8 Random Things About PMW

as tagged by my dear friend Cheryl of Poets & Writers! Except that I'm going to break the rules and just post eight things without passing on cuz I"m just like that.



ˆMy portrait as taken by relatives in Hiroshima, Japan. They insisted on gussying me up in full kimono and taking formal pictures for wedding prospects. Needless to say, I only went halfway and just had pictures taken in the house, not in some fussy studio and never got the hookup. See Random Item #5.ˆ

1.) When I was growing up, my bro, sister, mom and I raised Guide Dogs for the Blind. I also read those encyclopedias of dog breeds voraciously and can now spot and identify over 50 breeds as they mosey down the street.

2.) I am super well versed in California native plants- I love me a sisyrinchium bellum, a philadelphia lewisii, quercus agrifolia. I attribute the bulk of this to the fact that when I was in third grade, I met this rad girl named Misty whose parents owned land up in the Sierra Foothills above Fresno. We would go up there on the weekends and stay at their amazing rustic cabin (like we were in Little House in the Prairie), battling rattlesnakes, building stone dams in the creek, trucking dirt roads in a white golf cart, and yes, learning the names of native plants to earn us Girl Scout badge points. If you don't believe me, let's go for a hike.

3.) I wish I were more metal. Go figure.

4.) I have had two boyfriends in a row with the same birthday- December 7th- the day of infamy, no less. Tora! Tora! Tora!

5.) Both sides of my family (mother and father) are descendants from HIroshima, Japan. That makes me 4th Generation Japanese American/California, but 100% Hiroshima-jin.

6.) I can't do handstands. Nor cartwheels. I suck. Katonk.

7.) The first record I ever fell in love with was ELO's "Discovery". You know, the one with the Aladdin guy stealing the neon ELO disk out of the silken purses of like, the Shah. Then on the back of the album there is an army of angry guards waving scimitars over their heads while they race through the dunes- our hero still clutching the musical talisman against his vest...

8.) Once, when I was over at my friend Nguyen Qui Duc's house (he is an international journalist, writer, photographer and former host of the KQED program "Pacific Time") I accidentally set fire to one of his original polaroid prints. As in I burned a piece of artwork that commands hundreds of dollars in galleries. At this writing, we are in fact somehow still friends.

Thanks Cheryl! That was was oddly satisfying and therapeutic.

2 comments:

Cheryl said...

Not to mention fun to read. Thanks for playing!

Linda Norton said...

Yes, Patricia, this is nice.

Funny about the December 7th boyfriends.

I'm responding to this post but thinking about the Hiroshima one . . .

Love,

Linda