cents, were a featured dancer, and, I believe, might have uttered a line or two.) It's a good thing I'm here to straighten out the facts. I need a life!!
where the hell did you do you're undergrad!? though i still would'nt have been able to get in there prolly..o's are hot hon!
ps famous baltimorons of birth and/or temp residence? would be a good list..
The Pajama Game?
Hmmm...I think I went to see that play when I was in the 6th grade. I remember a song, the gist of which was 7.5ยข or % or something...I just remember them saying helluva which was scandalous coming from adults... by religious sixth grade standards anyway.
Oops. I guess it would have done me well to read anon...40 and a half cents it is then.
I haven't driven a car yet. I'm 28. But you give me hope.
Jacquie (it can only be her, nobody else would remember so well) is right. I was not a lead in PG. But I was a lead in 42nd st. J remembers so well becasue SHE had a lead in all of the above...
And to you, anon... I attended the University of TN at Chattanooga, but for the record, I was also granted a full ride at University of MD, Baltimore County.
The spending stipend was better at MD but Chattanooga was beautiful, full of poems, and far away from home... I made the right choice. There are actually a handful of poets out there (Bradley Paul, Cathy Wagner, etc) who went to all the same schools I did ... from Catonsville High, to UTC, to Iowa...
oh contraire, laurel. it was not jacquie who wrote that. who is lame enough to remember all the tiny, miniscule details about YOUR life? clue: I was 8 years old when this show was staged.
why oh why is my brain filled with this and not great mathematical theorems??
by the way, you were a kickass dancer in PJ and a great, drunk Auntie Mame. although I would never rose above a lowly member of the Salvation Army Band in Guys and Dolls, you gave me dreams.
Hi Laurel: I just wanted to say I really enjoyed your poems in the current issue of Iowa Review. Good work! Kudos.
--Peter
Just passing by and checked out your blog. Your comment about getting to college in spite of / even with a 2.4 GPA reminded me of something I read in an article someplace once about David Letterman.
The university he went to (I think Ball State in Indiana) was building a new School of Broadcast Journalism, and Letterman made a sizeable donation to the funds for the school. The university offered to put a plaque by the main entrance to the new school, in appreciation of Letterman's gift. According to the article, the plaque reads "Dedicated to all C students before and after me. David M. Letterman."
The comment post about putting together a list of famous native or temporary "Baltimorons" (sorry if I'm borrowing the word without proper credentials) intrigued me. Never having been in Baltimore, I nevertheless can think of several names offhand:
Edgar Allen Poe
H.L. Mencken
Barry Levinson (the film director)
John Waters (the film director)
Adrienne Rich
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