Day 13
Tell about a secret career desire. What job would you love to have?

I’ve always wanted to do voice-over work for TV and radio commercials. You know, like sing jingles and read ad copy. (BoomR and I recorded some jingles back in the eighties, and it was a blast.) In fact, in 2007, I contacted an agent in Cleveland, and he told me to send him some recorded samples of my work. Alas, I started my doctoral stuff and lots of things got pushed off the priority table.

Who knows…I still might do it. I mean, what easier job, right? Show up to a studio in a sweatshirt and jeans, do what you do, collect the check. All I need is a recording. Gotta phone somebody about that.

How about you? Ever think, “Hey, I’d like to do that”?

Day 12
I believe…

…that a lot of relationships are ruined because someone had to prove he/she was right.

…that there are still caring, wonderful people in this world.

…that relentlessly insisting you have your way, in some way, comes back to bite you.

…that asking forgiveness is often easier than asking permission — unless they don’t forgive you.

…that the chances I will find my keys are inversely proportional to the number of places I look first.

Any credo you’d care to share today? If you’re writing, I’m reading.

Day 11
Name something that makes you feel ooky; creeped out.

1. When my dog acts as if someone or something is “there,” but I can’t see or hear anything.
2. Clowns (people who think clowns are funny are suspect as well)
3. That initial moment of deafening silence when the electricity shuts off during a thunderstorm
4. Cats. They stare and hiss and dig in their claws and expect you to like it. Sociopaths…

Nothing like a violent thunderstorm with the beginnings of hail (I can hear it against the windows) to accompany the creepy talk this morning. And then I get to drive in it — yay! So tell — what makes your skin crawl?

Day 10
What are the weirdest foods or food combinations that you love?

While I’m not looking for responses like “I like mushrooms” or “I adore oysters,” “weird” is subjective. What’s dandy to one may be bizarre to another. I’m among the pickiest eaters I know (I think the Thriller is *the* pickiest), but when I latch onto something, it doesn’t matter how strange it sounds, as long as it tastes yummy.

I love:

1. Fluffernutters
2. “Picklebeets”
3. Frosting, all by itself (I’m fond of saying that the cake part is just an obligatory conveyance)
4. Cherry pie filling, right out of the can
5. Graham crackers dipped in raspberry Kool-Aid (but be careful: you have to pull them out of the drink at just the right time, or they’ll disintegrate)

I know all you non-picky eaters have even stranger tastes. Let’s see ’em. Ick.

Day 9
Tell about a time when you nearly lost — or thought you might lose — your life.

This is an easy one. Took place, oh, 1969-1970. The family (the four of us) were on one of those pleasure cruises to Washington Island in Wisconsin. On the way back across Green Bay, a storm came out of nowhere (or it seemed that way to me). There was no shelter on the boat, so everybody just sat down on the benches, out in the open, and hung on. It was terrifying. The swells and troughs (I think that’s what you call them) of the waves were slamming everyone around. I was seated next to my sister and mother, and wanted to get up to sit with my dad. In the pouring rain, I stood to go to him, and at that exact moment, the boat lurched violently to one side and my feet left the deck. I was airborne and going over the side.

The only thing I remember was being yanked by the back of the powder-blue windbreaker I was wearing and pulled from what definitely would have been certain drowning. It only took me a second to realize that the person who saved me was Dad. I spent the rest of the horrific ride back to shore with my entire body glued to his neck and chest.

Since then, me and boats….ehhhh not so much.

What about you?