Making it to age 69 - when my father died from a heart attack at age 64 and my mother had her first (of two) quadruple bypass heart surgeries at age 64 (second one at age 74). Falling in love (again!) at age 63 and having it be one of the scariest/grandest times of my life. We’re still together and hanging on tight!!

Smoking pot in Athens Greece in 1966 and not knowing that if I had been caught I would have spent the rest of my life in jail. Then there were the airline flights over the Mountains of Colorado where I wondered if I would ever see the ground again! I didn’t make a choice about the flight conditions over the mountains but the choice to smoke pot was stupid. I was 18 years old.

The most dangerous thing I’ve ever done (over and over and over) was referee men’s soccer.

While in college in Springfield, MO, and not being as wise then as I am today, I allowed to very good friends (guys of course) to talk me into going “snipe” hunting at Stockton Lake late one night. Well, I went hunting alright. They left me out there by myself, and I finally caught on to the joke, and while walking back to town, met up with them, for life of me don’t know why I didn’t just kill them when I had the chance!!!

I drove a farm tractor without a cab back and forth across a steep hill pulling a harrow and felt so strongly that it would tip over on me that I stood up and leaned as far as I could toward the hill. Was I ever glad when I finished harrowing that field.

I voted for George Bush in 2000. I’m sorry.

I don’t do dangerous things. However, in the seventies I took the subway home at 2 AM.

Many many years ago when I lived in Vienna, I drove in a car with 3 models on our way to do shows in Italy. We got stopped at the border. We had to get out of the car, and pull all our bags out of the trunk. One of the border guards let out a loud whistle and a mangy German shepherd appeared out of nowhere. As he was inspecting the trunk, he rummaged in the breast pocket of his uniform shirt. The blood ran cold in my veins as he pulled out a small folded packet filled with brownish powder. The dog began to salivate and revealed to us that he was excited in every way if you know what I mean. The man leaned over the trunk and my heart sank as I thought he was going to drop it in the trunk and say, “well well look what I found.” I knew in that moment he had an opportunity to change all our lives forever. Our word against his. Then, suddenly he did something even more unexpected. He opened the packet and press some of the powder onto the dog’s cold wet nose. He ordered the dog to leap into the trunk. The dog obeyed with great enthusiasm and sniffed his way through every crevice, under the carpet, every corner. He then bounded through the entire car, sniffing wildly as he went. I was equally fascinated and horrified. It was apparent that this dog had not gone through thousands of hours of training to sniff out drugs at borders. They simply made him an addict! Not only that, but I didn’t know these people very well that I was traveling with. I basically had just decided to drive with them for the adventure rather than fly. Who knew if they really did have drugs with them. I only knew that I didn’t take drugs! Well, I could go on about what happened when we went inside, for our personal inspections, although scary, that part wasn’t really dangerous. Except maybe when I lipped off to the inspector. He asked me if I had any firearms. I rolled my eyes and replied, “Gee I left my Uzi at home.” It is somewhere deep in my nature to approach fearful situations with dark humour. I don’t know where that comes from! Luckily he thought it was funny as intended as they all burst out laughing. In today’s elevated climate of mistrust and fear, the outcome might have been different.

I hitchhiked across the United States when I was twenty years old. I was naive and somewhat fearless, and I didn’t consider it dangerous at the time. It’s not something that I would recommend to anyone, and I surely wouldn’t do it again. Still, it’s a journey that I can always look back on with fondness.

Many instances of danger or peril, most a result of ignorance or stupidity (and both) One instance where I did walk into it knowingly and with acceptance was when a very large male I worked with was enraged (to this day do not know why) and threatened me with physical assault. I still recall clearly the eerie calm that came with the decision to stand there and let him hit me. I also remember how time slowed as I evaluated that co-workers were nearby and becoming aware of the situation. Another co-worker came to stand behind me , saying nothing (also a very large younger male) and situation was defused and the confronter cussed a bit and walked away. I found out later that the younger man reported the incident, to both management and union. When I expressed my appreciation of his willingness to get involved, he told me he knew I was going to stand up and take it and he would have let me take a hit and then beat the crap out the ‘cretin’. That’s the only time I made the decision to take a physical risk and I admit our cultural bias against open violence to women was a factor in the decision I made. A situation with similar threat with no witnesses, I’d run like hell, I’m still pretty quick. That young man who quietly supported me became a favorite bowling league companion. I was in my mid-30’s at the time and still fondly bring him to mind, hoping he has fullfilled that early promise of quiet character. This was 20 years ago. I’ve worked to a large degree in areas where females were less than 5% of the workforce and never had to deal with a physical threat at any other time. Insulted, overlooked, undervalued, yes, but MOM taught me how to deal with those idiots.