Mama Kat’s: 22 Things I’ve Done

This is so late… but it was worth the exercise anyway! 🙂  Enjoy.

1. I have seen Mao and Lenin, they don’t look like dead bodies. But they don’t look like wax figures, either. Creepy.
2. I’ve been lost on the Moscow subway. A kind gentleman from Nairobi (studying in Moscow at the time) took pity on me and showed me how to get to Red Square. I took him to Baskin-Robbins where I bought him American ice-cream with my hard currency.
3. I’ve hyperventilated in glass elevators. I continue to go on them despite this.
4. I’ve sung with amazing voices in a cave with the lights off. It was as close to heaven as one gets while deep underground.
5. I’ve walked five miles home -alone- on a daily basis from school as a young child.
6. I have laughed at a man in a trench coat who flashed me. I did not laugh when I had to explain what the flasher “looked like” to a male policeman later that day. How embarrassing was that for a middle-schooler?
7. I have received a death threat written in cut-out magazine letters. Luckily, the singing rival who wrote it never made good on the threat.
8. I have totalled a car while illicitly driving a mountain road to see a meteor shower with my then boyfriend. When my father, whose new car it was, had trouble speaking to me for a little while, my grandfather told me about the time my father had totalled *his* new car on the very same road I did.  Grandpa FTW!
9. I have played Kim in Bye-Bye Birdie, twice.
10. I have been a student ambassador to the Soviet Union (back when it still *was* the USSR). I met a young man there who suffered from radiation sickness he developed after living near Chernobyl.
11. I have sung on the Great Wall of China, and had to climb not a few stairs to do so.
12. I have slept on the floor of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Hey, other people were as well, so it’s not like I was crazy or anything.
13. I’ve been broken-up-with on the steps of Montmartre in Paris. For an alto. (Apologies, altos, I’m sure you’re all wonderful people.)
14. I have taught swing dance. There’s almost nothing more satisfying than seeing the lightbulb flash as a student “gets” it. Teachers, you know what I’m talking about!
15. I have been engaged four times. This makes me sound way more desirable therm I actually am, believe me.
16. I have purchased three wedding dresses. Did you know wedding dresses cannot be returned?
17. I have been married twice.  Second time’s the charm!
18. I’ve hiked down into the Grand Canyon. I cried piteously after the 10th mile in, and lost a toenail. But it was totally worth it.
19. I’ve hiked up to the second-highest peak in Death Valley. The trailhead starts pretty far up, so it’s not like I actually climbed very high in an absolute sense, but there’s altitude to contend with, so pretend I didn’t tell you any of that detail and just be amazed. 😉
20. I have sewn a dress for my college dorm-mate to wear to Ren-Faire. She is now a costumer for stage and film. Coincidence? I think not.
21. I have survived child abuse. Surviving can be an ongoing challenge, though.
22. I have given birth to a small person who is changing my life for the better, every day.