Friday Five -- February 4, 2005
1. How old were you when you got your drivers license? I was 17, which has always been the driving age in New Jersey, but back when the baby boomers were 17, you couldn't go for your test on your birthday (the way they do now) because the DMV was always so backed up. I got my learner's permit on my birthday in January, and got my license in March, on March 4, 1970, I believe.
2. Did you get your own car right away, use the family car, or bum rides from friends? On the morning of my 17th birthday, on his way to work, Jack handed me my birthday gift: a small paper bag full of keys. He had gone to a hardware store and made me my own set of keys to the family cars, which at that time were three. I drove whichever one was available; when my sister got married the next summer and got her own car, the third family car became mine for a few months until the insurance expired and Jack sold the car.
3. What was your first car and what was it like? The first car that was mine for my use, although my parents owned it, was a 1967 Chevy something, a tank. When I started commuting to college in 1973, Shirl got a new car and I got to drive her old one. It was gold on the outside, solid black on the inside, and had the best air conditioning of any car I've ever driven. I drove it until I got married in 1977 and we got our own car.
4. How old were you when you got your first traffic ticket and what happened? Damn. I was having my first ... shall we say, nervous episode, now we would call it a depression, and I was rushing to get from class at college to the high school were I was doing my junior practicum and there was a speed trap set up on the road outside the college that was down a long hill, so everybody went too fast. I pulled over and the grandfatherly cop came to the window; I handed him my license and registration and totally fell apart, sobbing hysterically, because now I was going to be late. He apologized to me again and again, he felt so bad, but he had to give me the ticket because I had been stopped by radar and the other cop knew it, too.
5. What is your favorite car story, be it an accident, road trip, etc? Probably the story about how Mindy and I got a ride off the ride board when we were going to school in Maryland and ended up in the Car From Hell. The ride took forever, because after they picked us up, they had to stop here, and there, and then back here, and then they stopped at every rest room between Maryland and New York, and they offered us drugs and when we said "Oh, no thanks," one of them said "Hey man. I'm getting a bad vibe from you." and we were scared shitless, and then it turned out that they were on their way to New York because the woman had a job offer where she was going to make $200 in for an hour's work. Ahem. Did I mention that none of them were students at the college, and that the woman (30) and her "fiance" (19) both had waist-length blond hair? And braces? And that every time we stopped on the highway, the third guy, their friend, would stand there and pee, which at least did solve the indeterminite gender issue for us. We were terrified, called home at every rest stop to tell them where we were, and adhered ourselves to my father the instant we saw him at the place the freaks were dropping us off. Never took a ride off the ride board again, I can tell you that. Yeah, that's it.
And of course, there was the trip to DisneyWorld. Can't leave that one out. Heh heh.
I've been looking at a bunch of different diaries today and I saw links to Buzznet on some of them and it looks so much better than my moblog/textamerica thing. I signed up for an account over there but I can't figure it out yet. Isn't it funny how if you start at one -- like diaryland, for example -- you go to another one and it just doesn't look right? Or even the other way, sometimes; I had tried blogger before I ever heard of diaryland, and I just didn't get it. Oh, I'll keep working on it; I like the look of buzznet better. I think. I'm not sure yet.
It was a little over a year ago that the Vet Who Does Not Know Cats pronounced the death sentence on BooBoo, that he only had a few months, maybe. I got the results of the bloodwork from this year's checkup yesterday, and his kidney function has not deteriorated one iota since his last treatment, which was in April. And he'll be 14 next month, so I guess you could say that he's reasonably okay. I mean, he's a 14 year old cat with kidney disease, which is par for the cat course. He shows no symptoms, and is very playful. He's a little OCD, but that's not new.
I'm all about the lines today.
I finally started making my list of questions to ask at Tuesday's meeting, stuff I need to have when the library moves, and so on. It was very weird to be sitting at my desk looking around at the room critically, but making it look to the SCM like I was just spacing out. Odd to know something like this and not be able to tell him.
My mission for tomorrow is cleaning. YUCK! I hate cleaning. But Modern Sewers keeps calling about featuring my living room on the cover of next month's issue, so perhaps the time has come after all.
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I'm watching Dr. Phil
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Sweet Sorrow - 06.12.2007
So ... - 12.19.2006
Christmastime Is Near - 12.18.2006
Fifteen Years - 12.17.2006
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