2002-09-13 @ 11:34 p.m.

because i havent updated in what feels like decades. here lies another friday five.

1. what was/is your favorite subject in school? why? my favorite subjects were definitely english and art. english just because i love to read and love learning literature, grammar, and all the other things that come along with english classes. art because ive always had it in my blood in one way or another. the art room was this creative sanctuary in the middle of the halls of academia and arrogance, and it was my only escape from the rest of high school, which i hated.

2. who was your favorite teacher? why? i have a few. mr guidi, who was my art teacher every year, because he nurtured my talents and interests when no one else saw them as important. the art room in my school was very free-form, as probably most art classrooms are i guess, and he would let me work on whatever i wanted to work on that day, regardless of what the class was doing, and a lot of times my interest would change daily (thanks to my short attention span), but he would push me to work on semester-long projects also. and he would let me come in and work even when he had another class in there and i was supposed to be in study hall or something.

also, mr franklin, who was my 9th grade english teacher, he was fun and young and goofy and an incredible teacher. hes also the teacher who made us read 'to kill a mockingbird' which is still one of my all time favorite books.

lastly, my design teacher in college, her name was debi and insisted on just being called that instead of 'ms libuda' as she was only in her late 20s.   she drove a little red sportscar and talked to us about anything and everything. she was the coolest. every couple of weeks she would have little private meetings with each of us and tell us how we were doing. ill never forget my last meeting with her. she told me how talented she thought i was in graphic design and how i should stay in it, but that she thought i should look into doing more 'hands on work' like building things, making things. and my heart might be happier. which was so amazingly true. that summer, a vacation was planned for myself and all my fellow graphic design students to go to her house north of boston, which for one reason or another, never happened.

3. what is your favorite memory of school? i have tons of good memories from college. but not including college, id have to say my piano lessons. twice a week, i got out of a class to head to this broom closet of a room just off of the kindergarten space and for forty minutes i was taught piano by the sweetest old man, dr wayne. i did that every week from first grade through eighth grade, though it peetered down to once a week when he got sick. i remember playing 'when irish eyes are smiling' in second grade for my first recital in front of the whole school. i was so nervous but when i finished and turned around, he was the only one standing up and he was in the front row, clapping and beaming at me. we adored each other. :)

4. what was your favorite recess game? i went to catholic private school from K through eighth grade. we didnt have a playground. we had a parking lot. but for nine years, we managed to be creative and almost always found something to do. a lot of times, as my class got older, we (the girls in my class, there were only 8 of us) would just stand around and talk or sit under our favorite tree and sing some of our favorite songs. good memories. jump ropes were outlawed. as were many other things. but for some reason, kickball wasnt. so kickball was probably a favorite game of mine.

5. what did you hate most about school? i really didnt enjoy high school at all. it was a really dark time for me. but what did i hate most? looking back on it, probably the whole high school vibe, if that makes sense. also, i really disliked both of the high schools i went to (i transferred at the end of my junior year) because they were very science/history/math driven. thinking they were the only important things going. art, music and theater were never given any kind of priority there. not to mention the sports importance. i played three sports, one each season, but i still didnt like the intense sports focus they had.