Midlife Matters: Thursday Thinkers

A new game to play, this one courtesy of Aunt Nub's Empty Head! OK...

1) When did you last sing to yourself? Where was it (shower, car, etc?) What sort of songs do you usually sing?

"And I dreamed I saw the bombers, riding shotgun in the sky; They were turning into butterflies above our nation." Claire's slightly nutty aunt was playing Joni Mitchell''s Woodstock in an episode of Six Feet Under that we watched a day or two ago, so I guess that's what I've been singing to myself. I don't actually sing to myself, being pretty much tone deaf, but I do, kind of.

2) Would you rather be a member of a championship sports team or be the champion of an individual sport? What sport would you choose?

I would be a Wimbledon champion, I think. I last played tennis more than 20 years ago, so we all know how likely that would be.

3) If you were at a friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner & found a dead cockroach in your salad, what would you do?

I would surreptiously slip it into my napkin, excuse myself to go to the bathroom, flush it, and never say a word to anyone, except maybe my husband, who wouldn't be interested and would forget about it immediately.

4) What was your best Halloween costume ever?

Santa Claus.

5) What's the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you & how did it make you feel? What's the nicest thing you ever did for a stranger & why did you do it?

My friends and I used to hitchhike some when we were in high school. So probably the nicest thing a stranger ever did for me was give me a safe ride to a safe place with no hassle. I can think of one occasion in particular that it would be better to forget.

I think maybe the nicest thing I ever did for a stranger was to take a set of photographs for her during her Cesarean. This was maybe 18 years ago (ok, so I don't do nice things all that often) and I was supposed to be her labor support person fer her second childbirth experience. I did it because someone asked me and I like going to births. Her first delivery had gone well, but her husband was a cardiac surgery resident on call and she couldn't count on him showing up. As it turned out, she had a breech presentation and her OB made a very quick decision to go with a Cesarean.

We had talked about about the photos I would take during her planned natural delivery, but we hadn't anticipated the surgical turn of events. I was a little nervous about taking pictures of the surgery without her permission, but I remembered how much the pictures of my twins' Cesarean birth had meant to me, so I snapped away like crazy. I got them developed that night, and hesitantly took them to the hospital the next afternoon.

I don't think she and her husband could have been more thrilled. She had had a rough time with pain during the surgery, and her surgeon-to-be husband had been completely traumatized by seeing his own wife shaking and crying through most of it, so neither one of them remembered much about the actual birth of their child. They poured over those pictures with utter delight.

I haven't thought about that day in a long, long time. but it's a really nice memory for me. That baby must be in college now!

And a little present for anyone who waded through all of the above: