Sunday Stealing: Finish This Sentence Meme

Each Sunday, Sunday Stealingrips off a meme from another blogger — giving full credit and a link back to that author’s site, of course — and invites everyone to play along.

This week they lifted the “Finish This Sentence” meme from PT-Law Mom, who stole it from A Woman in Law School. Given the credentials of the criminals involved in this caper, I am playing along as a show of solidarity to my future fellow female barristers.

1. An uncle by marriage once told my father and another uncle by marriage that he believed all African-Americans (that’s not the word he used) should be “shipped back to Africa — heads in one boat and bodies in another.” I will never, ever forget that moment.  I was about ten years old and we were spending a couple of weeks in South Dakota visiting relatives and friends. My father did not say anything in response as we were guests in my aunt and uncle’s home, my parents were taught that you did not challenge or insult your host. But I saw the look of revulsion on his face. I was so stunned, horrified, and traumatized by his words that I still consider it one of the defining moments in my life that ultimately led me to choose a career as a civil rights attorney. Until this moment, I have never written or spoken about that incident.

2. Never in my life have I doubted the existence of God.

3. When I was five my parents owned a pink 1957 Chevrolet Belair with a white hardtop.

4. High school was the most exquisitely painful and, simultaneously, fun-filled four years of my life.

5. I will never forget to be thankful each and every morning that I awake and have my eyesight.

6. Once I met Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

7. There’s this boy I know named Mattie-Boo and he was not planned, but he sure was wanted.  We can’t imagine life without him.  In response to the news that #1Son was not gong to be an only child, as we had planned, BigBob said, “God just had a better idea” and those remain the wisest six words I’ve heard him utter in the more than 23 years we have been together.

8. Once, at a bar, I smoked a few cigarettes.

9. By noon, I’m looking at the clock wondering how I’m going to accomplish everything I need to get done given that the morning has somehow evaporated . . . again.

10. Last night I thoroughly enjoyed Stockton Concert Band rehearsal.

11. If only I had about 20 more hours in each day, I might get to the last item on my “to do” list.  Doubtful, though.

12. Next time I go to church, somebody important will be dead.  The only thing that could lure me back into a church would be a funeral.

13. What worries me most is that I suffer another detached retina at any time and lose my eyesight.

14. When I turn my head left I see my living room curtains.

15. When I turn my head right I see my parents’ old stereo RCA XL100 25″ television with the walnut cabinet that they purchased in 1977.

16. You know I’m lying when I . . . never.  I don’t lie.

17. What I miss most about the Eighties is the good ol’ days of “One Life to Live” when my friend, Clint Ritchie, was one of the stars.

18. If I were a character in Shakespeare I’d be . . . no clue!

19. By this time next year I will gearing up to return to New York City with the Stockton Concert Band to perform at Carnegie Hall for the second time in March 2010.

20. A better name for me would be “Judge Janie.” My friends say I would be a “hangin’ judge. They’d beg for mercy.”

21. I have a hard time understanding stupidity.

22. If I ever go back to school, I’ll be saying “hell froze over” because I can’t stand the thought of spending more time in school.

23. You know I like you if I acknowledge your existence.  If I don’t like you, I will simply ignore you.  I can’t be bothered to even notice or observe that you are sucking air out of the atmosphere.

24. If I ever won an award, the first person I would thank would be the person who nominated me.

25. Take my advice, never forget this simple truth:  “You can’t fix stupid.”