Blog 3 _ Barbara _ Nuclear Blast!

§ I was born and raised in different countries. I was born in Paris, France, to a U.S. Foreign Service officer and to a French mother, and I lived in Malaysia, Norway, Spain, and the U.S.
§ Concurrently, I was raised speaking several languages. French is my mother-tongue, though my father spoke it fluently. English is my father-tongue. I learned Spanish at age eight, in Spain, at a Spanish private school. I learned Italian at age twelve, in Spain, at an Italian private school. I learned German in college. I learned Japanese some years back.
§ I grew up playing the piano, though, unfortunately, with a teacher who neither pushed me nor encouraged me to play in public. I attended a conservatory in Baltimore, MD, but quit from lack of my professor’s encouragement and from depression over my parents’ divorce.
§ I joined a cult in Virginia, which precluded me from marriage, from a career, and from seeing my own family. I stayed with it for eleven years, my entire youth.
§ When I left the cult I reconciled with my family, went back to college, and joined a dating service. I stayed in touch with my parents and my siblings, graduated in eleven months, and met the man I married and with whom I had a child.
§ After twenty-two years of marriage, my husband wanted us to go our separate ways. My name has reverted to Barbara Cramer.
§ I completed four semesters as a music major (pianist) but decided, based on memory slips, to change my major to English and to make music my minor. I graduated from KSU as an English major and music minor.
§ I’m now preparing for an amateur piano competition next spring.

§ I’d like to cruise around Alaska.

§ I’d like to go up and down the Rhine River in Germany.

§ I’d like to stay several week s in Provence, in the south of France.

§ I’d like to spend a month in Florence, Milan, Rome, and Naples, to visit leisurely all the architectural sites and all the artistic sites.

§ I’d like to spend a month in the Outer Banks of the Carolinas, a string of islands with little commercialism and noise.

§ I’d like to build a house in North Carolina, facing the Smoky Mountains.

I imagine managing the threat of a nuclear explosion, which involves team-work with specialists. I need to trust them and their expertise. I need to trust myself to ask pertinent questions. Ultimately, I need to trust them more than myself in order to eliminate or neutralize the threat. All I need to do is extrapolate on my past experiences dealing with danger, perceived threat, insecurity, and then remember the feelings and the way I managed those feelings.