100 things about me

I got this idea from November Child's 100-list.

1. I am kinesthetic.
2. I want an ensemble theatre company; in beautiful spacious buildings like an old farm; in Nature; in America, Poland, or Denmark; that is self-supporting; where everyone is paid a living wage plus benefits plus a 1-month paid yearly sabbatical; that creates many kinds of things; and whose people are working consciously on greatness as well as theatre, that is, on the metalevel as well as the direct level; with great tech support, designers, actors, staff, angels, community, and board. And maybe one or two partner theatres, as well.
3. I have a good sense of smell.
4. I want to net $10 million a year profits after taxes from my books, plays, screenplays, theatre, and other creative works. Multiple revenue streams. Rentals, royalties, investments. Compounding wealth. Support specialists -- attorney, accountant, financial planner, bookkeeper, housekeeper, yardkeeper, personal assistant.
5. I drive an '88 Acura Legend with 186,000 miles.
6. I love introverts.
7. I love ISTJs and INTJs, and am inspired by NF-NF interaction.
8. I am an ENFP with ENTP rising, enneagram 8, Taurus, Rooster, Amiable-Expressive, Controlling-Promotor, mezzo, right-handed, right-brained, right-footed, left-eyed, left-hockey-shot, switch-hitting Ideation/Futurism/Independence/Adaptive/Achievement-skilled Summer.
9. I don't see well, even with my glasses.
10. I read fast. A book a day.
11. I have been to Russia, Hungary, Poland, Wales, Denmark, Norway, France, England, Canada, Australia.
12. I lived in Australia for 2 years, making videogames for Microsoft.
13. I have designed software for 19 years at PARC, Apple, Microsoft.
14. I have done theatre for 7 years (overlapping with software).
15. I am 47, 5'5", with brown hair, hazel eyes, and out-of-shape build.
16. I played in a men's ice hockey league for 8 years, was in a dance company for 2 years.
17. I am fluent in American Sign Language, passable in French.
18. My dog and my brother's pony both had one blue eye and one brown.
19. I grew up on a lake across from a 30-acre woods.
20. I was a fantastic pianist at the end of high school. I could sightread at tempo, an 8-part vocal score with piano accompaniment. THAT skill was gone in about eight weeks.
21. I had my own jazz band and composed for it.
22. I once smoked marijuana -- last year -- and turned into a raving introvert kinesthetic. I couldn't talk and just lay around feeling the couch fabric with my fingertips. If this stuff were legal, I'd be all over it.
23. I secretly am almost constantly talking to god.
24. I can tell the energy of a space very accurately.
25. I read sort of zig-zaggy. I takes me two zigs and one zag to grab all the text on a paperback page. Part of my brain sweeps ahead gathering paragraphs, while another part follows, shuffling & parsing. In the foreground, obscuring the text, I'm seeing a full-color movie of the story.
26. My mother lived alone on a tiny south sea island, 80' x 40', for 5 years in her 50's.
27. My brother lived on his 85' fishing boat , a longliner in Alaska.
28. My father could remember everything he ever read, and scored perfect 99's on his GRE test. He carried the scores in his wallet.
29. My father was red-green color-blind.
30. I have taken 5 years off from corporate life, in my 40's. This has transformed me.
31. I have seen a great therapist, Jim Rapson, for 7 years.
32. My therapist played Hamlet and is a songwriter/jazz pianist.
32. I grew up without a television. I am more of my mother's generation -- the 70-year-olds -- than of my own. Even in theatre. "I see a play in camera angles in my head," said a director friend. "I can shut my eyes and know if they're telling the truth," I said. I hear a play first.
33. I have a niece and two nephews. My brother wanted kids since he was five.
34. I am a catalyst. People who have regular seshes with me, change.
35. I have had some amazing sex. I keep erasing this sentence, or replacing it with more detailed ones, but you'll just have to trust me on this.
36. I love rain.
37. I watch a video every 2 to 4 months, regular tv about the same.
38. My fingers don't bend backwards.
39. I remember exactly how people move, but not their clothes or faces.
40. I teach acting at Bellevue Community College, sometimes in a room with a green rug, sometimes in a room with linoleum.
41. I can shoot a bow and arrow. I can make a bow out of hazelnut branches.
42. I love listening to people tell stories.
43. I love acoustic finger-picked guitar, or two-to-three women singing acapella harmony.
44. I am a shadow-Jew, raised-atheist, nyingma buddhist.
45. I have taken the bodhisattva vow.
46. I have touched the Dalai Lama's robes. I have a yellow flower petal from him.
47. I have touched the Stanley Cup.
48. I read Rumer Godden's In The House of Brede twice a year for 21 years.
49. I think Theodore Sturgeon is a witch, a god, a savant.
50. I have big breasts. Well, actually, right now while I'm out of shape, they are fricking huge. I secretly am really enjoying this phase. When I get back in shape everything else will improve, but this ultra-voluptuousness will vanish. I'm enjoying it while it's here.
51. The picture on my blog is 5 years old.
52. I am learning about money and financial stewardship.
53. I dream in color.
54. I love travelling alone.
55. I don't like most videogames. This is a shameful secret, given that I've spent much of my adult life making them. But it's true. The covenant of game-designers is a lot like the covenant of theatre-makers: it is a craft and practice of devotion. I respect the craft, love the hotness & edginess of it, but am heart-blind to many of the products.
56. My favorite dinner is spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, and coke.
57. I am ashamed about the coke.
58. When there was that talking elephant in Russia, back in the early 80's, my housemate late in a drunken house-party tried to phone him. The operator said no one was allowed to talk to the elephant, and that by far the majority of callers had been American. The elephant's name was Batir. The zookeeper in the newspaper claimed the elephant could say, "Batir is a fine fellow" and "It is time to feed the elephant now." "Anyway," said the Russian operator, "How do you know that I am not the elephant?"
59. I majored in Piano then Dance, then I dropped out. Eventually I ended up with a Rhetoric degree. But only because Xerox PARC would double your pay if you graduated.
60. Three books I recommend to anybody are Lost In Place, by Mark Salzman; Catapult by Jim Paul; and Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg.
61. I rehearsed Macbeth's three witches in a florist shop at midnight , with the lights out and moonlight pouring through glass walls from the parking lot. The First Witch owned the shop, and covered the floor with petals for the witches to roll in.
62. I had the conspirators kill Caesar by singing him to death. They were scarier than the witches.
63. I blocked my first play by writing it out as an orchestral score.
64. I founded a Vision Team. Now I'm on a Dream Team, Diva Team, Ocean Team, and one just called The Team. They're all a little idle at the moment.
65. I had a deaf boyfriend for 5 years. That's how I got into hockey. He wanted an interpreter, and I got bored with watching.
66. I was in a long-term relationship with another man for 15 years. Among many other good things, this taught me that the ability to fix things is next to godliness.
67. When I am stressed I count things.
68. When I am stressed, I look at Nature.
69. When I lived at the Odin Teatret, I kept escaping to the smoky internet cafe in town. I was such a regular that one night when they were closed, they let me in anyway, without a word. The place was dark and uncharacteristically silent, filled with teenage Danish guys on computers.
70. When I get to heaven, my dog, my pony, and my dad will be waiting for me, plus Stanislavski and Chekhov. Chekhov won't have tuberculosis.
71. There was a restaurant in my hometown called The Poor Boy In And Out.
72. I secretly think this is my first time around, so they are giving me a sweet life.
73. I like artichokes, pomegranates, and extra-sharp cheddar cheese.
74. I crave complexity. I love learning curves & ethics.
75. Illuminated manuscripts make me shiver.
76. I have a recurring dream that I am at an artist's house. He has a bookshelf full of his own hand-made books. I spend the whole dream looking at one spread. When I wake up, I can make it. Who thought up that spread? I feel I stole it from him.
77. I dreamed I was Arnold Schwarzenegger for 16 years.
78. I identify with every character in Terminator 2.
79. I tell the same stories again and again.
80. I get myself a book and a chocolate for Christmas.
81. I always wanted to go to MIT. It is full of my type of people, problems, possibilities, power. But I don't want to do all that math work. I just want to contemplate mathematics.
82. I turned down Yale School of Drama for their directing MFA, in the middle of my final audition. It was right after Odin, and I realized the Odin was closer on my path. And that I'd need the tuition money to start a company. They laughed and agreed.
83. I asked Eugenio if I could join the Odin. He said no but I can visit.
84. I want to give myself a present when I turn 50. A big, door-opening, life-changing present. I spend many pleasurable hours considering what this might be.
85. October and November are my best months. I am incredibly smart then. In those restless winds, I am sensual, abandoned, intuitive, and can accomplish anything.
86. I want to observe Kama Ginkas and see Leonid again.
87. I want to become fluent in Polish, conversational in Russian, Danish, and Italian.
88. I can't usually understand what they're saying, in songs. Literally, I can't make out the words. I hear a string of vowels wrapped around rivery consonants.
89. Left to myself, I wake up at noon, kick in at 4, rev up at 7, and am at my peak from 10pm till 3am. This is as regular as clockwork.
90. I love Chekhov.
91. We had secret compartments in our walls when I was little, filled with guns, ammo, and firecrackers. The firecrackers were to let us know if the house was on fire, since my dad was hard of hearing and wouldn't hear a fire. My dad built our house, so they were designed in from the start.
92. I am dying to live in Eastern Europe; Poland, or Denmark.
93. My favorite color is red. My lucky number is 17. My favorite keys are D minor and F major. I am superstitious.
94. I like to listen to the same song over and over.
95. I have a patent on a high-end real-time video-editing system.
96. I wrote Apple's book, Hypercard Stack Design Guidelines.
97. The book won an Award of Excellence from the Society for Technical Communication. I was all proud until I learned a) this is their 3rd-place prize, and b) the book I had lost to, in 2nd place, was The Citrus Industry: Volume III.
98. My housemate Jeff is a 33-year-old INFP ex-quarterback with eidetic audio recall. And he's another artist, so home is a nourishing spiritual haven. I am getting used to living with people again.
99. I live in the woods. Tall cedars and poplars, lots of dandelions, blackberries, and brush. Leonid calls this my dacha, a Russian retreat house in the country.
100. I want a fun high-paying job, with a new knowledge-base, in a small company or small group, with a great team, fat pipes, excellent tech support, great benefits, on the Eastside -- or possibly a surprising location -- with a workload that leaves nights and weekends free. I want to find it in September, get it in October, and start in late October, as soon as Our Town opens. I want it to be a surprising, formidable, lucrative step forward.