94/365: Stephen #2

A true Renaissance man. He sings, dances, acts, directs, has a radio show, is a published author, was editor for Sunset Magazine, helped found and run another magazine. On top of that he’s a really nice guy too. Has the largest collection of CDs of anybody I know. Loves beagles. Throws nice parties. We are great partners for “the name game” on New Year’s eve

93/365: Dr. Roth

He was obstetrician for my last 4 babies. I know women were terrified of him because he was so gruff, but he and I hit it off. I just loved him. After I gave birth in 1970, he asked me to save breast milk for a baby in trouble. I coordinated a group of women to donate milk and contributed myself through 2 different babies.

92/365: Dick #2

We were so incredibly fortunate to have moved to Davis at a time when Dick was still in charge of the music program at Davis High School. He had a huge impact on our kids (and on our daughter-in-law). He is a wonderful man who, sadly, is now suffering from dementia and no longer remembers names. Eventually will he forget how many lives he changed?

91/365: Martin

Poor Martin was our neighbor and my date for the Senior Prom because my old boyfriend had gone off to be a Jesuit brother. Martin was an OK guy, but I felt nothing for him and was less than sparkling all evening. When he brought me home, he wanted a kiss and the idea repulsed me. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him since!

90/365: Janet

Janet’s family had a lovely home in the hills overlooking Sausalito. Her father was manager for Macy*s department store in San Francisco. She was a beautiful girl (inside and out) I went to grammar school with, but we lost track of each other in 1956. I imagine she married, had several children and is now living in some stately manor, entertaining a passel of grandchildren.

89/365: Marc

Marc blogs more than just about anybody I know. He will write 3, 4, 5, or more entries a day. Some short observations, some long observations, copies of political stuff, news from Australia, local theater information, and stuff about his dog. I try to keep up – honest! But sometimes it exhausts me trying to get through all that stuff. And I thought I was bad!

88/365: Jeannie

I made a BIG mistake once in giving her my phone number so she could help me with a computer problem I was having. At first it was OK, but then she started calling me regularly, and talking for at least half an hour or longer about stuff I wasn’t interested in. I finally stopped answering the phone when I saw her on Caller ID.

87/365: The Cutie

I never knew her name. I thought of her as “the cutie at the post office.” I always tried to get in her line. She was a runner. We talked about her upcoming races and my recent bike rides (in the days when I still rode). Unfortunately, just as we were getting friendly, she transferred to a different city and I haven’t seen her since.

86/365: Johnny

Oh what fun we had – Johnny, his sister, myself and my sister -- putting on shows in his parents’ basement. We’d string a blanket between two posts on a clothesline for a curtain. I think I was the announcer. We charged our parents and extraneous people 25 cents to come and see us. Unfortunately no great budding talent emerged from those plays, but we had fun.

85/365: Georgia #2

Because of her, I actually studied an opera – Tosca – and loved it when I saw her perform the title role. We had a short, intense friendship, confiding in each other about our joys, sorrows, and frustrations. Then it all ended in a flash when she decided she no longer wanted to be involved with me. How do you just give up on a close friendship?

84/365: Fred

Everyone was afraid of Fred, yet he and I had a great relationship and he remains my friend to this day, nearly 50 years after I began working for him. He was gruff because he expected things done right. He wrote a textbook, which I typed 3x in the pre-Selectric days. When I left, he learned to type because nobody else could read his handwriting.

83/365: Bill #4

My first real boyfriend. We started dating after he was injured in an auto accident. I visited him in the hospital every day. I was so incredibly naive and had no clue why he said some of the things he did (e.g., “prove you love me”). We dated off and on for 3 years and then he entered the seminary and became a Jesuit brother.

82/365: Henrique

Came to Davis by bus, unannounced, having traveled from Brasil on a hope. He called us from the bus station and asked if he could come to our house. He stayed 5 months, got a job working in a restaurant and learned to speak English. My favorite memory is watching him on the patio teaching our two youngest sons the Brasilian martial art form, capoeira.

81/365: Sister Bernadine

A large, sturdy woman who said she read obits each morning to see if she was alive. I suspect she was funnier than she let students know. She was my sewing teacher. I was the bane of her existence because I couldn’t sew my way into a paper bag. I made a few things, but none that I ever wore again after they were finished.

80/365: Mrs. D

She was our Brownie Scout leader. She had been in an internment camp during WWII. Now worked in an old San Francisco Victorian. We met once a week and she always had fun activities for us, like making cookies in the mansion kitchen, or all sitting around a recording machine recording our voices onto a wax disc to take home and play for our parents.

79/365: Barb

She was the only person from my former job with whom I kept in contact. Her health problems and family problems eventually dissolved that relationship. She writes now and then, but we don’t get together any more. I miss our occasional lunches. I never understood why she had such a low opinion of herself because she is such a wonderful, caring person whom everybody loves.

78/365: Donna

Donna got me out on the bike trails every Saturday, pushing me to the limit. I would never have done as much biking as I did without her encouragement. But she was my daughter’s age and needed more than a fat old lady as a biking companion, so our weekly get togethers finally stopped. Still, without her, I would never have done it at all.

77/365: LT

Another clandestine affair gone awry, with me in the middle again. The marriage broke up, the affair broke up. We were thrown together in a very close relationship for 2-3 years, but after all the emotional turmoil, the tenuous friendship we had couldn’t survive. She retreated completely after David died because she couldn’t deal with her pain about it. (Her pain? He was my son!)

76/365: Harlan Ellison

I went to Harlan’s house (Ellison Wonderland) with a friend to drop off books. Was surprised to see that this giant of a sci fi writer was the size of Danny DeVito. His home reflected his stature, with shorter than normal doorways, etc. Wall to wall books. I heard he was irascible and doesn’t like people, but I like irascibles. We got along all right.

75/365: The Store Clerk

She hired me to make her daughter’s birthday cakes, but there was confusion about the pick-up time. I thought she was coming in the afternoon and I was finishing in the morning. She came in the morning, had a hissy fit, told me I’d “ruined her daughter’s birthday.” She wouldn’t even take them as a gift. I stopped selling cakes then–it wasn’t worth the hassle.

74/365: Georgia

Though deaf and blind, she was sharp as a tack, with an IQ off the charts. She read 12 languages fluently. Could converse with anybody on her “versi” (a versibraille machine). She supported herself by working for CompuServe giving assistance to people with handicaps so they could become part of the computer age. The Windows operating system slowed her briefly, but she figured it out.

73/365: Judy #3

I feel bad that I screwed her out of a lot of money. My boss hired her to do bookkeeping, but when she couldn’t get her computer running and did it all by hand, he refused to pay her. I never called her again. I know she put in a LOT of time on the project. She used to be my friend. I feel guilty.

72/365: The Transsexual

He was a female-to-male transsexual, without the surgery, so required yearly Pap smears at our office. Sweetest guy you’d ever want to meet. We scheduled him for a PFLAG meeting on transsexuality but when publicity appeared in the paper, he was terrified someone would try to beat him up and spent an hour with me giving me information because he couldn’t come to the meeting.

71/365: The Patient

I had been typing notes from her psychiatry sessions for years when she showed up at our ob/gyn office for a checkup. I had never seen her and stationed myself at the front desk so I could finally see what she looked like. She had a very...shall we say...unique mental health history. Presumably she still does, but I no longer type the reports.

70/365: Leonard

Little, balding, nondescript man who was our local parish priest and I had such a crush on him. I don’t have a clue why. My very first crush. He drove a shocking pink and grey Chevrolet, chosen because he was colorblind and couldn’t see the real color. He told me my name translated to “Beaver Lake,” so he called me that until I grew up.

69/365: Bill #3

Now this was a character. Extremely liberal guy who started a give-away political newspaper. I worked setting type and editing the entertainment calendar (gave me free reign – bad idea!). I remember when he was arrested and sent to jail for non-payment of parking tickets. Our pay checks bounced. He finally closed the office, giving me an IBM Selectric as payment, which was OK by me!

68/365: Bill #2

When I met him he was living (though not too well) with AIDS and Hepatitis C. We were friends for a long time before we discovered we were cousins, several times removed. I helped care for him one hot Texas summer. We watched birds at the bird feeder and watched lots of Home and Garden television. He died several years ago. A very sweet man.

67/365: The Theatre Diva

She heads up one of the local theaters. We originally got off on the wrong foot because I picked the wrong time to suggest a play to her. We settled that years ago, but she has no idea that I know what a diva hissy fit she threw in my friend’s theater. She seems to be quite popular in town, but she doesn’t fool me.

66/365: Nat

Big, tall, curly-headed father of my friend. He was Italian and worked for the local scavenger service. Yet he owned an apartment building and they always seemed well off. After watching The Sopranos I began to wonder if he was west-coast Mafia! He was ambidextrous and drove my mother crazy playing tennis because he could stand in one place and hit balls with either hand.

65/365: David

Wrote one of the all time classic science fiction TV scripts. He’s a complicated man who can be very good, or very, very bad (I’ve seen both). I don’t know why we remain friends because he only calls when he wants something. But he drove 400 miles to bring me a shaggy dog because ours died. And he presided at graveside services for our son.