Showing posts with label Hudson Valley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hudson Valley. Show all posts

Monday, January 26, 2015

20 Little-Known Facts About Me

TWENTY little known facts about me...
 
Me at age 4 (1966)
 


  1. I was born and raised on an old asparagus farm that my grandfather and father built & the concrete for the Brooklyn Bridge was made and transported on an old train track behind my house. It was the largest asparagus farm on the east coast! If you ate asparagus up until about 1959, you got it from our farm.
  2. Started ballet at age 4 & remember my black leotard, pink tights & little pink ballet shoes like it was yesterday. I started tap not too long after that & still remember the first steps I was taught & can picture it like it was yesterday. Classes were at Tillson Elementary school at that time & it was great!
  3. Began taking Judo when I was 10, got my black belt and won the Gold Medal in the Jr. Nationals & Bronze medal in the Jr. Olympics, with girls much older than me. 
  4. Did the same with swimming...but got a gold, silver & bronze in the Jr. Olympics: my specialty was the butterfly stroke!
  5. Started Schuplattling  (think Oktoberfest) at age 8, was fluent in German most of my life and can still read it. I even read the Book of Mormon (when I was LDS) in German
  6. Was the tallest girl next to Linda Mandic (heck tallest anyone) in Elementary School.
  7.  Ride a 700 lb motorcycle back brace and all
  8.  I LOVE to cook! I make my own pasta & gravy from scratch and I can even make SUSHI
  9.  he first role I ever played was as a snowflake as a kindergartener in the school winter program with all my little girlfriends
  10.  I lost my hearing due to severe ear infections starting as a child and bottoming out in my 20's. I consider sign equivalent to English as my first language.
  11.  I was a professor at NYU of ASL for a few years in NYC.
  12.  I have 2 PhD's considering my high school teachers & guidance counselor said i was 'stupid' I think I'd kind of wanna ask THEIR IQ at this point! (all after a G E D!)
  13.  I still hold the record for the highest score on the NYS GED test...a 99. Then again, I took it the DAY after the last day of school... so not that much of an accomplishment compared to those like my aunt, who hadn't been in school in about 15 years or more.
  14. Started my BA 2 months shy of turning 30 (January 1992) & finished in one year - 4 quarters!
  15. I attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC.
  16. I've traveled A LOT- RV x the US 4 x (including all of Canada), Rio, Mexico, all over - usually by myself. One summer I travelled 9 THOUSAND miles in 3 months, hitting every state in the lower 48 and every province of Canada, in a 1972 Pace Arrow.
  17. My dream was to be on Broadway
  18. Have experienced some very interesting things I'd never want to experience again but they were fun then....
  19.  I'm ambidextrous
  20.  I have played the following instruments: Guitar, clarinet, French horn, trombone, trumpet, violin, 2 level organ & a few more I have an electric piano but have never taken lessons and can't play it because only with piano am I terribly uncoordinated with my left hand.

Grandma Delora sitting on my motorcycle
 
 Me Schupplattling sometime in the 2000's
 An article about a play I was in locally when I was about 18-19

Tillson Elementary School - my old alma mater - I LOVED this place









Sunday, January 25, 2015

Winter? In Upstate NY? Really? No SHIT SHERLOCK! Buy a shovel & some salt!



It's WINTER and they're predicting more SNOW?
Oh my GOD let me lay down & hibernate because I NEVER EXPECTED THIS
living in Upstate New York! Oh SHUT up or move to Arizona!
 
 
This is how we rolled in the old days in Tillson!
Yes, a real fur coat & muff, while sitting on a bear skin blanket
on our horse drawn sled (that you see in the Budweiser ads)
 
 
This shit NEVER ceases to amaze me:
 
  
  1. They're predicting a snowstorm again tomorrow night. I know what the HELL are they thinking! By this time last year we were over 7 FEET under snow! My entire van was covered & I couldn't see it - period. This year is like SPRING - suck it up!
  2. It's winter - in northern NYS, why on EARTH does everyone rush to the store to get shovels and salt? Unless you've just moved here from California or Florida & have never seen snow - this is some stone age bullshit! Buy this crap before the snow you idiots!
  3. Stop your pissing bitching and moaning about it. Suck it up.
  4. Well that's how you would THINK people who live here actually do think. There's a forecast for snow OR it's actually falling and it never fails that these yahoos are piling into the stores for milk & bread (seriously you don't just keep that stuff in your house?) and shovels and salt. Ummm you LIVE in upsta...te NY - you seriously don't have a fucking SHOVEL or SALT? Unless this is your first winter living here from AZ, CA or some other place where you don't know what snow IS, this is mindboggling!
  5. I get a nice big bag of salt early in the season, most of which stays in the bag in the back of the car (for extra weight in ice or to save some poor person out there who isn't lucky enough - or smart enough - to drive a 4x4 like me - out of a mess they've accidentally gotten into out there) & I have a large coffee can filled with the stuff by my front door along with - wait for it - a SHOVEL! I know - smack your head on that one right? A shovel go figure! THEN these yahoos who lived up here most of their lives - drive like IDIOTS in the stuff!
  6. If you are going 20mph and/or braking upon every turn that is on the road - you are JUST as dangerous as the douche trying to go 55 in it. One of you is going to wrap your ass around a tree & probably going to take me with you! Folks I know it's a shocker but this is not the first nor will it be the last winter or snow we will have up here - get your heads out of your asses & prepare for it. Calgon take me away!
  7.  When it's cold and/or snowing, people piss, bitch & moan about it. These are the SAME people who are doing the SAME THING when it's hot in the summer! When it's 80 in the winter and 30 in the summer, THEN BITCH you dumbasses - it's called the Seasons - get used to it or move to Arizona where they don't have any! GOOD GOD!
  8. If you see someone out there stuck in this crap & you have a 4WD vehicle, stop & help them or at least wait for them if you can. Give them a ride somewhere. Are you truly in that much of a hurry that you can't? No, you're not.
  9. Unless you're a nurse, doctor, cop or fireman (etc.) who must be somewhere because you're saving lives for a living, DON'T venture out in this stuff - it's stupid & you're putting your own life as well as everyone else on the road's life, in danger. Stay put, view the beauty of the snow from inside your home. 
  10. If you have children, grandchildren, or you yourself are physically able (I'm not & I miss doing this) get outside, make a snowman, a snow angel, have a snowball fight, whip it out and piss in the snow (for the guys, if you're a girl & you can do it you are far more talented than most), pull out a board game or some cards & play some fantastic games together, read a BOOK (it's a bunch of papers with typing on it bound between thicker pages), watch an old movie, play charades or have a good old fashioned family dinner with conversation (I know that last one is a stretch) but DO SOMETHING to enjoy the day and don't bitch about it!!

     
     And we had several snow mobiles that we used in winter in the 60s/70's
    because we had enough snow to ride them daily & did errands for the
    neighborhood to the store in them! Yes indeed!



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