Friday Five
1. What is the sickest you’ve ever been?
Other than chronic illness or recovering from surgery kinds of things, probably when I had mononucleosis at about 15. I actually felt too crappy to even read for the first week or so—sleeping or staring at walls/ceilings was about all I could manage.
2. Do you still keep in touch with any friends from high school? Details.
I’m occasionally in touch with two girls from high school, but I can’t say that we’re friends anymore. One of them was a pretty close friend until she got married in the early 90s, though.
3. Were you a naughty child? Did you get in a lot of trouble? Did you know the principal really well because he/she was your Pal?
I mostly got in trouble for stuff I was accused of but didn’t do or for things my siblings did (my parents knew who did them—I got in trouble alongside them because I was the oldest and they thought I should have been wherever brother and sister were to keep them out of trouble). I finally got rebellious sometime in middle school and started doing a lot of things I knew they’d hate (not just because they’d hate them—because that’s what I wanted to do), since I knew I’d get the punishments anyway. They never caught me at the stuff I really did, though. I’ve always thought that was rather funny—and I try to keep it in mind as a parent, too.
I was pretty well-behaved in school for the most part ’til high school, and then I mostly just didn’t get caught. I wasn’t doing anything harmful to anyone else (or even to property) at any time, either. Actually, come to think of it, I did get kicked out of a dance for “dirty dancing”—but it was at a neighboring high school, and my school refused to punish me for it. And I got in trouble on an all-district band trip in 9th grade, but so did just about all the other first-chair players (it was quite a party there at the motel). The band director found himself between a rock and a hard place. If he reported us, we’d get suspended—and he’d lose all of his best people right before a competition. His competitive side won, and we just did extra “tutoring” time with the lower-level band for a while as a consequence.
The only time I got sent to the principal’s office was by a freako 6th grade English teacher who didn’t like my fresh-from-Alabama accent. The principal laughed, bought me a Coke, and let me hang there for a while to be away from Mrs. Norma Owens, then called her in for a meeting. She never hassled me about the accent again (but I quickly managed to get rid of it anyway, unless I’m around other people with similar accents).
4. When is the last time you cried? Why did you cry?
I can’t remember at the moment. I cried during a D&D game back in January, I think? Because my character is so real to me and sambear‘s plot did something truly nasty to her family. I’m sure I’ve cried since then, I just can’t remember it.
5. City Mouse or Country Mouse?
Suburban girl, myself. I like to be NEAR all the cool stuff in the city, but I want a big yard and trees and so on.
