maeve66: (Default)
2012-11-20 03:10 pm
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Day 361: If I won the lottery...

I used to play this game with my mom, when we'd missed the 203 Ridge bus and were walking downtown, sometimes in the rain, like today. Back then, the unimaginable lottery sum was $1,000,000. Now it's more like $85,000,000.

So, take the taxes off and that's what, $56 million? Well, I would put a sizable chunk, say $10 million, into some kind of an income producing fund for Solidarity, my socialist group. That would be interesting, to see what our group would do if it had enough funds for organizers.

Then I would take two-thirds of the remainder and find a smart tax lawyer to do the same for me. How much income would 21 million produce in a year? After googling, let's say it produces (after taxes) $300,000 per year. That would be extremely relaxing. And no, I would not work a job. I am almost never bored, and I would be prolonging my life without the stress of working, I swear to god.

That leaves another $15 million. I would pay off my sister's mortgage and establish college accounts for my nieces. I would buy a nice craftsman house, possibly in Rockridge, possibly in the Upper Dimond district. I would put in a saltwater pool, with whatever pool service that requires. I think I would also buy (this is fantasy, and there are still several million left) a nice craftsman for my father and stepmother, so they could live in Lake Geneva AND out here. I might buy their Evanston house, too, which they're trying to sell -- so they wouldn't have to, and could be in Evanston when they wanted. I guess I'd buy a car -- my sentimental favorite would be a Subaru Outback station wagon, maybe forest green instead of dark red. I don't really have a ton of other material objects I'd like to own.

With the rest of the money I think I would travel. I'd go to England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Holland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, North Africa, Egypt, possibly Iran, Pakistan, India, Australia, maybe Japan, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.
maeve66: (Default)
2012-11-19 08:05 pm
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Day 360: a picture of what I wore today. No.

I wore grey yoga pants, a grey and white geometric print knit blouse from Old Navy with a surplice top, and a warm black shawl collar sort of cardigan with long ... I don't know what they are... wings? from the front. That being a more complicated piece of clothing, you know *I* didn't buy it. [profile] amarama gave it to me. I like it. I wear it a lot. Oh, and I completed this look with birkenstocks and high pressure stockings. Five more days. What am I going to write about when this challenge which I have GRITTED my teeth through is over?
maeve66: (aqua tea icon)
2012-11-18 07:34 pm
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Day 359: Weekly Routine

Urghh. I feel like I've done this before. Very briefly: I go to work -- I get there around 7:20 AM and leave around 4:30 or 5 PM. Wednesdays are early days, but we have meetings, so effectively I leave at the same time anyway. Most weeknights I can't deal with doing anything except going home and reading or messing about on the internet, except that I often eat at least once a week at my sister's. Weekends I socialize with friends, usually Friday and/or Saturday evenings. I also spend time with my nieces and my sister and brother-in-law most weekends. Sundays are chores (I have laundry in right this minute) and sometimes the Sunday night blues. That's my week in a nutshell.
maeve66: (journaling)
2012-11-17 09:43 pm
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Day 358: Am I as addicted to Tumblr as I was a year ago?

Obviously yes -- since I wasn't addicted a year ago and am not now -- and also yes, if by Tumblr you mean LJ, I am still into LiveJournal, stubbornly clinging on to the small circle of people I feel I know on this platform.
maeve66: (AQ bikini 1973)
2012-11-16 06:15 pm
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Day 357: power ranger/ninja turtle

Ew. No. God, I am glad I am older than this meme author. I never wanted to be a power ranger of any hue, or any of those crappy Renaissance-named teenage mutant ninja turtles. Whoever thought that up was HI-igh.

I am hard pressed to think of my generation's equivalent. I liked some scary live action TV show with talking trees (like in the Wizard of Oz) and a witch and a boy marooned on this island. I can't remember what it was called, though.
maeve66: (some books)
2012-11-15 08:48 pm
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Day 356: What is my dream job?

I would like to be (this is dreaming, now) a successful series author along the lines of Anne Perry (but not Mormon and not a murderess) or Barbara Hambly or Sharan Newman, or Kathryn Lasky (but not of a YA series like the Guardians of Ga'Hoole... just all her other work). Not necessarily mysteries (especially because I have difficulty giving a shit who the murderer is, or plotting the false clues, etc.) But fiction. Maybe historical fiction. Maybe YAF.

In an alternate life where I thought about what I enjoy doing daily, hourly, etc. more, I would have liked to get into editing and publishing early and be doing that, although who knows, maybe computers and the internet are killing that as a job as they are newspapers and journalism.

Failing those two options, teaching offers a lot of positives.
maeve66: (FI hammer and sickle)
2012-11-14 06:51 pm
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Day 355: Do I know the words to my "countries" anthem?

I'll take that as plural. And I'll give the American version, which is closer to the original French.

Arise ye prisoners of starvation
Arise, ye wretched of the earth
For justice thunders condemnation
A better world's in birth
Away with all your superstitions
Arise ye slaves, no more in thrall
The earth shall rise on new foundations
We have been naught, we shall be all
Tis the final battle
Let each stand in his place
The Internationale unites the human race


English version:

Arise ye starvelings from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And thus ends the age of cant
Away with all your superstitions
Servile masses, arise, arise
We'll change forthwith the old traditions
And spurn the dust to win the prize!
So comrades come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race!
maeve66: (fairylights dhamaka)
2012-11-13 08:40 pm
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Day 354: Last time I cried, why did I?

Horrible. I think it was about M. Thoughts of the end of that relationship can pretty reliably bring me to tears of regret, loss, and fear that I will never be in a good relationship that lasts more than a year, for the rest of my life.
maeve66: (Karl Marx)
2012-11-12 11:29 am
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Day 353: What quote do I live by?

You know, normally these quote questions leave me cold, but one Marx quote just popped into my head, so I am going to use it. I feel like it is an easier instruction than most.


From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.


I didn't know that was so late -- from the 1875 Critique of the Gotha Programme. I think that is my philosophy of grading, too, come to think of it.
maeve66: (AQ Missouri crop)
2012-11-10 08:08 am
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Day 351: Am I addicted to Facebook?

No.

I use it, but much more to keep track of friends' pronouncements and life events. I don't update all that often, though occasionally I have a flurry of them. I liked my Lenin-and-cats and Trotsky-and-rabbits photos. It's good for reminding me of birthdays.
maeve66: (Ganesha)
2012-11-10 08:05 am
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Day 350: Do I have any life-affecting decisions to make currently?

Not really, no. Not in any immediate sense. I have an immediate-sense minor difficulty, which is that I woke up with a head cold and sore throat, woe is me. Waste of my Saturday. Bah.
maeve66: (1969)
2012-11-08 08:17 pm
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Day 349: The way to win my heart...

That's actually kind of a cool question. Let me think.

I am always a sucker for someone who makes it clear that he is really into me, in a "wow, I feel lucky, you're amazing way". It's pretty rare. I need that someone to be aware of how fucking intelligent I am, and not to be threatened by it. I am touched by someone who is as interested in my history and stories as I am in his. And I kind of need really good writing. Fluent writing, pleasure in writing, desire to write -- email, letters, texts, whatever. I also like a dry wit, and a deep knowledge of music, with the generosity to introduce me to new stuff.
maeve66: (Default)
2012-11-07 08:52 pm
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Day 348: Most embarrassing thing I've done lately

Either I don't do many embarrassing things (doubtful) or I don't notice when I am supposed to be embarrassed, socially speaking. I am not sure I remember the last embarrassing thing I was aware of doing. I wore my shirt inside out for a whole day a month or so ago, at school. I guess that was embarrassing. I didn't care that much when a student finally called my attention to it, though.

Possibly being hideously embarrassed is more of a teenage self-conscious thing.
maeve66: (Default)
2012-11-05 08:58 pm
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Day 346: Favorite type of shoes

I hate shoes. I think I always have, except for the Dr. Scholl's leather sandals I had as a kid, which are kind of a forerunner of Birkenstocks. I remember I went to some department store in downtown Evanston, when I was eleven or so -- Litton's? Anyway, the supercilious prick of a shoe salesman tut tutted at the width of my feet and claimed I had done something to make them wide, like wearing tennis shoes instead of pointy-toed shoes. He utterly shamed me. Now I see my younger niece's feet and they are genetically identical to mine. And she's 9. What a fucker that salesman was. Anyway, for whatever reasons (and I am sure that is one of them) I fucking hate shoes. I own three pairs: a pair of New Balance walking shoes; a pair of Birkenstock Arizona sandals; and a pair of black sort of suede Mary Janes that despite their deep cushioning, are very painful after even an hour of wearing them, I think because the sole is on a slant, so it mashes my toes.

I have no favorite shoes.
maeve66: (tea with cozy)
2012-11-04 11:07 am
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Day 345: letter to a friend

Also arghhh. I've done this before, and I don't feel like writing a public letter to a friend right now. It is Sunday, end of the weekend. I am clean and showered and ready to drink tea and eat a bagel. My mom and I are going to go see a matinee of Argo, which has great reviews, but which I am slightly, just slightly worried about because I am utterly fascinated with the Iranian revolution, its early days, and the hostage crisis, and I don't want this to be a gung-ho Fuck Iran piece, but suspect that despite what all the reviews say are large helpings of humor, it may be rah rah jingoism. The late 70s should militate against that, damn it.

This week: five days. Next weekend: three days. Next week: four days, one short, and then a week off for Thanksgiving, hallefuckinglujah. My mom leaves for Chicago on the 18th. I'm trying to convince her to come back early -- BEFORE Xmas, instead of after it.
maeve66: (Default)
2012-11-02 08:17 pm
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Day 343: the last person I texted

Back on the 365 teenager's meme. The last person I texted was my sister on behalf of my mother, telling her we were going out to dinner to an excellent deli. There's really not much else to say on this topic.
maeve66: (Indian Cookery)
2012-11-01 09:55 pm
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Day 342: Favorite places to eat

Have I done this one before? I might have. That random generator is starting to cough up repeats, a LOT. Well, maybe I will come up with some different places. I will not confine myself to Oakland. In fact, I will focus on my youth.

Favorite restaurant of my childhood: My father firmly believed that one way to broaden his children's cultural appreciation of the world was to eat in different (cheap) ethnic restaurants many Friday nights. I mean, he enjoyed it too, obviously. And usually ordered whatever national or regional beer went with that cuisine. We ate at: Ethiopian, Polish, Salvadoran, Brazilian, Cuban, Vietnamese, Thai, Mexican, Indian, Himalayan, Chinese (Szechuan usually, but not always), German, French, Korean, Greek, Generally Middle Eastern, Persian, Lebanese, Portuguese, Japanese, Pakistani, and Swedish restaurants. Chicago was an ideal place for that. But of all of those types of cuisines, and all of those various restaurants, my favorite by far was (this is not going to be a surprise, if you've read me for a while) an Indian restaurant on Devon Avenue called The Family Corner. This was an unusual name for an Indian restaurant on Devon, and it was a somewhat unusual Indian restaurant. It had the basic familiar Indian dishes -- of those, my favorite, and the dish that made me want to learn to cook Indian food, was Kheema Matar, which was basically ground lamb and peas in a subtle and complicated curry, over rice. MMMMmmmm. But the restaurant also had Indian-adapted pizzas, and honest to god, they were the best pizzas I've ever had. I don't actually like tomato sauce, so pizza is usually a lukewarm experience for me. Sometimes the cheese and pepperoni and mushrooms and/or spinach can MAKE UP for the tomato sauce. But this pizza... man, it was good. It was the other kind of Chicago style -- not deep dish or stuffed, but a sort of floppy-ish, grease-laden thin crust. And the pizza sauce tasted different, but not outrageously so. It wasn't sweet. And the pizza had well-cooked (not crunchy) cauliflower under the cheese. It was MONSTROUSLY good. The restaurant closed when I was a teenager, sadly, and I've regretted it ever since. I wish I knew their pizza recipes. I learned how to make kheema matar as good as (and very similar to) theirs -- from Madhur Jaffrey's recipe. But the pizza eludes me.
maeve66: (angry piggy)
2012-11-01 09:46 pm
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Day 341: Type 2 Diabetes

That's so weird that this was the first random topic generated. Not like I like to write about it. But. It's the kind of chronic, progressive disease that makes you feel personally guilty, like you brought it about by -- according to every regular media outlet -- your own overeating and weight. I have probably had it since grad school, but university healthcare ... I mean, really, all you ever do there is get birth control prescribed, do your necessary gyne exams (which provide horrible memories for me) and if you have some horrific flu, see if they have palliatives. You don't really have check ups, per se. So anyway, I wasn't diagnosed until I was already well down the path of horrible, horrible side effects, like night sweats, intense and constant thirst, and needing to pee every ten minutes, approximately. That was when I was 35 or 36, the year that my older niece was born. 35, I guess, during the summer.

Thing is, my maternal grandmother -- thin as a rail and the most obviously healthy person in my extended family -- developed it, as did one of her two sisters. And my father has it -- metabolic syndrome, which I probably do, as well, though Kaiser hasn't bothered to be specific about it. It's a more galloping type, as far as I can tell, with a lot of other associated body chemistry issues. In other words, there were strong genetic indicators that I'd get it, no matter what. Somehow that doesn't really help the shame and guilt.

It's really depressing, to be honest. Thinking about the likely eventual progression and developments -- ESPECIALLY diabetic retinopathy... going blind? Fuck. And kidney failure. And neuropathy. I'm feeling extremely fatalistic this evening, is the problem -- not just around this. In general. Ugh. Okay, this entry is done. Blecchhh.