Four

Four Jobs I've Had:
Corn Detasseler: This was a great job to get. You only had to be 14 because it was farm work and it paid twice minimum wage at the time. Basically you rode a school bus out to some field somewhere at 5AM and walked the rows of corn pulling the tassels off of the female plants so they wouldn't self-fertilize. At the end of the day we would emerge from the fields muddy and covered with spider webs. Once in a while they'd bring in this piece of machinery. Basically a tractor with big arms from which baskets hung. We'd climb into the baskets and roll through the field grabbing the tassels. It was actually worse than walking. When I slept at night I would dream about rows and rows of corn sliding past me.

Handwriting Decipherer: That wasn't the actual job title. I was a graduate assistant. But what I did was squint at the quill scratchings of a French 18th century noble woman and try to figure out what she had written. She was not a good speller. Someone else had the job of transcribing the bulk of her writing and just left me the tough bits. I had recourse to some period dictionaries and the microfiche of the original documents. Once or twice a year someone, never me, went to the Rare Books Library at Yale to look at the actual documents and tried to figure out the ones I couldn't get. Not being a good speller and having peculiar handwriting I felt a kinship with her. I have justified my lack of effort at improvement by saying I am potentially creating employment for future graduate students.

HIV Test counselor: This was San Francisco, 1989. A different world.

Bus "boy" at the IHOP. My sister got me the job. She was waitressing there. I got to wear a little bow tie. I'm pretty sure I was underage.

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:

Stuart Little
Monsters, Inc
Lilo and Stitch
Cinderella

While I was a resident I did back to back in-patient teaching service months June and July. While working the in-patient teaching service we got two days off in the entire month. By the second month I was in pretty bad shape. To make matters worse the new residents start in July so there were all these clueless newbies to watch over. Every single day for the entire month of July I came home and put in my tape of Stuart Little. I rarely made it all the way through. I have used the other movies similarly.

Four Places I Have Lived:

Des Moines, Iowa
The Midwest was a lot more remote when I was a kid.
Aix-en-Provence
Total culture AND climate shock for an 18 year old Iowa girl.
Berkeley, California
Some people leave their hearts in San Francisco but mine is in Berkeley.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Been here for over 10 years now.

Four TV Shows I Like to Watch:

American Idol: It has an effect on my brain similar to Stuart Little.

Golf: Great back ground sound for a nap on the couch. Reminds me of Saturdays at my grandparents.

Lawrence Welk: Turn off the sound. The color and movement is beautiful. Color TV was so new that they really put some time and effort into it.

Medium: I like Patricia Arquette.

Four Places I've Been on Vacation:

Vacation? What's a vacation? Must have been those long car rides we took when I was a kid. In that case it would be:

Disneyland, Rocky Mountain National Park, Philadelphia, St Louis.

Four Favorite Dishes:

Pasta Fagiole, Tortellini in Brodo, Butter Bean Casserole, and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

Four Websites I Visit Daily(or almost):

Caleb Walker; my sister's blog: Life on the Other Side; My Daily Yoga; Art Underfoot (I'm ever hopeful)

Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:

• Home in bed.
• New York City
• Paris
• Anywhere with my sister.

Four People to Tag (meaning people who should do this, too):

Well, obviously Art Underfoot, Life on the Other Side, AC, and Ohmygod, I don't know anybody else!