Sunday, May 6, 2012

Answering to a Higher Power

My blogger buddie, Dianne from Yonks thought it would be fun to include me in a game of Blogger tag. She provided 10 questions for me to answer... (honestly, I think). This is an awful lot of pressure. The questions include some best/worst/favorite considerations and my mind is so changeable that I never know for sure what is my best/worst/favorite. Anyway, here goes:

PUTTING ON MY THINKING CAP.

1. What is your favorite holiday destination?
It used to be Palm Springs, California... until we moved there, opened a hotel in 2001, and lost our shirts. Since moving in July to Sevilla, I feel like I'm at a permanent holiday destination. Then again, my fantasy escape has always been an uncrowded beach, with nothing other than the crashing waves and the birds for background music.

LA ALAMEDA DE HERCULES, SEVILLA. PERMANENT VACATION.

2. If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?
I don't eat when I'm stressed.

3. If you could invite anyone for dinner, living or dead, who would it be?
My big sister. I idolized her (and she me... we were a strange pair). She died 31 years ago just before I met San Geraldo. I would love to tell her all that's happened since then. (She would love San Geraldo.)


4. If you had a time machine, where would you go?
I would turn my back and walk away from it. I don't want to know the future. And I wouldn't want to risk changing anything in the past — having no idea what impact that would have on the present or the future.

Or... to tomorrow to find out the winning lottery numbers and then come right back to today to buy the tickets. (When we lived in San Diego and San Geraldo traveled to China on business — putting him 18 hours ahead of me — I asked him to check the paper for the winning lottery numbers so I could buy that ticket. He wouldn't do it. I'm not quite sure if he thought it would be dishonest or that it was simply idiotic... Well, I really am quite sure.)

5.  What is your earliest memory?
My memory works in strange ways.  I can hear a commercial jingle once and remember it the rest of my life. I can tell you what I was wearing the day I met San Geraldo in 1981 (Fiorucci jeans and a green ribbed T-shirt). But, I can't remember where I put the toolbox.

Earliest memories are all from before the age of 1-1/2. The very rickety, old, dark-wood porch on the back of my parents' apartment in Brooklyn and how it creaked and squeaked when anyone stepped onto it. Taking a bath with my sister (when I was under 1-1/2 and she was under 4), and my mother's hand-mirror got knocked into the tub and cracked. Holding my mother's hand while standing on a new street on Long Island seeing the foundation being poured for our new house.

BEING DANGLED OVER THE RICKETY PORCH... VERY CONCERNED.

6. Your favorite perfume or cologne?
It used to be Royal Copenhagen Musk. Now it's Versace Pour Homme.

7. Your best birthday gift?
When Jerry's mother and his two sisters flew to San Diego and surprised me at the 40th birthday party Jerry was throwing (even though Jerry didn't think to invite them from so far away). If the Dowager Duchess (my mother) had known, she would have done the same thing (so that was sad). Also, that same birthday when our friend Jim wrote a very funny and touching poem in my honor. (He wrote a very funny and racy poem, too. But, I'm keeping that one to myself.)

© JRW, 1994

8. Your worst birthday gift?
I have no idea.

9. Your favorite flowers?
Daffodils. Before my sister got married and she was still living with my parents, when the first spring daffodils were being sold at the flower stalls outside the subway stations, she would pick up a bunch for my mother on her way home. They always make me think of her.

10. Your first kiss — who/where?
I think I was about 14 when I had my first real kiss. She was my girlfriend in 8th or 9th grade and then again in part of 10th grade. She and I hadn't spoken since high school and reestablished contact about three years ago. She reads my blog. I have no idea where we were when we kissed. I know I wasn't very good at it — thinking the harder I pressed my lips against hers, the better the kiss. First kiss with a man? Boston, when I was 26. I knew a little more by then. And I'm not telling either of their names. That's all you get.

LONG BEFORE THE FIRST KISS.
ALREADY IRRESISTIBLE.

25 comments:

  1. Mitch,
    Firstly, thanks for entering into the spirit of things!
    What great answers, so good to get more of an insight into the life and mind of Mitch. Your life's journey has made you who you are today. I have heard you talk of your sister in previous blog posts, I am sure she would have followed you and been living in Seville now! Lovely earliest memories :-)
    What a cute kid!
    Thanks, I feel I know you better.
    Much love
    Di
    X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YONKS:
      I really enjoyed this, although I had a moment of panic when I saw your invitation. So, thanks for thinking of me and for getting me out of my comfort zone (although, once I began, this became just as comfortable as what I usually do)!

      Delete
  2. Hello Mitch:
    How wonderful to have this albeit small glimpse into the life, times and thoughts of the man behind the blog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. J&L:
      Thanks. It was surprisingly fun for me. I gave me an excuse to go through some more old photos.

      Delete
  3. You are so right...don't change a thing...neither would I. As Edith Piaf so eloquently expressed it in her song "Je ne regrete rien".

    My mistakes are...as I am sure yours are too, learning experiences; my problems were difficult opportunities and I would do it over again in a blink.

    saludos,
    raulito

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Raulito:
      When I was in 5th grade, I read a short horror story called "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. It had a permanent impact on the way I think about wishing and changing the past. Probably not a great story to read at that age, but I think it had a positive effect all in all.

      Delete
  4. Hmm. If I were on Death Row I'd be tempted to ask for freshly-made thousand year-old eggs for my last meal.

    (Yes, yes, I know they only take about ten days - but the warders might not know that ...)

    p.s. I can't believe that bonnet you're wearing in the balcony shot, parents can be so cruel!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Owl Wood:
      If I were on Death Row, I'd just want to get it over with.

      And that bonnet was I'm sure supposed to look like a very roguish Tam o' Shanter. But I was so scrawny, it could have been used as a tote bag instead.

      Delete
  5. I love the use of pictures in the answers. Good stuff there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Stew. I had a good time looking for pictures and was especially pleased with the appropriateness of the first one.

      Delete
  6. I'm with you on the 'time machine'....I like where I am and where I came from.
    The 40th b'day poem by your friend was great! He knows you well! And now we 'know' you a little better, Mitch. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jim:
      That poem by our friend Jim was surprisingly clever given that we had only known each other a very short time. I guess brilliance just comes with the name.

      Delete
  7. Wow, your earliest memory is at a year-and-a-half? Mine wasn't until age three. You must have been a precocious child. I would be hard-pressed to answer some of those questions. You did a bang-up job!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ms. Sparrow:
      Precocious ... or peculiar. Yes, my memory is very vivid for those kinds of life experiences. Statistical information (or anything important) usually goes in my head momentarily before running out my ear!

      Thanks to Dianne for including me in this. I really did enjoy it!

      Delete
  8. What a lovely, thoughtful post and how nice to learn a little more about you, Mitch. I doubt that I could open up like that.

    I'd do the same as you if I was faced with a time machine I think - including the lottery numbers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Judith:
      You know, aren't you and I living on opposite sides of the international dateline?!? If you give me the numbers, I'll buy the ticket, and we can split the winnings!!! Oh, wait, you meant the OTHER part of my lottery numbers plan... Never mind.

      Delete
  9. Oh this was just wonderful in all sorts of ways … especially the photos. I'm amazed how early you can remember!!! That is most impressive. And that birthday poem .. wow. I hope I get a gift as amazing as that someday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jenners;
      The birthday poem is really special to me. I think Jim thought of it as a funny little throw-away, not appreciating how much it would mean. He wrote one for San Geraldo for his birthday that same year. We had them framed together.

      Delete
    2. Hello Cuz.... Question 3.. I would love to come to Dinner, especially if she brought Mark

      Delete
    3. Hey Sheree! That would be something, wouldn't it?!?

      Delete
  10. wow
    that was marvelous
    thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ur-spo: My pleasure! Thanks even more for reading it!

      Delete
  11. Revealing tantalising amounts, lets have some more on the next bit of the quiz. Can't wait!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the cuby poet:
      I have to be careful what I reveal. My mother reads this!

      Delete

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