Laura Simon can rattle off a phone number or an address from memory with no trouble. She keeps up with current events and has a good idea of what’s going on with the economy. She listens to audio books and loves literature greats like Yeats, Joyce and Hemingway. Last November, she celebrated her 105th birthday. “To get to this height was like climbing Mount Everest,” she said. “It was a great journey, a great learning experience. I learned who I am after all these years. I’ve survived the battles of everyday living for 105 years. I’m a survivor. That’s who I am.” Simon, a La Jollan who will be featured in the documentary “Over 90 and Loving It,” will join director Susan Polis Schutz at the Clairemont Reading 14 Theater for the premier of the film at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival on Feb. 14. She smiled when asked what her secret is. “Everybody, young and old, asks me that question,” she said. “No one misses it.” After thinking for a moment, she said matter-of-factly, “The secret is work. Work and goals. You must always have a goal. I have goals and I’m still working at 105.” No one would argue that Simon has not stopped to rest. In 2006, she published a book, “I Am Still Here.” A memoir recounting the experiences of her first 100 years, the book tells of overcoming poverty during the Great Depression, surviving Spanish influenza and living through two world wars. “I wrote this book because I wanted my family to know my deepest thoughts, those things you don’t bother your children with when they are young,” she said. Simon, who came to San Diego from Chicago roughly 30 years ago, has also kept busy painting and sculpting. The walls of her one-bedroom apartment in her senior independent-living community in University City are adorned with canvases splashed with vivid colors, all painted by Simon. There are more paintings sitting on the floor, resting against the walls, and she said she even has some stashed in a closet. “Each of these paintings has a lifetime of stories in it,” she said. Proving she has no plans to stop working, she said her next step is to find a museum “to give her paintings a home.” Simon quit school when she was 13 to work and help support her mother, who was a single parent. Simon’s father left when she was young. Though her formal education extends only through grammar school, Simon describes herself as a “lifelong student.” She studied at the University of California, San Diego for eight years, auditing courses like sociology of law and drama. Legally blind and almost deaf, she shrugs when people marvel at her accomplishments. “Everybody in my family has always worked,” she said. “You should never just sit around and do nothing.” Simon uses a walker to steady herself, and she said she has a metal hip implant. But she won’t say anything more about health-related issues. “I don’t like to talk about my ailments,” she said. “You give power to what ails you; I don’t want to do that.” It seems Simon has not given an ounce of power to any ailment. She tidies her apartment by herself and gets around easily, hustling down the halls of her building at a quick clip. Inn fact, it’s nearly impossible to guess her age by watching her chat on the phone to publishers or listening to her talk about the various websites where you can find her artwork or writings. “Within myself, I haven’t moved a day over 65,” she said. “And no one’s going to push me.”