SOMETHING ABOUT ME

CONFESSIONS OF A MODERN VICTORIAN
A woman quite at home (mostly) in the 21st Century, but with one foot firmly planted in the 19th

SOMETHING ABOUT ME
I’ve had a career. Often a very active and public one because I’m a “classical” singer. I’m nearing the end of that now (I’ll be 70 soon), but it was a great run. I performed with the best orchestras and conductors and colleagues, and musically it was wonderfully satisfying. I read “The Feminine Mystique” years before anyone else. It was the time of Love-Ins and Be-Ins and a lot of sexual and social-psychological experimentation, not to mention hallucigenic drugs and I delighted in it (and nothing really terrible ever happened to me, probably because my drug use was pretty moderate for those days). I’ve met, and taught, and been taught by a lot of amazing people in this life. I have grown children and remarried when I was in my forties to and accomplished scientist. (I like to say that he’s my second and last husband!) I have four grandchildren….my oldest granddaughter currently lives with us.
So what do I most love to do in this interesting and varied life, besides learning new stuff? Move furniture. Bake. Make renovations to my houses. ( I’m one of the very privileged people in the US…we have two). Knit. Cook. Decorate (that’s the best). I have a vast library of books on home décor…lovely picture books for grownups. I have hundreds of cookbooks and bookcases in two kitchens to hold them I am the Queen of Catalogues and a closet reader of shelter mags (though some of the best have gone out of business recently, alas). I have taken up knitting with a vengeance. I can tell you how to clean anything…in recent years with vinegar and baking soda. I make curtains. I uswed to hook rugs and crochet afghans and I may again. I know all the best consignment stores for antiques and clothes, every second-hand bookstore for miles (and every other bookstore for that matter). I can paint anything, including pictures. I garden. I love it…these “feminine” pursuits. They are what get my juices flowing, and are my comforts when things go wrong. I see something in my imagination, and I can create it, make it happen. Things of the mind made real.