Entirely Offtopic: Amazing Facts About and Experiences Of Me!

[RandomThought]

I expect that we all have gathered lifetimes of experiences as have I.

Also, I recall a time when too much offtopic posting was discouraged...but that is who I am... Offtopic, and here are a few things no one ever needed to know about me ! (oh, I can go on and on...) Feel free to post about yourself if you are so inclined.

A. I climbed and spent the night atop Mt. Saint Helens in Washington State years before it blew up ! And I'd do it again, except I can't and the other thing is that I can't.

2. I agreed to allow a student Doctor to perform his very first ever lumbar puncture on me during my MS diagnostic workup. (and I didn't even cry.)

C. I have close relatives who are also diagnosed with MS.

4. While I am reclusive, I am also very talkative in a reclusive sort of way.

E. I have a lot more of this stuff but now its someone else's turn if you are so inclined...

[agate]

Climbing Mt. St. Helens is an achievement. Every mountain in the Cascade range seems pretty daunting to me.

No mountain climbing here but I did get a near-daily look at Mt. Rainier for the 28 years I lived in WA state. (Some days it didn't appear at all because of clouds or fog.)

Interesting or not-so-interesting facts about me:

1- I'm trying to learn Czech. I'm using the online method, Duolingo. I've been doing this for over a year now and slowly progressing. Why Czech? I can't imagine except that I was always interested in Czech because it's a bit like Russian but in many ways it's not at all like Russian. It's known to be one of the most logical languages in the world though maybe that's just its phonetics. Learning a language gives a person a feeling of accomplishing something. I learned 5 languages years ago and maybe I want to feel I can still do that.

(Two of those languages are dead languages and so might not count but they weren't so easy to learn: Latin and Old English.)

That's not really so very remarkable. I've known adept linguists who have mastered 15-20 languages.

2 - I had my photo blazoned across the front page of 3 Chicago daily newspapers. There were other people in the photo with me and so I wasn't "featured" but I was the most prominent in all of the photos. I'm not sure why they picked on me except that maybe I looked colder and more miserable than the others. We were city college teachers on strike in January, and it was snowy and around 0' as we were picketing outside. At least I wasn't named in the article but some people identified me in the photo and told me about it.

3 - I actually "lettered" in something. I'm no good at most team sports but I did get a letter in swimming. Because of that I was invited to a Women's Athletic Association banquet, where Laura Fermi, widow of the atomic physicist Enrico Fermi, was the guest speaker. So you could say I've hobnobbed with at least one famous person.

[Lazarus]

Climbing Mt. St. Helens is an achievement. Every mountain in the Cascade range seems pretty daunting to me.

No mountain climbing here but I did get a near-daily look at Mt. Rainier for the 28 years I lived in WA state. (Some days it didn't appear at all because of clouds or fog.)

Interesting or not-so-interesting facts about me:

1- I'm trying to learn Czech. I'm using the online method, Duolingo. I've been doing this for over a year now and slowly progressing. Why Czech? I can't imagine except that I was always interested in Czech because it's a bit like Russian but in many ways it's not at all like Russian. It's known to be one of the most logical languages in the world though maybe that's just its phonetics. Learning a language gives a person a feeling of accomplishing something. I learned 5 languages years ago and maybe I want to feel I can still do that.

(Two of those languages are dead languages and so might not count but they weren't so easy to learn: Latin and Old English.)

That's not really so very remarkable. I've known adept linguists who have mastered 15-20 languages.

2 - I had my photo blazoned across the front page of 3 Chicago daily newspapers. There were other people in the photo with me and so I wasn't "featured" but I was the most prominent in all of the photos. I'm not sure why they picked on me except that maybe I looked colder and more miserable than the others. We were city college teachers on strike in January, and it was snowy and around 0' as we were picketing outside. At least I wasn't named in the article but some people identified me in the photo and told me about it.

3 - I actually "lettered" in something. I'm no good at most team sports but I did get a letter in swimming. Because of that I was invited to a Women's Athletic Association banquet, where Laura Fermi, widow of the atomic physicist Enrico Fermi, was the guest speaker. So you could say I've hobnobbed with at least one famous person.

Hey Agate,
I taught in a public high school called Enrico Fermi High School.

[RandomThought]

"That's not really so very remarkable."

I find this remarkable, five languages you say. I can barely speak one and even then I don't do it particularly well.

When I was very young my father was a newspaper reporter and I was featured regularly but never so prominently or for such an important reason as you.

I do love me some experimental physicist...

and Linda (Lazarus)

What a fun coincidence about the school name. I'm pretty sure you've mentioned the subjects you've taught but I can't recall them.

[Lazarus]

"That's not really so very remarkable."

I find this remarkable, five languages you say. I can barely speak one and even then I don't do it particularly well.

When I was very young my father was a newspaper reporter and I was featured regularly but never so prominently or for such an important reason as you.

I do love me some experimental physicist...

and Linda (Lazarus)

What a fun coincidence about the school name. I'm pretty sure you've mentioned the subjects you've taught but I can't recall them.

I taught Critical and Analytical writing and World Literature. My brother is the research physicist. He ran a lab at the National Labs . ( the fusion project)

Here’s a random memory.....I packed up my car with veggies we grew and set off to a farmer’s market that I had read about. I set up and sold prune plums and zucchini. I made $6.25 and never looked back!

[RandomThought]

Here’s a random memory.....I packed up my car with veggies we grew and set off to a farmer’s market that I had read about. I set up and sold prune plums and zucchini. I made $6.25 and never looked back!

Oddly enough, I too have a zucchini story from my experiences; I'll try to be brief.

Thirty years ago while working at a small store a patron came in penniless but bearing bags and bags of zucchini. She implored me to trade her grocery staples for said vegetables.Being of kind heart and generous with the owner's money I agreed. Pre-internet I had no idea the price of zucchini I but I declared myself the Zucchini Czar and set up a display at the entrance "Local Grown Zucchini !". It was a big hit with the customers and sold out over the next two days. The owner never really forgave me.

[agate]

People joke about zucchini as being the homegrown veggie nobody can give away because there are always so many of them, apparently, but they're really very useful. They turn out well in a wide variety of recipes--salads, zucchini bread or muffins, and just cooked up as a side dish. I'm surprised that the owner didn't thank you for coming up with an ingenious idea.

[Lazarus]

Oddly enough, I too have a zucchini story from my experiences; I'll try to be brief.

Thirty years ago while working at a small store a patron came in penniless but bearing bags and bags of zucchini. She implored me to trade her grocery staples for said vegetables.Being of kind heart and generous with the owner's money I agreed. Pre-internet I had no idea the price of zucchini I but I declared myself the Zucchini Czar and set up a display at the entrance "Local Grown Zucchini !". It was a big hit with the customers and sold out over the next two days. The owner never really forgave me.

I forgive you and thank you too!

[RandomThought]

I seem to have a history of declaring myself a Czar (after all who else is gunna do it?)

Shortly after high school I was working for an early recycling project. Again, I was handing out someone else's money as I paid out the bounty for aluminum cans and such. In the back of the warehouse I came across a huge stack of flyers, each including a printed coupon for a free "mountain bar" candybar. My supervisor agreed that during my break I could grab some coupons as they were just going to be thrown in with the newspapers and destroyed.

He did not count on my sweet tooth and I gathered 500 coupons that afternoon. At that time candy bars were 20 cents each so this was $100 worth of deliciousness that was never directly intended for me. My favorite were the cherry mountain bar but the vanilla were good as well.

I declared myself the Mountain Bar Czar, cashing in as much as $20 worth at a time, eating and giving away the sweet, sweet goodness as any wealthy patron would.

Perhaps not my finest hour but as the young people were saying a few years ago, "it was pretty sweet!"

[agate]

We'll promise not to tell anyone.

[RandomThought]

I understand it is entirely possible for one to to grow weary of "Amazing Facts About and Experiences Of Me! " but since we are here...

A. My grandfather was a disabled veteran, injured in France during WW1. His brother was killed.

B. My father (still living!) is a disabled veteran, struck down with a damaging, viral illness while serving at the time of, but not actually in, the Korean war.

C. I am a disabled veteran going back many years; my MS diagnosis came as "just another thing" to handle". *flash of insight* My avoidance of this major, life topic keeps me a bit reclusive and off of forums.

Ok...deep breath...click post reply...

[agate]

Brian, assuming you're in the US (but I'm not sure you are), do you deal with the VA? Do they provide good care?
I've heard really mixed reports about them. Some people are really pleased with the VA care but others say it's hopelessly bad. My own impression is that it's a seriously overburdened system that is trying to do the best it can.

[stillstANNding]

I waltzed with John Kenneth Galbraith in the Harvard Boat House one December.

Dancing, I miss you.

ANN

[RandomThought]

Brian, assuming you're in the US (but I'm not sure you are), do you deal with the VA? Do they provide good care?
I've heard really mixed reports about them. Some people are really pleased with the VA care but others say it's hopelessly bad. My own impression is that it's a seriously overburdened system that is trying to do the best it can.

Since beggars can't be choosers, I have dealt with the VA many many times over a period spanning decades. I have had both terrible and gratifying experiences. My MS Dx came from a University Of Washington MS research neurologist who thoughtfully spent some time slumming at the Seattle VA hospital. I avoid the bureaucratic nightmare as much as I can.

Dancing, I miss you.

ANN

I'm sorry that you miss dancing but I like your memory of a dance with an accomplished person in a primo location !

[Howie]

Well, let me see if you are a late nighter.....like me!