5 things meme (thanks to mofic)

1. Leave me a casual comment of no particular significance, like a lyric to your favorite song.
2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your lj with the answers to these questions.
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask others in your own post.
5. When others respond with a desultory comment, you will ask them five questions.

mofic asked me:

1. How did you and Shoshanna meet?
2. What's your least favorite thing about PSJC?
3. Where have you lived besides NYC?
4. What's the "F" for?
5. What's your secret ambition?

My answers:

1 & 3) I was a volunteer English teacher in Beit Shemesh for the 1981-82 school year. Shoshana was teaching adult Hebrew literacy in Sderot, another development town, and we met on the beach at Nueiba during a Chanukah Sinai tour for volunteers in our program. Between Purim and Pesach I quit my job and moved in with Shosh. We were both accepted to graduate school at Hebrew U. for the following fall, and later that spring we became engaged when I mentioned that we could live in married student housing if we got married (probably the lamest proposal of all time). We returned to the states in July, married on August 29, 1982, and returned to Israel in October, this time not as tourists but as "temporary residents," a status that leads to citizenship unless one leaves within 3 years or opts out by requesting non-citizen permanent resident status. In 1985 exponential inflation and the departure of friends made us reconsider. We also were not communicating well and were each convinced the other wanted to leave. We made yeridah (emigrated) in October 1985. When we first returned to the USA we lived for several months first with my in-laws in CT and then with my parents in New Rochelle, before getting our own apartment in Staten Island. After a year and a half in Staten island we moved to Brooklyn in October 1987.

2) Several come to mind but I can't say any one of them is greater than the others. They fall into three categories: physical condition (of the building in general, the poor acoustics in the basement room where we have kiddush, and the lack of cushions on the pews), ritual (I prefer more Hebrew and less English), and programming (I'm disappointed that so few members participate in the book discussions--at Kane Street they were often lead by the author of the book or a prominent cultural critic and attracted dozens of participants--and that these have been canceled until autumn).

4) My middle name, Frederick. By the time I registered my domain name, davidfcooper.com, davidcooper.com was already taken.

5) I'm not particularly ambitious in the driven careerist sense, and I'm much more process oriented than goal oriented, though I do set short range goals. I tend to have intense enthusiasms that last anywhere from 3 months to 3 years, and then I move on to a new enthusiasm. I don't want to know or predict what I will be doing 5 years from now, though I do look forward to Shoshana's retirement from her day job in 13 years so that she can paint full time, which should improve our general quality of life.

Go ahead. Comment if you dare.

5 things meme (thanks to mofic)

1. Leave me a casual comment of no particular significance, like a lyric to your favorite song.
2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your lj with the answers to these questions.
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask others in your own post.
5. When others respond with a desultory comment, you will ask them five questions.

mofic asked me:

1. How did you and Shoshanna meet?
2. What's your least favorite thing about PSJC?
3. Where have you lived besides NYC?
4. What's the "F" for?
5. What's your secret ambition?

My answers:

1 & 3) I was a volunteer English teacher in Beit Shemesh for the 1981-82 school year. Shoshana was teaching adult Hebrew literacy in Sderot, another development town, and we met on the beach at Nueiba during a Chanukah Sinai tour for volunteers in our program. Between Purim and Pesach I quit my job and moved in with Shosh. We were both accepted to graduate school at Hebrew U. for the following fall, and later that spring we became engaged when I mentioned that we could live in married student housing if we got married (probably the lamest proposal of all time). We returned to the states in July, married on August 29, 1982, and returned to Israel in October, this time not as tourists but as "temporary residents," a status that leads to citizenship unless one leaves within 3 years or opts out by requesting non-citizen permanent resident status. In 1985 exponential inflation and the departure of friends made us reconsider. We also were not communicating well and were each convinced the other wanted to leave. We made yeridah (emigrated) in October 1985. When we first returned to the USA we lived for several months first with my in-laws in CT and then with my parents in New Rochelle, before getting our own apartment in Staten Island. After a year and a half in Staten island we moved to Brooklyn in October 1987.

2) Several come to mind but I can't say any one of them is greater than the others. They fall into three categories: physical condition (of the building in general, the poor acoustics in the basement room where we have kiddush, and the lack of cushions on the pews), ritual (I prefer more Hebrew and less English), and programming (I'm disappointed that so few members participate in the book discussions--at Kane Street they were often lead by the author of the book or a prominent cultural critic and attracted dozens of participants--and that these have been canceled until autumn).

4) My middle name, Frederick. By the time I registered my domain name, davidfcooper.com, davidcooper.com was already taken.

5) I'm not particularly ambitious in the driven careerist sense, and I'm much more process oriented than goal oriented, though I do set short range goals. I tend to have intense enthusiasms that last anywhere from 3 months to 3 years, and then I move on to a new enthusiasm. I don't want to know or predict what I will be doing 5 years from now, though I do look forward to Shoshana's retirement from her day job in 13 years so that she can paint full time, which should improve our general quality of life.

Go ahead. Comment if you dare.