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1. What’s the best non-animated movie musical you’ve seen in the past several years?

2. How are you most likely to pass the time during a lengthy blackout?

We lose power from time to time, so they don’t bother me too much. I open the blinds and the inner doors to let in the light. Luckily, even if we’re having a massive rainstorm (Hawaii in hurricane season), our doors are sheltered enough that the rain doesn’t come in. I chill with a book. Sometimes, we just ditch the house and head to the beach!

3. When were you last in a swimming pool?

Camp Pendleton, California, the Marine Corps base in August of 2016. It was when we were PCSing from Fort Huachuca, Arizona to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. We had to ship our Flex from San Diego, so we drove to Cali, stayed at Pendleton until our flight to Hawaii. There was a pool next door to the lodging, so we went there a few times.

4. What do you remember fondly about the neighborhood where you grew up?

I had two neighborhoods. Until the end of 5th grade, I lived in a cute little ranch house right behind SUNY Potsdam, by the music school. There were lots of kids in the neighborhood, and there were long nights of Ghost in the Graveyard and Kick the Can. Plus SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music/Hosmer Concert Hall was at the end of my street, and in the evenings, you could hear students playing on the upper courtyard. It was this cool open area with great acoustics with two huge, steep ramps down to the ground. Which we rollerskated/skateboarded at breakneck speeds. This was back in the 70s, a time when our moms kicked us out at dawn and we roamed. Good times!

image: Wikipedia

5. What language did you study in school, and what’s something you remember how to say?

I studied Latin and French in high school, then Polish and Vietnamese in the Army. I still speak smatterings of the latter three, along with a couple others.

I don’t know what it is about the Latin verb amare (to love), but that seems to be the one thing no Latin student ever forgets, the conjugation of it. amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant

There’s a Polish proverb one of my teachers said that stuck with me… Nie dziel skóry na niedźwiedziu. Literally translated: Do not split the skin on the bear. It means not to count your chickens before they hatch.

One of my Vietnamese teachers was also into sayings, and this one is one of my favorites… Ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây. Literally translated: When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree. It meants that when you receive something you enjoy, whatever it is, you should consider how it came to be.

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