“Why I Wake Early,” By Jane Hirshfield

92 Random Questions

Especially for @soulreserve

THE LAST:

1. Drink: Diet Coke.

2. Phone call: Last night with my daughter in New Orleans.

3. Text message: With my friend about a Twentysomething sex term she didn't know and was hesitant to lookup online for herself.

4. Song you listened to: "Drive It Like You Stole It" (from "Sing Street" soundtrack.).

5. Time you cried: I was seriously depressed.

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: Yes.

7. Kissed someone and regretted it: No

8. Been cheated on: No.

9. Lost someone special: Yes.

10. Been depressed: On and off most of my adult life.

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: Yes. More than once.

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12. Green. *** 13. Saffron. *** 14. Rose.

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: Not in person.

16. Fallen out of love: No.

17. Laughed until you cried: Had some hearty laughs, but nothing _that_ hearty.

18. Found out someone was talking about you: Yes, but it was idle chatter during downtime at work--my "monster hours" at my desk--and exaggerated.

19. Met someone who changed you: Beginning more like 16 months ago, and we're still at it.

20. Found out who your friends are: Not new news, but they're still with me.

21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: Yes. My wife.

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: Almost all of them--mostly it's family and friends.

23. Do you have any pets: Yes. An elderly beagle and the purrfect cat.

24. Do you want to change your name: No. But I sure wish there were fewer guys in the world with the same name as me.

25. What did you do for your last birthday: Celebratory dinner at our favorite local Asian restaurant with our closest local friends, in the tatami room.

26. What time did you wake up: 6 AM (on Saturday morning!!). The cat wanted his breakfast.

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: Sleeping.

28. Name something you can’t wait for: The next US solar eclipse in April 2024.

29. When was the last time you saw your mom: More than 25 years ago.

30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: The endless commentary in my mind expressing trivial dissatisfactions.

31. What are you listening right now: The tick-tick of the living room clock, rain on the street, and my tinnitus.

32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Yes. One of them was a long-ago workmate from Martha's Vineyard. He was a good guy.

33. Something that is getting on your nerves: The mess verging on disaster area that fills the room at home where my desk is.

34. Most visited website(s): Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook, NY Times, in approximately that order.

LOST QUESTIONS. I JUST PUT IN RANDOM INFO ABOUT ME:

35. Mole/s: None. Some freckles.

36. Mark/s: Scars from a boisterous boyhood--face, belly, legs.

37. Childhood dream: To be a great scientist or an astronaut.

38. Hair color: Gray. Used to be mousy brown.

39. Long or short hair: Short. But it get longish and scraggly between haircuts.

40. Do you have a crush on someone: Yes. There's always someone, but secret, minor, and evanescent.

41. What do you like about yourself: Those all-too-rare flashes of creativity when everything just flows

42. Piercings: None.

43. Blood type: A+

44. Nickname: Some of my colleagues at work occasionally call me "Doc."

45. Relationship status: Married nearly 36 years.

46. Zodiac: Taurus in the cusp of Aries.

47. Pronouns: He, him.

48. Favourite TV Show: Working my way through the seven seasons of the current reboot of Hawaii Five-O. It's decent trashy TV. Started watching Friday Night Lights recently, and like it.

49. Tattoos: None. Am puzzled by their profusion among younger people. I always thought they were a bit déclassé. But times change.

50. Right or left hand: Right.

51. Surgery: Most recently left wrist after a fall. Long ago--tonsillectomy and hernia surgery.

52. Hair dyed in different colour: Never.

53. Sport: To watch: baseball, hands down. (Go O's!) To play: Bocce with friends on summer evenings.

55. Vacation: To North Carolina for a family eclipse viewing get together. Our group got rained out. Other members of the party were luckier.

56. Pair of trainers: Nearly every day since childhood.

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: Dim sum.

58. Drinking: Calvados.

59. I’m about to: Feed the cat, feed the neighbor's cats, make supper, wash dishes, order toilet parts online. The life of a householder.

[60. Supply your own--> Last Can of Soup: Chicken noodle.]

61. Waiting for: The clear, cool skies of early fall.

62. Want: Self acceptance.

63. Get married: Been for 36 years and still at it.

64. Career: Archaeologist and historic preservation consultant.

65. Hugs or kisses: That's not an either/or. Both, for sure

66. Lips or eyes: Eyes.

67. Shorter or taller: Just right.

68. Older or younger: My generation and younger.

70. Nice arms or nice stomach: Stomach.

71. Sensitive or loud: Sensitive. Occasionally loud, but only in brief bursts.

72. Hook up or relationship: Relationship, hands down.

73. Troublemaker or hesitant: A bit of both.

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a stranger: Don't recall; maybe.

75. Drank hard liquor: Yes.

76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: Misplaced? You bet. Lost? No.

77. Turned someone down: Yes.

78. Sex on the first date: No.

79. Broken someone’s heart: Yes.

80. Had your heart broken: Yes. First serious girlfriend, long ago. But we're Facebook friends now, and I am happy we're in touch again.

81. Been arrested: No.

82. Cried when someone died: Yes.

83. Fallen for a friend: Yes.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84. Yourself: Sometimes. Not always.

85. Miracles: Wish for them; don't expect them.

86. Love at first sight: Yes.

87. Santa Claus: No. But in my scraggly periods, strangers sometimes mistake me for him.

88. Kiss on the first date: Depends on what came before the date.

89. Angels: No. OTHER:

90. Current best friends names: Celeste. Rob.

91. Eye colour: My drivers license says blue. I'd call them gray, like the goddess Athena.

92. Favourite movies: Rom-coms first: Practical Magic (my go-to movie when I feel pushed around by the world); Bossa Nova; Love Actually; Groundhog Day... All the others: Monsoon Wedding; Ghostbusters (the original); Argo; K-19 the Widowmaker; Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; Hero; Kagemusha; and the list could on for quite awhile longer... 2Sept2017-6PM

Digital Play #4: Late Autumn, 12/09/2017.

“Gudinne Dans (Goddess Dancing).” Digital collage with Procreate. Photo of dancer Charlotte Landreau Graham by NYC Dance Project, (c) Ken Browar and Deborah Ory (https://www.instagram.com/p/B7L0GvUBJ7a/?igshid=1w6bzuun529xx). Sat., 3/28/2020.

Equation of Time II: Noctilucent Clouds at the Dark of the Moon Handmade collage. Cut Anthropologie lookbook 10/2015, p. 16, Marie-Agnès Gillot, prima ballerina of the Paris Opera Ballet and choreographer; and laser print of online image: "Pamela Anderson Vamps It Up in Saint Tropez" W magazine online, 8/2/2017, photo by Luke Gilford (https://www.wmagazine.com/story/pamela-anderson-activism-feminism-interview/amp). Tissue paper, marker paper, rubber stamp image, color marker, ink pen, and gold paint pen on a white sketchbook page, with artist and studio seals. ~7.5x10 inches (~19x25 cm), 10/8/2017.

Quiet streets, New Year’s morning 2018, Maplewood, NJ.

Yellow rose, Wytheville, VA, 8/19/2017

Dawn soon: star, half moon

Pebbledash dew glazes parked cars

First dog walk, new day.

7/14/2017, but appropriate this cool and dew-touched morning, 9/8/2017, as well.

Tidal flat in evening sun, Advocate Harbor, NS, Canada, 7/13/2018.

Sheets of tulle drift down

Beneath bright sky, wind shivers branches

New snow cascades free

(c) Sealanehill, 2017