Five Things about ME? (final Bliss Challenge)

As another week draws to its close, the days are lengthening! Somehow it got to 6pm here, and the sky is still full of deepening oranges and purples.

The last one of "Bliss Connect's" Six Weeks of Bliss Challenges is a tough one for me. We're asked to share Five Things about ourselves that our readers may not know.

Well, I figure most of you guys know most of the peculiar scoop on me--my word and poetry obsessedness, my remote bluff-edge-tiny-cabin-Alaska domicile, my marriage with a husband whose kids are older than me, my good friendship with his daughter and ex-wife, my gluten-free, dairy-free, animal-products-avoiding food ways, my incapability of following a recipe, my obsession with herbs, my belief that any and every favorite food dish can be converted into a (green) smoothie.

So, how to come up with Five Unusual Things?
Try these on for size...
1) Although I'm left-handed, and generally left-sided, I'm partially deaf in my left ear. I had fluid buildup in my ears as a little kid, and at the time, the waiting list for the necessary operation was two-to-three years--long enough for some permanent nerve damage, fortunately only in one ear.

2) I know the Isha Upanishad by heart. In Sansrkit as well as English. My dad was studying Sanskrit when I was learning to talk, and he tended to practice out loud. I picked up all kinds of extended passages, and still have them in my head. My school had some interest in those subjects as well, and when I was six years old, we had to memorize the Isha Upanishad in Sanskrit--and a few years later, in English, so that we'd have a clue what we were saying. I wonder whether any of my classmates still remember it too? (I think I might have been the only one who actually got it memorized.)

3) I almost became a professional musician. Despite the hearing loss, I was a very serious Classical musician through my second year of grad school. At one point, while I was an undergrad and taking music lessons at one of the London conservatories at the same time, my teacher encouraged me to start auditioning for English Horn positions in serious orchestras! When I decided to do Grad School in academic studies instead, my dear friend Nick, a wonderful conductor, cried. He said, "Who else is going to play English Horn?" (Actually, he said "cor anglais," because that's what it's called in British. And yes, I played oboe too.)

4) I have a persistent auditory memory. My current facebook profile pic commemorates my headstand rendition of a poem during a skit at our last MFA Residency. What you might not know is that when I was an avid oboist, I once memorized a whole piece without playing it once until I performed it for a workshop! It wasn't a perfect performance, but it didn't stop, either. On the other hand, I do not remember everything everyone says perfectly, so if I get in an argument with you, don't let me say "You said xxxx: I remember exactly what you said!"

5) If my life had panned out slightly differently, I might have become an interpreter. Translating is still my favorite job, and I can't wait to start doing literary translation also. I'm reading so many poetry books at the moment, but a volume that arrived in my mailbox just a couple days ago gave me so much delight.

It's a bilingual Anthology of Modern Greek poetry! I work with Ancient Greek on a daily basis, but I adore Modern Greek too, and it's been a while since I encountered it.
I opened the book at random and read in Greek, glancing over occasionally to see if I agreed with the translation:

"The dawn smelled of thyme:

it was the sprightly little Faun, who woke

and put on his cap of bright-gold sun

and rode his gust of wind down to the sea.

"This is the place where I was born."

(My translation is a little different from what's in the book.) And I was enthralled.

Tell me something I don't know about you?