125/365: Herc

He’s responsible for my not taking care of my teeth for 20 years. He was my dentist and yelled at me for not flossing. I was so terrified of his yelling at me again, I never kept my next appointment and when we moved 80 miles away, I just never found a dentist...for 20 years. Now I have a great dentist who never yells.

124/365: Can You Hear Me Now?

This person drives me insane. I love her dearly, but she wants instant answers to e-mails and will send follow-up emails, then phone calls “Did you get my message?” Yet, when I have a question to ask her, I might wait days before she responds. If I point this out, she gets her feelings hurt, so I just let it go and don’t say anything.

123/365: RM

“She’s a phony,” Peggy told me when she met her. I was offended–this was my friend. We were a friendship three-some, at first work friends, meeting weekly and giggling like teens, sharing secrets. But when the third in our three-some moved out of town, I never heard from her again. She’s cordial if we meet, or if I call, but Peggy was right–she’s a phony.

122/365: The Interloper

I have been jealous of you for more than 20 years. You stepped into the place where I should be. Sometimes I think you are the favorite one when it should be me. You have the advantage of proximity and competence and when I hear you referred to as the closest one, it makes my stomach grind but there’s nothing I can do about it.

121/365: Family Friend

Another Amway sales person. She hounded me for months to come and learn how we could “save on taxes.” I finally told her that we’d be happy to come as long as she could assure me this was not an Amway plug. She was furious and accused me to trying to keep her from feeding her children. Sadly, our friendship never recovered from that argument.

120/365: Paula

It’s an interesting experience sitting around your child’s nursery school teacher’s house with all of your child’s nursery school parents passing around a marijuana cigarette. I didn’t know how to smoke and didn’t try. Given my addictive nature, that’s probably a good thing. She was young and brought fresh life to the nursery school, not necessarily related to the pot. We remember Paula’s Pit Plate.

119/365: Peter

This was one of the only real mistakes that I think I made in writing a review. I had interviewed him and based my review of his show on that interview, but on second thought I hated what he did with a play that I really like and tried to change it to reflect that, but the review had already been sent to the printer.

118/365: Jess

I never figured out why he was such a bitter man. He was the box office manager for a theater group, the first voice or face that people encountered and yet he was so negative, and sometimes downright nasty. He was not the most pleasant person to work with, which I did for several years. After many years, he was finally fired by new management.

117/365: Bob #3

Friend of my parents. He always reminded me of Robert Q. Lewis. Pleasant guy. My most striking memory is having an argument with him about a photo of me which had been taken when I was thin. He insisted it was a picture of my mother and wouldn’t believe it was me, since I was so fat at the time. Made me feel like shit.

116/365: Fred #3

I didn’t appreciate my godfather enough while he was alive. I knew him as a lonely old vacuum cleaner salesman and didn’t appreciate his athletic accomplishments as a young man (he was a champion 5-day bicycle racer) until I found his newspaper clippings after his death. I remember his cigars, the Sees candy he always brought, and telling the same jokes year after year.

115/365: Terri

She doesn’t blog any more, but she blogged daily (for many years). Her struggles with weight and her decision to take up bike riding were a great inspiration for me when I was going through the same thing. We met for lunch a couple of times, met for a bike ride once. Her biggest inspiration was as a writer, and I miss her daily entries.

114/365: Marie #2

I am incredibly proud of Marie. She came from Mexico (she had dual citizenship through her American father) and lived with us during her senior year. She earned a Masters Degree in business. She now owns two restaurants in Sacramento, which have won all sorts of awards in the Sacramento Community. Helped her sisters move to the U.S. and got them started in business.

113/365: Pat #3

Pat was a lovely blind man who lived in a small apartment two blocks from my high school. The sisters took him lunch every day, and I frequently went along to visit him, as well as a handful of other poor people they served. But Pat was always my favorite. I still see him, sitting in the window of his apartment, just waiting for us.

112/365: Sister Benedicta

Little grandmotherly person who taught me both algebra and Latin. She was very easy to distract and our trick was to get her reminiscing about something so we didn’t have to work in class. When I wanted to go to college, she tutored me privately in Algebra II because the school didn’t offer that class and I would need it to apply to UC Berkeley.

111/365: Bob #2

Oh Bob...Bob...Bob. An attorney I worked for, part time. He was famous for chasing secretaries around his “liberry” table. After I stopped working for him, he wanted to hire me to sit in the office one day while he was in court and take notes about anybody who talked so he could reprimand them, like we were in high school. I said no.

110/365: Martin Yan

He gave expensive cooking classes at UC Davis back in the 70s and at the same taught the same class through the adult school for a $20 fee. This was long before he became a famous TV chef. We had a great time and I learned how to cook lots of Chinese food. Every class gave him an apron as a gift at the end.

109/365: The Volunteer

I called her the closest thing to a saint I ever met. She was constantly helping people, collecting and sorting things for the poor, making visitations to people in need, traveling to Mexico with her husband to work among the poor. Not a mean bone in her body and I admired her so much. I was too selfish to do all she did for people.

108/365: Timo

Timo was a local clown who performed at all sorts of carnival type events. We happened to be in the same car with him once, riding high above the California State Fair. Timo was in costume, but had his kid with him. The kid was misbehaving and Timo was yelling at him. What nightmares that kid must have had, being yelled at by a clown!

107/365: Katherine

I don’t care if she WAS over 100 years old, she was the biggest bitch I ever met. My mother’s mother-in-law hated us so much she would leave the room when our family arrived and if forced to be in the same room with us, kept her eyes down and refused to speak, even when we tried to be friendly. Nobody mourned when she died.

106/365: Fred #2

I will forever be grateful for the happiness he gave my mother for 18 years. She deserved every good he brought to her life. But, frankly, I couldn’t stand the guy. He was a bigot, he gave to everybody, but never let you forget it. I was never part of “his” family and didn’t start to know his kids until 10 years after he died.

105/365: Buddy Ebsen

TV’s “Jed Clampett” directed what was one of the very worst plays I ever saw (name of which I’ve forgotten, fortunately). We went to opening night and were standing in the lobby before the show when I literally backed into him and stepped on his foot. A brief, but painful encounter! I was shocked at how much older he looked than he did on TV.

104/365: Ernie

What fun it was to sit in the control booth and watch Ernie direct the evening news. I’d never seen how a news broadcast went behind the scenes before. He was also director, for awhile, for “America’s Most Wanted” and for Fox Sports. His kitchen has a shelf filled with his Emmys. He is also Walt’s family seanachai, a golfer, and a very nice guy.

103/365: Father Joe

My mother’s good friend till his death, more than 60 years. Liked my sister, didn’t like me. I was his scapegoat when we were both at the Newman Center. Despite that, he did a lot for the poor of Mexico, but at home he and I clashed whenever we were together, especially at David’s funeral. Perhaps because he reminded me so much of my father.

102/365: Helen

I always smiled when she was a member of the State Assembly and would drive my house late at night, in her bathrobe and slippers, to pick up work I had done for her husband. She’s been a fabulous representative, whether of the PTA, the school board, the state assembly or as county supervisor. I’m glad to have been her supporter (and long time friend)

101/365: Henry

There are few people in this life that I loathe, but he’s on top of the list. Too bad that he is forever in my friend’s life and she can’t extricate herself. I lived with them for 6 weeks and I was so terrified of him I barricaded my bedroom door each night. He made me kiss him daily when he drove me to work.

100/365: Eduardo

Our family life would have been significantly different if Eduardo had been an unpleasant person, but this 21 year old Brasilian was so charming he set the stage for us to have 70 other foreign students over the next 10 years. He changed our lives. He now lives in Canada with his family. His daughter is nearly as old he was when he lived here.

99/365: The Know It All

He exhausts me. I would find him a lot more interesting if he took time to take a breath and let someone else get a word in edgewise. But he knows everything, has the inside track on everybody and doesn’t have the slightest interest in what your opinion is of everything because no matter what it is, chances are he knows it’s not quite right.

98/365: Greg

I had dates with two guys in the same night once and I can’t remember if Greg was #1 or #2. I don’t even remember who the second guy was. We called him “Yogi” and he was a sports writer for the school paper. I connected with him once, after we were both married and our kids grown. He hadn’t changed much in the interim

97/365: "I'm Only Trying to Help"

If you want someone who is going to go over everything you write with a fine tooth comb for accuracy, this is your person. Checks every message of mine, every blog entry of mine and is sure to let me know where I’ve made my mistakes. Over time, I have tried to share less and less because I don’t like feeling like a stupid idiot.

96/365: Pat

We were almost roommates in college, but I pulled the rug out from under her and decided to live alone in the studio apartment. She went on to a career in the news business and I see her on television from time to time, though she has changed her name now. I find it hard to recognize her for the person I knew in 1962.

95/365: Bertha

I see her at irregular intervals. She’s a nice, but intense lady who always bothers me because she is one of those people who step into your physical space. She can’t talk to you unless she’s no more than 6 inches from your face. I keep backing up and she never gets the hint. It makes it impossible to concentrate on what she’s talking about.