MORE ABOUT SB

More about Sharon Brogan:

I see that there is a web ring called 100 Things About Me. This is more things than I can muster, but it seems a fine way to approach this About Me exercise. So:

10 Things About Me:

1.  I have lived in Colorado, Montana, Minnesota, Washington, Alaska, and now in Montana again. Alaska was a life-changing experience, teaching me about light and wildness. Montana is home.

2.  I have worked as a box-office cashier, nurses’ aide, grocery clerk, office clerk/ secretary/executive secretary, waitress, assertiveness trainer, clinical/psychiatric social worker, grants writer, grants reviewer, program manager, and human services agency administrator.

3.  For most of my adult life, I was a career-focused workaholic. My professional expertise was in the field of domestic violence and sexual assault, especially offender treatment.

4.  Chronic illness changed my life, and I don't yet know entirely how.

5.  I have been writing for about eighteen years; thinking about writing for fifty.

6.  I have SETI at Home on my computer, searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.

7.  I share my home with two dogs, two cats, one parakeet| one| two parakeets, about a dozen goldfish, and, on occasion, another human. I share my garden with many squirrels, sparrows, finches, chicadees, nuthatches, the rare racoon, and pretty much anything else that comes along.

8.  Writing is my anchor, which I too often cut loose from.

9.  My grandmother, a loving, deep-spirited woman, had a great influence on my life.

10.  I don’t know the answers.

I hope you enjoy these poems, which are filled with questions.

 

UPDATED 09 July 02006: I still cannot come up with 100 things about me. So I Googled "SB is..." and added a few of those (color coded below.) I made others up. I slipped in a few facts. I quit counting.

This is a narcissistic exercise; who would want to know 100 things about a stranger on the internet?

Some of these may be true, but this is not a True or False quiz; no cookies for correct answers. In fact, the correct answers will not be revealed.

 

• SB is a pseudonym for a Bonobo ape who lives in a highly classified linguistics laboratory somewhere in New Jersey.
• SB vowed, in the early 1970's, to not marry until/unless the ERA was ratified.
• SB talks to herself, out loud, even in the presence of others.
• SB has declined seven marriage proposals, one of which was too
  weird to be taken seriously, and one of which was seriously insane.
• SB is Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging; or
• SB is Introverted iNuitive Thinking Perceiving
• SB has seen the sun skip once on the sea at summer solstice in Alaska.
• SB is seriously flawed in that it does not assist the application ...
• SB is, by inborn temperament, a gatherer, rather than a hunter.
• SB has always known she is a Venusian
  mistakenly born in a human body. She has been saving up for years for
  corrective surgery, which is available only at a secret clinic run by
  Swedes in the Andes.
• SB detests hypocrisy, dishonesty, "crazy-making", moral cowardice,
  and bigotry. Having some experience and sophistication in these
  matters, she is aware that humans tend to detest, in others, their own
  worst traits; so she suspects that she is, in some spot where her own
  vision is blurred, a bigoted, dishonest, cowardly, crazy-making
  hypocrite.
• SB is Antimony [Not to be confused with antinomy, a type of paradox.]
• SB has left several secure and well-paying jobs to avoid getting too comfortable, because she is overly fond of comfort.
• SB has a cup of organic Dagoba cocoa with cinnamon every night at bedtime. This is only one of her many self-indulgences.
• SB suspects that she has a passel of half-siblings scattered about
  the world. One of them may have been born in Denver, Colorado on May
  13, 1949, and be named Sharon Lee ...  something.
• SB was mistaken, several times, many years ago, for a beauty queen.
• A graphologist at a county fair, after giving SB's friend a very nice reading, looked at SB's handwriting sample and exclaimed Oh my god, what happened to you?!
• SB is an inconstant friend.
• SB once ran an organization called MEN, Inc.
• SB is generally readily classifiable, though quite variable ...
• SB is an only child, and has always been an orphan.
• SB is fiercely loyal, wildly generous, and passionate in her attachments.
• SB believes in the apparently radical principle of equity: that
  all persons ought to have equal access to health care, education, and
  employment opportunities; and that bigotry and discrimination ought not
  be tolerated, let alone enshrined in our laws or Constitution.
• SB is rigid, judgmental, demanding, and unforgiving of minor faults.
• SB is boring as a stick.
• SB is a Thinker, or perhaps a Scientist; an Analyst, or an Observer; an Architect, or a Mastermind.
• SB is stoic about discomfort, and can be an entertaining companion on a rainy camping trip.
• SB has been to Italy, and to deep old Mexico, and coming back to
  the States each time felt like leaving a wedding, or a carnival, or a
  garden party, and entering a hospital.
• SB has not traveled more than five miles from home in over a decade.
• SB believes that the other animals are much smarter than we think they are, and that we are much more limited than we believe.
• SB believes in thinking, in reason, in the scientific method --
  and that there may be much we are unlikely to discover using these
  methods.
• SB is directly compatible with most earth observing operational research mission profiles.
• SB talks to trees.
• SB has frequently been described by very religious people as deeply spiritual and blessed with the gift of prophecy. SB has no idea what this means.
• SB is the pen name of an internationally recognized eighty-three year old Swiss physicist.
• SB is very organized, and very messy.
• SB has never been away from home.
• SB is moody, volatile, comedic, and intense.
• SB has been known to pass her own mother on the street without recognizing her.
• SB is a multi-channel system to record and archive sound.
• SB's past is more interesting than one might expect.
• SB is about as even-tempered as they come.
• SB thinks that religious belief which cannot endure the cold eye of science is delusional and should be treated as such.
• SB, today, at the glimpse of a thin, sharp man, felt with fresh
  pain the cutting excision of a beloved, many years ago; death's harsh
  claim.
• SB tries to remember, each day, that to live this day is a decision.
• SB is an ancient, cranky cocker spaniel, a stand-in for a
  20-something male would-be poet. He overfeeds her, and grooms her
  himself as she is afraid of strangers, cars, water, and the sky.
• SB loves to travel, and keeps a suitcase packed with essentials (a
  stone, a feather, a candle, a seashell) ready to go at a moment's
  notice.
• SB believes in light, and how it changes everything.
• As a consequence of long, deep solitude, SB has become unsuitable
  for coupled life. Or perhaps: unsuitable for coupled life, SB has
  enjoyed a long, deep solitude.
• SB loves toys, tech or plush, and has more than is good for her.
• SB's future is more interesting than one might expect.
• SB is stable with 70 neutrons. 
• SB has no sense of smell.
• SB suspects that she may be in the last generation to live a long,
  comfortable, well-fed life. This causes her guilt, and grief, and a
  certain desperate appreciation; a wonderment that life should be so
  kind to her; unkind to so many others.
• SB is a fragment of someone's imagination. A fragment, only. A
  scented lily, a marigold, an aging cat. Perhaps a number: zero, one,
  zero, zero. Can you prove otherwise?