Another Getting to Know You Meme (thanks to mofic)
You know how sometimes people on your friend's list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you *should* already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.
Please copy my response below, erase my answers putting yours in their place then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration! One-word answers seldom help anyone out.
1. First Name: David
2. Age: 53
3. Location: Brooklyn, NY. I live in a neighborhood called Windsor Terrace, which was originally very Irish-Catholic and blue collar but now is more diverse, upper middle class and gentrified. The housing stock is lower density than neighboring Park Slope, has more sky space, and is a tad more affordable. We own unique a split level loft co-op apartment.
4. Occupation: Writer and Translator. Details are on my homepage.
5. Partner: Shoshana Cooper (formerly Susan Cohen). We met in the Sinai Desert and lived in Israel the first three years of our marriage. We will celebrate our 26th anniversary in late August.
6. Kids: None. We are interviewed in Families of Two: Interviews with Happily Married Couples Without Children by Choice.
7. Brothers/Sisters: Originally the oldest of five; four of us survive.
a) Robert (1956-1993) was eighteen months younger than I. He was a lawyer, died of an AIDS related illness, and is survived by his partner Jordan who still attends second seders at my parents' home.
b) Daniel (b.1959) is an occupational therapist, is recently divorced, and lives in Jacksonville, FL with the younger two of his three kids (the oldest will be 19 and lives with her boyfriend).
c) Samuel (b.1960) is a chiropractor who lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife Beth and their two kids.
d) Sarah (b.1968) is a lawyer who works as a family court mediator (she acts as a judge in uncontested divorce cases) and lives in New Rochelle, NY with her wife Sharon and their twin daughters.
8. Pets: Sasson, who will be two years old next month, is a Peterbald and has been a member of our household for 11 months.
9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life:
a) Managing several chronic medical conditions consumes half my waking hours; these ailments include Primary Lower Limb Lymphedema, Osteoarthritis, Fibromyalgia, chronic rhinitis, allergies, and asthma.
b) I Am My Beloved's, a book of interviews and photographs bethr and I are writing.
c) Shoshana's prolific painting is an ongoing source of visual stimulation. I photograph digital images and help her set up her exhibits.
d) My brother Daniel's recent divorce and his life as a single dad.
10. Where and for what did you go to school for?
Hunter College, CUNY, BA in History
Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, Master of International Affairs, with a concentration in Media and Communications (a buzz word for journalism).
Schechter Institute, Jerusalem, Translation program.
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, doctoral candidate in Comparative Literature, left without completing dissertation.
City College, CUNY, MA in Creative Writing. My masters thesis became Glued To The Sky, one of my two poetry ebooks.
11. Parents:
Alan and Vera Cooper. My dad is an academic and author of Philip Roth and the Jews. My mom is a retired educational tester and evaluator. They live in New Rochelle, NY. For the first six months after their wedding in June 1952 they continued to live with their respective parents. They lived in their own apartment in the same Bronx apartment building as my maternal grandmother until I was a year old when we moved to an apartment in a building overlooking the East River next door to the Willimsburg Bridge in Manhattan's Lower East Side. My first spoken word was "boat." When I was six we moved to a larger apartment in the same apartment complex (ours was on the 19th floor). We moved to New Rochelle when I was nine.
12. Who are some of your closest friends? Shoshana and bethr. Since she moved from MA to CA last summer bethr and I speak less frequently despite collaborating on a book. Since my late teens my closest friends have all been women.
Please copy my response below, erase my answers putting yours in their place then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration! One-word answers seldom help anyone out.
1. First Name: David
2. Age: 53
3. Location: Brooklyn, NY. I live in a neighborhood called Windsor Terrace, which was originally very Irish-Catholic and blue collar but now is more diverse, upper middle class and gentrified. The housing stock is lower density than neighboring Park Slope, has more sky space, and is a tad more affordable. We own unique a split level loft co-op apartment.
4. Occupation: Writer and Translator. Details are on my homepage.
5. Partner: Shoshana Cooper (formerly Susan Cohen). We met in the Sinai Desert and lived in Israel the first three years of our marriage. We will celebrate our 26th anniversary in late August.
6. Kids: None. We are interviewed in Families of Two: Interviews with Happily Married Couples Without Children by Choice.
7. Brothers/Sisters: Originally the oldest of five; four of us survive.
a) Robert (1956-1993) was eighteen months younger than I. He was a lawyer, died of an AIDS related illness, and is survived by his partner Jordan who still attends second seders at my parents' home.
b) Daniel (b.1959) is an occupational therapist, is recently divorced, and lives in Jacksonville, FL with the younger two of his three kids (the oldest will be 19 and lives with her boyfriend).
c) Samuel (b.1960) is a chiropractor who lives in Binghamton, NY with his wife Beth and their two kids.
d) Sarah (b.1968) is a lawyer who works as a family court mediator (she acts as a judge in uncontested divorce cases) and lives in New Rochelle, NY with her wife Sharon and their twin daughters.
8. Pets: Sasson, who will be two years old next month, is a Peterbald and has been a member of our household for 11 months.
9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life:
a) Managing several chronic medical conditions consumes half my waking hours; these ailments include Primary Lower Limb Lymphedema, Osteoarthritis, Fibromyalgia, chronic rhinitis, allergies, and asthma.
b) I Am My Beloved's, a book of interviews and photographs bethr and I are writing.
c) Shoshana's prolific painting is an ongoing source of visual stimulation. I photograph digital images and help her set up her exhibits.
d) My brother Daniel's recent divorce and his life as a single dad.
10. Where and for what did you go to school for?
Hunter College, CUNY, BA in History
Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, Master of International Affairs, with a concentration in Media and Communications (a buzz word for journalism).
Schechter Institute, Jerusalem, Translation program.
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, doctoral candidate in Comparative Literature, left without completing dissertation.
City College, CUNY, MA in Creative Writing. My masters thesis became Glued To The Sky, one of my two poetry ebooks.
11. Parents:
Alan and Vera Cooper. My dad is an academic and author of Philip Roth and the Jews. My mom is a retired educational tester and evaluator. They live in New Rochelle, NY. For the first six months after their wedding in June 1952 they continued to live with their respective parents. They lived in their own apartment in the same Bronx apartment building as my maternal grandmother until I was a year old when we moved to an apartment in a building overlooking the East River next door to the Willimsburg Bridge in Manhattan's Lower East Side. My first spoken word was "boat." When I was six we moved to a larger apartment in the same apartment complex (ours was on the 19th floor). We moved to New Rochelle when I was nine.
12. Who are some of your closest friends? Shoshana and bethr. Since she moved from MA to CA last summer bethr and I speak less frequently despite collaborating on a book. Since my late teens my closest friends have all been women.