Penny Raile: Lives of Others

Unimportant Things About Me

•As a child, I did not like gathering eggs on the farm because the hens were mean.
• I played the Doris Day part in “Pillow Talk” in a high school play.
• I played defensive line woman on my girl’s football team in high school - real football, not powder puff.
• I ate dinner at a restaurant next to Vice President Bush’s table in Fort Smith, Arkansas surrounded by secret service agents.
• I played the French horn and the cymbals in my high school band – horribly.
• I was the Sports Editor of my high school paper.
• When I moved to California, I lived in Malibu. I now live near Skid Row.
• I did not finish kindergarten.

101 Things in 1001 Days

THE START OF MY LIST 1 Go to Paris and shop flea markets, thrift stores and garage sales 2 Go on a holiday trip with my entire family 3 Do stretching exercises five days a week for one month 4 Write the second edition of the Raile Family History 5 Finish the Harry Potter series 6 Create “gorilla art” 7 Make a map of every place I have been 8 Elaborately decorate my loft for Halloween 9 Invite at least four guests for dinner at the same time and everyone wears red 10 Go to Yosemite Park 11 Host a pajama party 12 Go on at least one date 13 Turn the big room into something whimsical 14 Change jobs 15 Keep a better diary 16 Set-up a trust fund 17 Write my life story 18 Create a web site to sell things 19 Make things that I am willing to sell 20 Send an admiration letter to RK 21 Visit New York 22 Attend Artfest in Seattle, Washington 23 Visit Watts Tower 24 Send out secret friend packages 25 Create a margarita bar and a coffee bar in loft 26 Read five books that I should have read in high school 27 Create five photo studies

March 2015

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

Go see this movie! It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and it deserved it. Before the fall of East Berlin the lives of people were watched by the Stasi. East Germany's powerful secret police. The Stasi knew everything about everyone.

Captain Gerd Wiesler, a spy for the Stasi, is asked to watch a celebrated playwright and his actress girlfriend. He turns from observer to manipulator. This is a serious film that is easy to follow. My audience on Saturday night all applauded when the film credits rolled.

I also went to see Namesake on Friday night with Cherry. We both agreed it was good and worth a nod of approval.

On Sunday, I did my grocery shopping at a Japanese grocery store close by. From the outside it looked like a normal American grocery store. Once I started pushing my cart down the aisles, I knew I was going to have trouble finding everything. They did carry American brands, but most products were packaged with Japanese writing. As I was browsing through the green tea selections, a very nice Japanese woman shook her finger at me when I reached for Twings Green Tea Bags. She showed me better choices and gave me a explanation of all the different types of green tea. I walked away with two different types - one of them, my new friend told me, would make me sweat all the bad stuff out of my body. Just imagine her telling me this in very broken English.