Ten things meme

[elderberrywine]

Oh, hey, why not.

Here's my list, even though there is one person on my flist who was my partner-in-crime on quite a few of these.



1. Wandered about the desert in the middle of the night, sneeking up on unusual buildings and pretending I was a spy (thank you, Man From UNCLE).

2. Was whisked off by two total strangers in a van for a night tour of Bath (UK) after one too many lemonade-and-rums (don't ask) without my glasses. And yes, I am as blind as a bat, so the whole thing was quite surreal.

3. Stayed for several days in Austrian farmhouse (we knew no German, they knew no English) and staggered home from the village through the cowfields each night after way too much beer.

4. Have seen eight Formula One Grand Prix races, and have been driven by total strangers around another track. Was in the pit/paddock area for a few of them.

5. Played concerts for nursing homes with a large plaster statue of some sort of viper as our mascot. Brought the audience to tears (and not in a good way).

6. Played viola in various orchestras for a total of 23 years - some very good, and some amazingly bad (see 5 above).

7. Was stopped by the police one night on the beach at Waikiki under suspicion of being a prostitute. (So wrong, alas.)

8. Nearly tripped over Fred Astaire leaving work one day.

9. Went to the Academy Awards, red carpet and everything, and had great fun pretending to be somebody. Unfortunately, it was not one of the better years, but there was Johnny Carson.

10. Got married at a Hindu/Buddhist sort of temple, and had my reception at the local park, deli platters from the local supermarket. Ah, the 70's.

Comments

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

You are much, much braver than I will ever be. I would never attempt to play the viola, under any circumstances! ;)

Catherine

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Hee! It was decided for me, in fourth grade. They made me blow against a pencil, and wind instruments were out. Then they had me hold out my arm, and said, "Ah. Viola."

It did turn out to be a wonderful choice though, because there's usually a shortage of them, and you really don't have to be wildly good. Worked for me.

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

That is a unique way to determine what instrument is to be played! I never heard of such a thing. I'm glad that it worked for you, and that you enjoyed playing. The viola has always scared me, for various reasons. It scares me almost as much as the violin! (I must confess, though, that I have been pondering taking up the Irish fiddle...)

Catherine

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

It's definitely a clunky beast, but has its good points. I always hated dragging it home from high school though, when I had to sometimes walk through the desert for a couple of miles if I missed the bus. Bang THUMP bang THUMP. With an arm-load of books, too, of course.

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

That does sound inconvenient. Not to mention noisy. At least they didn't choose to make you play double bass!

Catherine

[notabluemaia.livejournal.com]

C - that is another gorgeous and distinctive icon. Love it!

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

Thank you! thuribrandybuck made it for me as a "welcome to LJ gift" when I first got my journal. I am very fond of it!

Catherine

[notabluemaia.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes - and I hear it 'sing' when I see it. I do not know the giver - but what a beautiful design.

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

Thuri writes Merry/Pippin, both book canon (with movie-verse appearance) and AU. She is best known for her book-canon Shire Reckoning (http://www.in-the-shire-reckoning.com/shirereckoning.html) series and her AU series "Bucklebury Faire" (co-written with sunhawkaerie), which can be found at buckleburyfaire on LJ. (The sticky gives instructions on how to access the posts in chronological order.) She has also written an AU BB/DM RPS called "Siren's Song", if you like mer!fic.

Catherine

[notabluemaia.livejournal.com]

UNCLE! Whee! My cousin and I spooked through the Missouri woods. Not as convincing as a beach.

Your 70's wedding sounds lovely - ah, the good ole days. Love the viola tale - my daughters tell me that violas are still in demand. Violins tend to be prima donnas, and everyone wants to play. (she's a violinist, and NOT a primadonna, btw). Do you still play? And what's this with the races? Still a passion?

Thanks for sharing - *hugs*

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, violas are large and quite awkward to play in comparison to violins. And we specialize in afterbeats. Um PAH, um PAH. But every now and then, we get a very cool counter-melody.

Unfortunately, I had to stop playing when my sons were born. It just didn't work as a naptime-accompaniment, and I couldn't get away to play in any group. So nowadays, it's only the piano. But someday, I'll get new strings and re-hair my bow, and find an orchestra SOMEWHERE.

And races? Ah, fell in love with the movie Grand Prix, and a certain English driver therein, and eventually realized our dream (hey there, hobbitdogs) of following the circuit. Saw GPs in Monaco, France, England, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, plus two more in California. Unfortunately, they no longer come here so haven't seen one in more than a decade. It does, however, make my older son very envious of me, so it's all good.

Yeah, and the 70's wedding. Made my own dress, and told my bridesmaids (three sisters and a sister-in-law) to do the same, just make it long and blue. They all did. We were pretty darn funky. Oh, yeah, and wore granny glasses and flowers in my hair. Which was (is) long. Heh. Whole thing cost about $500.

[notabluemaia.livejournal.com]

But piano! What a joy piano music brings to a home - I can't contribute, but love it when my daughters do.

Oh, EBW - the races sound very cool. I think that the best travel might be to follow a passionate interest, whether it's to ORC or the races.

You married before I did - we were well into yuppiedom by the 80's. How quickly things change. Bet you were beautiful! *curls*

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Piano is very cool - it's always ready to go. And doesn't require a group, so you can sneak a little bit in every day.

Not sure about beautiful, God knows I was geeky! But you see, in the 70's, none of us knew how geeky we were. It was an unselfconsious decade, if nothing else - hippies/Partridge Family/disco/big hair/polyester - hey, we had it all!

[lbilover.livejournal.com]

Oh, please tell more about nearly tripping over Fred Astaire? He's been my idol since I was in high school. I'd have given anything to have met him.

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

He used to come into the bank I worked in Beverly Hills nearly every day on his morning constitutional, or so they told me. He only went to one person, and was apparently very nice and unassuming. I kept looking for him and never saw him, until one day, as I was leaving for lunch, I nearly tripped over this old white-haired man coming through the door, and realized it was him. He was definitely the size of our hobbit boyz.

So after that, I saw him around all the time. Never said anything to him, too shy. And besides, that wasn't cool in BH. You gave people their space.

Loved his movies, always, but I'm afraid I was more of a Gene Kelly girl.

[chaos--chan.livejournal.com]

wow you realy did all the thinks you wrote ther? very impresive.

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Heh, thanks. But then I've been around for awhile, too.

[xylohypha.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Tipsy nocturnal tour of Bath sans glasses? That's a kind of surreal I'm glad not to have experienced. (I feel much at a loss without my glasses even during the day, in known surroundings!)

And for some reason, I'm much taken with the idea of a large plaster viper as a mascot. I expect the nursing home residents found it novel. *grin*

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

And the no glasses? Was trying to look glamourous. *snort* Clueless was probably more like it.

The viper had a name too - Basil. It was purchased in Tiajuana, I believe.

[hobbitdogs.livejournal.com]

*Heeeee* fumph gross!! And how does one say bathroom in German? Good times. Remember the hunt for Mr. Hess, the spanish teacher who mysteriously disappeared? (MFU days, of course) ICONS RULE.
And the wedding was very pretty!
ERm, Basil was a cobra, and he had "The Late But STill Great Gargantua" (mouse), in his mouth, with tail trailing out. The old folks in the resthomes loved it. *snicker* Alas, Basil fell off of his perch over my door and shattered.
Monaco. Need I say more?
And don't forget the morning call of the Austrian Warthog.

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. Disappearing Spanish teachers. Clearly the work of Evil Forces. (Still have ICON sweatshirt, and I think the plastic sharks-tooth is about somewhere.)

Heh, thanks on the wedding - but, yes, it was cheap. (Paid for it ourselves, we did.)

Ah, cobra, that's what he was. I knew it wasn't a boa, but couldn't remember what.

Ooooh, yeah. Monaco. Sigh. Only touched the surface of the iceberg there....

Ah, and the Austrian warthog. UnnngHAAAA. WTF????

[frodosweetstuff.livejournal.com]

I love the night tour of Bath - I had a similar tour of the Welsh coastal path with two Australians. Luckily I had my glasses because much as I love Wales, I wouldn't want to drown there. ;-)

What sort of music were you making? And why the viper?

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Well, the music was sort of all over the place. A little Vivaldi, a little Blue Moon. That was supposed to be an orchestra, but I was the only string player, and I play viola. So, actually, I ended up playing oboe parts from band music. My buddy hobbitdogs played flute. On a good day, there were maybe twelve of us. On a better day, there were about eight.

The percussion player had some learning and emotional issues (really!) so he sort of tended to wander off at times, we had a beginning French horn player (and I challenge you to find a harder instrument to start on - even pros tend to blurt from time to time) who could be so far off it was unbelievable, and a clarinet player about which the less said the better. Other folks, some extremely good, and some amazingly bad, would come and go.

It was the orchestra for a small community college, and the director, an absolute saint, believed in us performing, no matter what. So he hauled us to play for nursing homes, ladies' clubs, small isolated schools without music programs, wherever.

hobbitdogs and I just sort of felt Basil set the general tone well. But I was seventeen, eighteen at the time, so that probably explained it.

[frodosweetstuff.livejournal.com]

I've seen [Unknown site tag] around but am not sure - is she a slasher, too? If yes - what a coincidence! Did one of you discover slash first and the other followed or how did that happen?

Did you ever record anything by your orchestra/band? And what was the general response to your performances? You make it sound like it was more of an experience than a musical pleasure... ;-)

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Well, hobbitdogs and I go waaaaaay back. I've known her since I was ten (man, more than forty years now!) and we were part of the same group of friends, but we really bonded four years later, our junior year, over - yes, unbelievably enough, LOTR. She's been my best bud ever since.

We did discover slash together and basically on our own, sort of spontaneous, I guess. Devoted fans of Man From UNCLE and orginial Star Trek at first, and then developed our own original character slash series. Oddly enough, I was always the reader, she was always the writer. Our first attempts are so hysterical to us now, because we were amazingly, incredibly clueless. You never saw any of this around, mind you. We were so on our own. My writings on LJ are my first attempts at this, and I'd never be able to write any other fandom, so, this is it, I guess.

And as for our orchestra, fortunately for mankind, those performances were never recorded, although those of a community orchestra I was in at the same time were. I'd have to say that the general reception to the first group was stunned silence, and then polite applause. Actually, the old folks were our best audiences, because their hearing had started to go, and they thought we were all young sweet dears. Worked for us.

[frodosweetstuff.livejournal.com]

Wow, I think it is wonderful to have a friend that you go back with so long and you're still so close. That doesn't happen very often, does it? Usually at one point, one develops new interests that the other doesn't share and then you gradually drift apart.

Oh, I'd love to see your first attempts! I don't know Man from UNCLE even though it was on TV here as well. Please tell me more about your OC slash series!! Hey, post it now! :D How come you didn't write back then? What made you pick up the pen, or rather reach for the keyboard?

I'm still smiling about your orchestra...

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, you really don't want to see our first attempts. And the OC slash series is really Hobbitdogs', so, um, I don't think so.

I did try writing, but I really sucked at it, so I just figured, me? Math person. Not English person. That was it.

And I never would have tried it again, except that I found LOTR slash, and loved it, but no one was telling the story I wanted to tell, and so... Got the nerve to try.

[frodosweetstuff.livejournal.com]

I did try writing, but I really sucked at it, so I just figured, me? Math person. Not English person. That was it.
I can so identify with that. And that bit about discovering slash and wanting to write the story that I wanted to read. Which one was your first story and was it the story that made you want to write? I'm asking because the one story that I've written isn't the story that made me want to write - that one is still in my head, refusing to be written. And maybe it's for the best because I will need to learn a lot about writing before I'll be able to do justice to the story idea.- My only fear is that somebody will write a similar story and that'd be the end of my fic. ;-)

[frodosweetstuff.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Another comment from me which I should have checked via preview. I didn't really want the entire comment to be in italics...