50 Things...

Joel Sax of the blog Pax Nortona, Twitter handles @EmperorNorton and @Bipolar_Blogs and all over the Internet since 1988, challenged me to list 50 things about me. I’m going to boast a lot in this interminable list. Forgive me. I also cheated by listing each city I’ve lived in. I could have listed each job I’ve held rather than each career and far exceeded 50 items. Here goes:

  1. I was born in San Francisco.
  2. I lived in Saudi Arabia for five years as a child.
  3. When I was seven, we moved to Cambridge, MA.
  4. Later, we moved to Rancho Palos Verdes, CA.
  5. Later, we moved to Valley Forge, PA.
  6. Then we briefly lived in West Los Angeles.
  7. Then we moved to Hermosa Beach, CA. I’ve lived with my parents in Hermosa Beach at various transitional times as an adult, too.
  8. I went to four elementary schools (in Saudi Arabia, MA, & CA).
  9. I went to one middle school in CA and one junior high in PA.
  10. I went to three high schools. That’s nine schools total before I graduated from high school.
  11. As an adult, I’ve lived in Westwood, CA…
  12. Berkeley, CA
  13. Oakland, CA
  14. Manhattan Beach, CA
  15. San Francisco, CA
  16. Benicia, CA
  17. Kentfield, CA
  18. Petaluma, CA
  19. Laguna Niguel, CA
  20. Eugene, OR
  21. Helendale, CA
  22. Mission Viejo, CA
  23. I have bipolar disorder.
  24. I’m a mother to a teen boy.
  25. I’ve been married since 1997, so I am capable of a stable relationship if not geographic stability. We move together.
  26. My husband and I met in 1994 as I was recovering from a psychotic break.
  27. Although I had moved back in with my parents at the time, the man who became my husband described me as the most independent woman he had ever met.
  28. I’m a proud geek.
  29. I love math and database design.
  30. I first designed a website in 1994.
  31. I was a drama geek.
  32. I love public speaking.
  33. I’m a performer, or more aptly a diva, at heart.
  34. I gave the eulogies at both of my maternal grandparents’ memorials.
  35. Here I totally boast: I got 100% on my math placement exam as an incoming freshman at UCLA.
  36. I started off college as an honors biochemistry major at UCLA.
  37. I regret not continuing my study of mathematics beyond a year of honors calculus at UCLA.
  38. I was suicidal when I attended UCLA.
  39. I attended a community college after quitting UCLA.
  40. I ended up graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Legal Studies from UC Berkeley.
  41. I have a Master of Arts in Psychology from New College of California.
  42. I am a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.
  43. I attended Fuller Theological Seminary, but did not complete my degree.
  44. My career history is just as flaky as my education and roving lifestyle. First I was a legal assistant.
  45. Then I worked as a nonprofit administrator.
  46. Then as a psychotherapist.
  47. Then in commercial real estate.
  48. Until I was hospitalized at the age of forty-one.
  49. I have been on disability since that hospitalization.
  50. I’ll be fifty-two in August.