Where do they come up with these things?

You know you can't help yourself. You have to take the quiz and tell me YOUR answers.

10. Favorite U.S. State?
I love it, I hate it. It’s complex. Florida.

9. Earliest Actual Memory?
I have a frightening memory of being around 4 on a Saturday night (Gunsmoke was on) and in my jammies when a bullet came through the open window of our apartment and embedded itself in the living room wall. It is as though it happened yesterday. I remember the dark blue of the police uniforms that converged on our apartment. I don't think they every found out who it was, and attributed it to "street punks". May I say that I did not grow up in a hotbed of crime, but rather in a little Italian sector of a small town in northern Minnesota. Whoda thunkit?

8. First Presidential Election? (Or campaign for those not from the USA)

I was one of those 6 people who voted for George McGovern and campaigned ceaselessly for him in 1972. I do remember elections as far back as the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960, however.

7. Earliest Interaction with Computers
This is too funny for words. As a college freshman in 1972, I took an engineering Fortran class. I used the school's keypunch machine to create my programs on card decks. The decks were run in a shared computer facility that belonged to the college. I wrote 12 programs. At the start of the semester, it took 1-2 hours of turnaround time to get the output. By the end of the semester, when everyone was trying to get all their programs done, it took 2 days to turn around Program 12. My kids don’t believe this story, can’t imagine it.

6. Favorite Public Vices?
There is very little left. In my youth, they included beer and dancing to country music. Now, I’m stuck with just displaying my addiction to coffee in public places.
I’m particularly stuck on a good cry at a particularly poignant film in a crowded theater, and have been known to, shall we say, overreact, to a bad call by the referee at a football game.

5. Favorite Restaurant?
I'm in Tampa, and Cuban food is de rigeur here. Columbia, the best Cuban restaurant in town, would be my choice, and I once got to take internet friend Vicky and her husband there when they stopped in Tampa for a visit. We enjoyed FLAMENCO! But if I get to choose several, the list will also include the Sea Porch Café at the Don Cesar for its incomparable setting on the Gulf of Mexico, Charlie’s, the best steakhouse in Tampa or anywhere, (and so elegant) or my favorite place for Thai – Sukothai. Out of town? I’m crazy about The Blue Willow Inn near Atlanta. Day to day? You can’t beat Panera Bread, Crispers, and Sweet Tomatoes for everyday food in this town.

4. Education?
I have my Bachelor’ s Degree in business from the University of North Dakota and have dabbled in a variety of ongoing courses at the University of South Florida. I’d like to take a couple of online HR courses through Cornell this year. They are the best in the business. This would mean that I would rob a bank to get the money.

3. Political Affiliation?
I'm an independent voter. It’s difficult to not call me a liberal or a Democrat during the Bush administration, since I was so profoundly against most of what Dubya and the boys did. However, I've voted for as many Republicans as Democrats for president. I grew up in a Democratic, pro-union family, so I guess the lean is that way.

2. Religious Affiliation?
I have none. I was raised in both Lutheran and Serbian Orthodox churches, for contrast, and chose to be baptized Orthodox as a teen. I spent much of my adult life in Catholic and Epicsopal churches. I find more time in touch with my higher power when I meditate than when I participate with others in a scheduled religious service.

1. Marital/Relationship Status?
I was married once, for 26 years. Our divorce was civil and we remain friends. I have been single for nearly 5 years. I am content with my independence. I believe that I will want to be in a committed relationship sometime again in my life, and to live with my partner, but I am unafraid to continue to live on my own, should I never meet the right person. I have loved someone, I do love someone ...since my marriage, but accept that I may not marry or cohabitate with someone I love again. While that gives me some sadness, I feel so good about myself and my life, that the form of coupling that I may or may not have again really doesn’t keep me awake at night. I have three men in my life that I consider to be some of the closest friends I've ever had. Friends I can't live without. Somehow, that seems more satisfying.