interviewed by steven

[cellio]

1. What was your first car? Describe it.

My first car was a 1978 Toyota Corolla, two-door hatchback, which I bought used. (It was red, but I bought it anyway.) It was already several years old and had some rust spots, but it was not too expensive and it was reliable, which was good enough. It had one quirk that I was never able to track down and fix: when it got to around 65MPH it started making a buzzing sound, which then went away if you went up to about 75MPH. The national speed limit was 55MPH at the time and I try to stay within 5MPH of the limit, so this didn't hurt me too much, but some of my friends complained when they drove my car.

The car eventually died the death of a thousand paper cuts: no one big thing went wrong, but enough little things did that eventually I gave up. This is not a negative comment about Toyota, by the way; the car essentially died of old age.

2. What has been your biggest surprise in Hebrew college?

I'll take this to mean formal Jewish learning more broadly and not specifically the week I spent at Hebrew College in Boston.

I guess it's been the effect I have on other people. In the Sh'liach K'hilah program I learned from classmates that, in a religious setting, I exude spirit -- somehow my manner causes other people to engage. (This has since been reinforced by members of my congregation.) At Hebrew College, when studying with a partner, I learned that when I got into the "style" of study, I could bring my partner along too -- it's not just that enthusiasm is contagious but that approach is contagious. And, on the more negative end of the spectrum, I learned that I intimidate people; more than one classmate in the Sh'liach K'hilah program told me that I'm "scarily smart", and it wasn't meant in an entirely positive way.

So, all together, I guess I've been surprised by my own "strength", positive and negative, and at my inability to notice it happening in the moment. (Afterwards, sure -- I'm Ms. Introspection. But when it's happening and I could affect it? Not so much, though I'm making more of an effort now.)

3. What's your favorite Jewish holiday, and why?

Thematically, Shavu'ot (cue chorus of "what's that?"). It's about the giving of the torah, so it's more text-centric than most, and one of the big observances is staying up all night studying torah. I am totally into that. :-)

However, the holiday doesn't have much in the way of ritual, and most of my friends (and many congregants) don't celebrate it, so I don't tend to have people to, for instance, have festive meals with on the holiday. So that's kind of a bummer.

4. What misuse of the English language annoys you the most? (It can be grammatical or spelling-related.)

Oh, there are so many to choose from! And really, what annoys me most about misuse of language, when not clearly an accident, is the attitude that it doesn't matter. But I'll try to focus on the question you actually asked. :-)

In written language specifically -- comma splices. When I get to a place where there should be a period or a semi-colon and there's a comma instead, I try to read it as if the comma is correct ("ah, I'm in a list!" or something), and when it turns out to be an error I get derailed and usually have to reread the entire sentence. I guess the peeve is more broadly "misuse of delimiters", but it almost always comes down to commas. (Another delimiter-related problem is getting close-delimeters (quotes or parens) in the wrong order with respect to the phrase punctuation. This comes in two flavors, actually; any rule here that says "always do X" is wrong.)

5. When you meet someone in person after knowing them only online, is there anything that usually surprises people? (I hope this is applicable -- I'd imagine it is!)

That's a good question. Would people who've met me that way care to speak up? :-)

My impression is that it's probably my vision. This runs in both directions: people seem to be surprised that I manage pretty well given the thickness of my glasses (and my occasional complaints about inaccessible software), and they tend to be consequently surprised by my, err, "blind spots". An example of the former: I always carry a magnifying glass, which I might need for menus in restaurants; this is a coping strategy that doesn't tend to occur to people not facing the problem. An example of the latter: no, I really can't read that road sign you see so clearly, nor was I being rude when I failed to wave to you across the street.

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For the two or three people reading this who haven't already seen the interview game, here's how this works:

1. If you want to be interviewed, leave a comment saying so.
2. (I will probably fail to get back to you for some time, because this is a busy time of year.)
3. I will respond, asking you five questions.
4. You'll update your journal with my five questions and your five answers.
5. You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

Comments

[cellio]

Well, better late than never. :-)

1. What's your favorite piece of music to perform?
2. Is there something musical that you aspire to do that you're not yet doing?
3. Aside from your sweetie, what do you enjoy most about Baltimore?
4. What draws you to Judaism (if that's not too personal)?
5. The genie in the bottle will let you send a letter to a younger you. (Younger you will not be able to respond.) What do you say, and to which younger you (what age)?