8 Random Things About Me

I have been tagged by Susan Reynolds to tell ya'll 8 random things about me. So, with a bit of delay, here are 8 random things about me.

1. My Erdös number is 3. It helps when you work with your husband and his Erdös number is 2. :-)

2. I have met and talked with Nadia Boulanger. She was an amazing lady, and I will always remember her telling the group that was chatting with her to remember "I will not be deflected from the pursuit of my goals." She spoke of the challenges she had faced, and how important it is to not let someone else's perception of limitation stand in the way of achieving your goals. I was probably 7 or 8 when I saw her.

3. I am an accidental ham. (And kosher too.) My husband decided to get his ham radio license, starting with the technician class license. I went along with him when he took his test. The folks there cajoled me into to taking the novice test. I hadn't preprepared but figured why not? I passed the novice written test. They gave me 15 minutes to review the study book my husband had brought in the car, and I took the technician test, but missed by two points. I came back next test round and passed the 5wpm morse code test and the technician test and got my "ticket". I later tested up to getting an advanced class license.

4. My Uncle works at Skywalker Ranch as a sound engineer and has worked as the road manager for Eddie Money and Santana (at different times).

5. I ride a motorcycle, a Honda Hawk with a custom paint job. The paint job looks stock (gunmetal gray) but if you looked carefully at the bike, instead of saying Honda in the requisite logo sites it has my first name in the same font. I also got my husband into motorcycling.

6. I graduated from the University of Liverpool, but I have spent less than 8 hours in Liverpool England. I attended through an online course coordinated with Laureate Education. I went to Liverpool for my graduation which had considerable Pomp and Circumstance.

7. I play clarinet. I was convinced to learn clarinet by a friend who told me our marching band needed "More marching bass clarinets." At least she didn't tell me we needed more marching harps. I started with bass clarinet but moved to the B-flat clarinet when they started up the orchestra for the King & I. I have played clarinet in the Tournament of Roses marching band and in the Youth Orchestra at Cal State LA (this was about 20 (gasp) years ago).

8. I grew up on a private girl's school campus (Foxcroft School for girls) as a faculty kid. I learned gardening, Appalachian dulcimer, and horseback riding there, even though I never attended the school. (I was too young for most of my time there and chose to go to public school for the one year I could have attended.)

Now to pass the baton: I am inviting Jim Long, Jon Swanson, Bryan Villarin, Muhammad Mosa, Gruven Reuven, Kim M. Bayne, Clarence (DYKC), and Eric Rice to share 8 random things about themselves. I totally understand if this isn't something you do on your blog, but I wanted to know more about you so I thought I'd let you know by passing along the theme.