Land lover or water baby?
I am and always be a water baby. I remember going to the bay beaches of Long Island when I was really little. I loved splashing in the water and chasing the teeny bait fish (I’m not sure what they were called), trying to catch them. One time my brother and I held a towel between us. We lowered it into the water and then raised it. We had quite a few of those little fish! I remember my father teaching us to swim. He held his arms out and I laid on top of them. His arms supported me while I practiced the forward crawl. Soon I was able to swim on my own. My father also taught me how to handle the waves in the ocean. If the waves were too high, I could dive into them and let them pass over head. If they were small, I would just jump up. If there was a bit of a rip current, I would swim parallel to the beach until I was free. A pool is a very tame place to swim but I’ll take it over no water at all.
When you meet someone for the first time, what about them are you interested in learning as quickly as possible?
For a potential new friend, the first thing I want to know is if we have enough common interests to be able to keep up a conversation. I also want to get a feel for their honesty or sincerity, whether they are reliable or totally irresponsible, whether they are clean or they drink or do drugs. I don’t need a friend who’s addicted to alcohol or drugs and forgets and leaves the kids at home alone all the time. I’d like to know what they do for a living and what inspires them. As long as we’ve got common interests and common values, we ought to be able to become friends.