A couple of weeks ago I updated a post called “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Me.” So I thought I would update another 10 things post.
- I am a classically trained musician, who occasionally still performs in public. I have been playing flute since I was 9, and I spent a year in college as a music performance major. Until I figured out I wasn’t good enough to make a living at it. I used to do events, but while the money was good, the people are crazy. I still play from time to time, but copyright laws that govern streaming have made it difficult to find music that will comply – because even if the composer is long dead, the people who wrote the editions are not.
- I once broke a toe playing Scrabble. No kidding. It was my turn, and I had to use the restroom. I tried to take out the door frame with my little toe. The door frame won. This was one of the things that I realized was directly a result of my dyscalculia – an inability to judge where my body is in space.
- I detest shoe shopping. A friend of mine usually is the reason I shop for new shoes…she notices I need new ones, and we go shopping. During the summer I live in Birkenstocks and flip flops with arch support.
- I don’t like peaches with the fuzz still on. I think it’s a texture thing. I have to peel them.
- My favorite book of all time is Pride and Prejudice. I first read it the summer before grade eight, and I read it at least once a year. I never tire of the story, the character development, or Austen’s way of exposing the inconsistencies present in her characters.
- Single reed instruments grate on my nerves. Clarinets, saxophones all get me. I suspect there is something about the overtones. Double reed instruments, like oboe, English horn and bagpipe, I love.
- I do have a strong spiritual practice, and I do not talk about it. People who know me know about my spiritual practice, but acquaintances do not. I find that the United States, for all its supposed freedoms and tolerances, still has pockets of entrenched closed-minded “if you don’t do things/believe like us you’re going to Hell.” I happen to live in one of those areas, and so I simply do not talk about it. The reason this aspect of my life never appears on the blog is because of that reticence in my daily life.
- I love unsweetened iced tea. This will probably be a mystery to those outside the South of the United States. Let me explain to the rest of the world: Americans take hot tea and serve it over a glass of ice. It is very refreshing. To those outside the South, there is an added feature: Southerners serve “sweet tea” which to me tastes like a glass of sugar mixed with a few ice cubes and a drop of tea. I prefer unsweet, or “Northern” tea. But then, I am a Yankee.
- I really like what I do as a job. I work a full time job in data engineering. I love what I do. Moving huge amounts of data from one place to another, transforming it as it goes, is immensely satisfying. I also like optimizing queries for fun.
- I spent one year as a high school math teacher. We’ll call it a midlife crisis that caused me to get a teaching license, take a 66% cut in salary and put up with an abusive boss. I loved the students. I hated the principal (see abusive boss). It was the hardest job I have ever done, physically and emotionally, but mentally it left me brain dead. After one year, I decided I wasn’t going to deal with the abusive boss anymore, so I went back to my old job (which I love). I will probably go back to teaching at the college level in my retirement.
