25 Random Things from the Facebook meme

Must be something in the stars. I finally cranked out a meme. Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?

Seems I've been bogged down in work a little too much lately--life working for the man has become quite Matrix-esque. My brain hurts from being jacked in all day herding projects. Sucks the energy right out. I don't want to see a computer when I get home--I juggle electronic balls and plates online making other people's stuff come true.

Meanwhile, here's this meme.

Now I'll REALLY have to get busy with the meme that Kay from Kay's Thinking Cap sent me!

1. I learned to read when I was 3, and was skipped straight to the 2nd grade when I started school. My teacher took me from classroom to classroom, randomly pulling a book from the shelf and opening it for me to read. I had my first stumble in a 9th grade history book.

2. I learned to play the piano at about the same time, and continued to sing/play piano/organ every Sunday until I left home to major in music.

3. Got my first flute when I was 7, majored in flute performance/musicology through grad school. Haven't found many flute-playing opportunities in Austin--too many damn flute players here, not enough gigs for classical/experimental flutists!

4. I had my wonderful daughter at home in N. CA with no drugs (except for herbal teas) using the Bradley method. Right after she popped out, she wiggled and squirmed her way up my stomach and latched onto my left boob.

5. I lived in an alcoholic relationship for 12 years before I understood what it was doing to me and my child. It took another 10 years to extricate myself from it, and another 10 years to recover from it. SUGGESTION: Never marry an addictive/abusive person--it's a menace to the rest of the family's health and no one wins.

6. I was one of the organizers of the Pocono Pop Festival. Worked for Showco Sound, who did sound/light for the top 10 groups of the time: Led Zeppelin, 3-Dog Night, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, The Carpenters, Leon Russell, Rod Stewart and the Faces, can't even remember them all. Got to travel by helicopter while the 200,000+ attendees lined the interstate all the way from NYC to the Pocono Raceway. Went to the wrap dinner with an international rock'n roll trucker from Boston--IN the semi truck.

7. Worked for Screen Gems/Columbia making demo tapes with Michael Martin Murphy, Boomer Castleman, and Diane Hilderbrand.

8. Was followed and spied on by the FBI during the Vietnam War.

9. Lost (literally) a friend one November late '60'sin the High Sierras camping in the Stanislaus Wilderness. Endured a week of searches and questioning by the local, county, and state law enforcement. They thought we knocked him off to get him declared a missing person. They finally had to let us go b/c they couldn't find his body. We were in big trouble til I convinced the head cop we weren't murderers. He was reading Durrell's Alexandria Quartet at the time, one book of which described how a man bought a body in the bazaar and set it up to make people think he was dead. To this day I still don't know what happened to him. Maybe he survived and will join Facebook some day...John Cassteel, where are you?

10. Used to perform in Carnegie Hall with Opera Orchestra of New York (Eve Queller, director) on an annual basis when I lived in Princeton. Great fun to sing with many of the top and upcoming international opera stars.

11. Worked in arts (music) management on both coasts for decades until I moved to Austin. Austin is about 15 years behind both. Which is a huge bummer. Texas is pretty much a closed shop--not enough classical/experimental music opportunities for the hordes of musicians here. Lo, see how far the mighty fall...

12. One of the first people in N. CA to start and maintain a garden using the French Intensive/Biodynamic method. No petroleum products, all done by hand, with lots of companion planning and natural pest control. One of a group of 5 adults and a baby.

13. I have an exceptionally high degree of ESP, with lots of examples to prove it.

14. Had an out-of-body experience when I was attacked while hitchhiking in Topanga Canyon on a fire trail off Mulholland Drive. Managed to talk the guy out of raping me, but ended up with a bruised windpipe, a cracked rib, and broken glasses. Not to mention PTSD. Walked out of "A Clockwork Orange" in a cold sweat a month later during the rape scene.

15. Absolutely adored living in Australia. Would have emigrated if I could. They know how to live life fully there.

16. Sang with the top Australian choral group for 2 years, in the Sydney Opera House, Australian Broadcast Company studios, and various other venues. Good stuff, too--Beethoven "Missa Solemnis," Walton "Belshazzar's Feast," and a bunch of original Australian and African composers works.

17. National Merit Scholar semi-finalist.

18. IQ clocked at 165 when I was 15, eroded to 154 as I've aged. Actually, I don't think I'm any less intelligent, I just don't give a shit any more :)

19. Never lived in any one place longer than 2.5 years growing up--preacher's daughter.

20. I collect pieces of drift glass, shells, and coral from around the world. I make collages out of bits of kitchen middens from Victorian Sydney, trinkets from grandparents and great-grandparents, photos, baby teeth, bones, buttons, beads, and other found objects, new and antique.

21. I have enough photos on various themes to publish dozens of photo books. Portraits of friends, windows, rock 'n roll musicians, other series.

22. This is the third time I've lived in Austin. 1968, '84-88, and since '96. Each time it's been more impersonal and less intimate. Gone are the days of heading downtown for a concert in the gazebo with Janis, Angela Strehli, Bubble Puppy, Conqueroo, Rocky/Elevators, Shiva's Head Band, et al. When everyone could fit into a small park, and we walked everywhere.

23. Fascinated by: Gaudi', Wittgenstein, Jung, Dali, the philosophy of art, music, dreams, Zen.

24. My daughter started talking at 6 months. Really. Spoke in complete compound sentences by the time she was one. Explained subtleties in human physiology to me when she was 5. She's a scientist now, and is still teaching me about mass spectronomy, DNA sequencing, and other biomedical technologies. I actually understand them...she's a good teacher.

25. It's relatively simple to come up with 25 random things when you're as old as I am!