Friday, February 25, 2005

Ten Things I've Done that I Bet You Haven't Done

1. Convince an angry student that the professor's seemingly-unfair policy is actually fair.

2. Play the violin in public in three different countries: USA, UK, and Sweden.

3. Write so much in one day that my hand is permanently injured.

4. Lose 62 pounds.

5. Teach karate to 8-12 year old students.

6. Sass a professor during my qualifying exam, and still manage to pass.

7. Go on to become good friends with professor from #6.

8. Get a C in a class taught by a sexist professor, when otherwise my GPA was 3.9.

9. Get into grad school in a field I know nothing about.

10. Climb halfway up a mountain at the age of 11, with my dad distracting me with math problems from how much I hate hiking.

(Everybody feel free to tell me where my list intersects with your life, and then make your own list!)

8 comments:

Laura said...

Ha, what a cute idea! I've done #1, sort of (more accurately, I've convinced upset students to be less upset. Not sure if I've actually changed their perception of class fairness). And, um, I was *around* for #10, does that count? :-)

OK, here's my list.
1. Been one-half of the alto section for a small choir singing renaissance music
2. Ate a vegetarian diet for nearly 10 years (my anniversary is coming up!) and a vegan diet for about 3 weeks
3. Knitted 4 gloves in 2 months
4. Got a date on Match.com
5. Traveled from Illinois to California on a train
6. Incorporated a business, applied for tax-exempt status, signed a lease on a 6-bedroom house, and other activities related to starting a housing co-operative.
7. Read 200 pages of Plato in 10 hours.
8. Calculated my ecological footprint (actually, this one is easy if you go to www.redefiningprogress.org)
9. Saw smoke billowing from the Pentagon on 9/11/01 and wondered what was going on.
10. Hugged a tree (several times, actually).

Anonymous said...

This is fun... let me see if I can coordinate a bit with your list:

1. While being charge of a high school band on tour, stand toe-to-toe with a police officer and refuse to allow him to talk to any of 'my kids' without my presence

2. (this is an oldie) While as a high school student myself, was in charge of publicity for our spring play -- and was able to garner a full review plus two pics on the front page of the 'View' section (now Calendar) of the Los Angeles Times.

3. learned to touch type in the 7th grade because my handwriting was/is pretty much illegible.

4. I've lost more..but it's the same 15 lbs. over and over again

5. Taught a dance routine to a bunch of 11 y/o's for a talent show when I was 8 mos pregnant

6. Took the opposite political position on a research paper for Poli-sci than the professor, still got an A (sweated bullets about that one)

[now diverging]
7. was a divorced mom of 4 daughters who then met and later married via the Internet (AOL)

8. wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so read all five Harry Potter books in one weekend (love 'em!)

9. chatted with Ray Bradbury at a Christmas book-signing several years ago (charming man!)

10. a mom thing again - gave birth to all 4 kidlets sans any drugs.

~~Darleen

Anonymous said...

I'll post mine over at my site...

--Rachel

Anonymous said...

Oh, I totally sassed a professor during an exam, though not a qual. It was just a final. He was a pal before I did that, though.

--R

melinama said...

Oh good, I found you via Magnificent Octopus. I've been collecting these on my site and now you're finally on the list:
http://pratie.blogspot.com/2005/03/10-things-ive-done.html

is it true it started here, with you? How exciting!

Regards,
Melinama

melinama said...

Oh good, I found you via Magnificent Octopus. I've been collecting these on my site and now you're finally on the list:
http://pratie.blogspot.com/2005/03/10-things-ive-done.html

is it true it started here, with you? How exciting!

Regards,
Melinama

Kimberly said...

Hi Rebecca,
I got here from Melinama's place.

2. I have played the violin in public in four countries: US, Canada, UK and Brazil. (It was 3 counties until about 4 years ago.)

9. I got into grad school in a field in which I had no education, but in architecture, that's not uncommon. There are graduate programs specifically for folks like me.

I'll be putting my list up at my place soon.

Anonymous said...

1. Got something pierced besides my ears.
2. Managed to meet the Arch-Bishop of Louisville while he was wearing his Arch-Bishop hat.
3. When asked at a dating service who was the last new person I had met, I was able to say "The Arch-Bishop and boy does he have a cool hat"
4. Manage to still drive a car that was built before I graduated high school.
5. Became an Operational Forecaster at a fortune 100 company while holding only a Music Education degree.
6. Had my wedding ring tattooed on. Now having a serious fight with my spouse involves a meat cleaver.
7. Camped overnight in the Star Ford parking lot outside of Detroit Michigan.
8. Put 6000 miles (in 10 days) on an unlimited milage rental car.
9. Met the same people for the first time, twice, after a head injury erased the our first meeting.
10. Played "Take the A-train" with Tommy Newsom and heard him joke about not knowing the song very well.