25 Random things about Ginny

Several people on Facebook sent me such lists and asked me to do the same. I am posting it here to try to get Shannon and Wendy to make a list as well, on our blog. This list is different, with a bit more information about me, than the one on Facebook.

25 Random things about Ginny

1. I have very slow recall and have a hard time remembering things and some people from the past. It is remarkable the things I forget, but given a lot of time, most memories come back to me.

2. I rarely enjoy staying up late, preferring to sleep. I have been this way since I was a child, putting myself to bed.

3. I generally enjoy but am exhausted by social interactions. A consequence of being introverted.

4. I played the violin for 11 years and was a member of a professional orchestra in Arkansas, which was very rewarding, but now never play and I don't even go to concerts, although I wish I would.

5. I worked on a site in France, the Solutré site, and celebrated my 28th birthday on top of the "Roche de Solutré" with wonderful friends and good wine. The Roche de Solutré is a place Fracois Mitterand visited a lot. The rock pathway up to the top of this rock feature has been rubbed glossy and slick from all the foot traffic.

6. I have also worked on several and visited many islands in the Aleutian chain and waded in the Bering Sea while offloading a skiff on my first trip to the Aleutians (1998). I was so amazed to be in that place (and be payed for it) that I felt I need not accomplish anything else in my life, camping and working on the northern shore of Attu Island was enough. On another trip in 2001 I was sucked into the same sea by an undertow - it had my feet and was pulling HARD, but in a moment of perfect clarity, I grabbed the rope attached to the skiff we were loading and saved my own life. The water was really, breath-takingly cold.

7. I am sensitive to light, sound, touch, and smell. I get light triggered migraines and have to take ear plugs to movie theaters.

8. I get migraines from alcohol too, definitely beer and wine, and maybe hard alcohol, but so far not vodka, something I sampled a lot with Russian colleagues. Still I prefer red wine and risk migraines often.

9. I am a liberal democrat and proud of it. I think taking care of our poorest citizen should be our top priority. I don't understand why people vote republican, but I accept the fact that people do. ;)

10. I love nature. I get this from my mom who grew up in the Ozarks playing in the forests, swimming before school, and rescuing all sorts of animals. She took me camping in the canyons and on the plains.

11. I fostered 4 kittens who had lost their mother when they were very young-3 weeks?. Kittens that young usually do not survive long, even with fostering, but I feed them so often they turned into little round critters. They have gone off to new homes, but I think of them fondly.

12. I really enjoy working as an archaeologist and am working currently for a company which is located in Austin. I primarily direct large scale excavations (which I love), punctuated by survey and testing projects. I love being an archaeologist since it affords me many opportunities to travel, to work outdoors, and to meet people.

13. Getting my PhD was a very rewarding and difficult experience. I thought I would be a professor like my parents, but, after my experiences in graduate school and a brief spell as a visiting professor, I found that I did not actually like academia (due to all the non-archaeology related activities and the behaviors of the people in the departments, and because I only got to be in the field for 3 months). The work I do now also allows me a lot more free time than academia - so I can facebook and spend time with my husband . . .at least when I am in town.

14. I really love sauces, well, most of them, and love creamy Indian and French food. I wish I had learned how to cook or would take the time to learn to cook now, because I really love gourmet food.

15. When I lived in Austin in 1993, I worked at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL). I took the shuttle from the place I was living near the UT campus to TARL and would treat myself to chocolate and peanut butter ice cream from Baskin Robbins on my way home, just after I got off the shuttle and ate it while I walked home . . . until their freezer broke and they closed down :(. Coincidentally (not causally) I have not had Baskin Robbins since.

16. Both of my parents taught at Texas Tech. My mom in English (she has an MA) and my dad in Physics (he has a PhD and was actually chair of the department for awhile). My dad worked on an ignition system for a rocket engine - so he is a rocket scientist. That never helped my ability to do math, which I am exceptionally bad at. My mom also had her own technical writing business with 2 partners. She read Paradise Lost to us as children.

17. I have a brother who is 12 years older than me and one that is 2 years older than me, both of whom work in technical fields. The one that is 12 years older grew up mostly in Arkansas and hunted and fished and currently works in Louisiana developing and fixing digital finger print recognition systems for the state police (and others). He was one of the few people to go into New Orleans, after the Hurricane to set up this system again, ASAP. The one that is 2 years older grew up with me on the plains and neither of us hunt or fish-he works for a private company developing pulsed power technology (like EMP weapons) for the department of defense and private contractors . . his work is secretive.

18. Since I became an archaeologist, I don't like hiking or camping for fun. I love to do it if it also involves archaeology, but to just go hiking and camping doen't appeal to me anymore.

19. I have traveled to France, Germany, Austria, and Italy, as well as northern Mexico. I want to travel a lot more - I really want to see the Terra Cotta soldiers and the Forbidden City in China, several sites in Turkey, the Great Pyramids in Egypt, the Dalmatian Coast, Athens, Crete, Central Mexico and Mayan Ruins, Peru, Israel, and Jordan and many many other places.

20. When I was 19, I fell down while caving (climbing down a sheer cliff) in Arkansas and fell about 30 feet, landing on someone who was trying to catch me (as nutty as that sounds). I cut my head (requiring 8 stitches) and had a big bruise on my leg, and broke my glasses! I was climbing way beyond my skill. The guy who "caught me" climbed back up the cliff with me on his back. Later, in another cave, he led me to another place beyond my skill . . . I started to see the pattern and quit going caving with him.

21. I have been repelling many times, the first time when I was 13. I also know how to ascend a rope using a shoe string and a prussick knot, but hope I never have to.

22. I lived in Phoenix for a year. I didn't like that city much, which is unusual since I have liked most of the places, even Tucson, that I have lived in . . . I even like Lubbock . . .and have found each place has its own pros and cons . . .sadly Phoenix has too few pros for me.

23. I love many BBC programs - like Jane Austen movies, Lovejoy, and foreign movies in general (Pans Labrynth, The Bicycle), because they tend to cast people who look real-- not glossy glamorous model-esque people like we see on American TV and movies and they don't always have a happy ending.

24. I suffered heat exhaustion while surveying in Kansas and still have a lot of trouble with heat. I also got frostbite on my toes in Kansas while walking to and from the campus in -20 degree temperatures. Kansas is dangerous people! Still, if I could live anywhere, I would live in Lawrence, Kansas. A wonderful small town with a great downtown district and near a giant city. Sadly it is growing fast.

25. Celebrating the summer solstice at the Attu Coast Guard station, in Alaska, in 1998, is one of my most memorable and happy experiences. I was full of joy on that day, which marked the end of my 6 week expedition with 7 people and ONLY 7 people (no other human contact except radio checks at 9am and 9pm) while camping and working on the north shore of Attu. The expedition began with a flight to Adak and the Tiglax taking us to Attu. On June 21st, the Tiglax (the USFW service boat) took us to the Coast Guard station on the other side of the island so we could take a C130 home. We had a cookout (it was in the upper 50s but felt like 80s) with about 20 Coast Guard personnel. It was an overwhelmingly happy day. I am sure the beer helped. It also made me happy to take the C130, two days later, from Attu to Kodiak and to be able to be in the cockpit for most of it.