Tag! I'm It!

10 Little Known Facts About Me

I was tagged today. When I was visiting some of the blogs that I love to frequent I discovered I had been tagged by Stephanie to list 10 little known facts about myself. Hmmm. This might be interesting.


1. I had chickenpox twice when I was a kid. The first time was when I was very small when most younger children normally had it as there was no vaccine yet; and again in the 5th grade when no one is supposed to get it, let alone twice. I had no scars from the first round but got plenty from the second round. One scar is right in the middle of my forehead. I'm so very glad they now have a vaccine for it.

2. I can raise each eyebrow individually. This is hereditary because my mom can do it and my son can do it too. It makes for a great 'evil eye' when Kevin is doing something naughty, except that he now gives it right back to me. My mom used to give it to me too. I remember it well.

3. In high school I played volleyball, basketball and softball, and was a majorette. I had great looking legs! (Those were the good ol' days before the ACL and cartilage tore in my left knee resulting in 3 surgeries and the inevitable arthritis....) I miss the body of my younger days.

4. I was a music major at the University of Tennessee playing flute and oboe, and sang alto in the chorus. Never got anywhere with it. However, I did end up being promoted to assistant manager of Cat's Records & Tapes on the 'strip' off campus in Knoxville (remember records & tapes?). That was my first job and I loved it. Thanks, Drew, wherever you are. (I also play the guitar)

5. I have a huge stack of poems and ramblings that I've scribbled down dating back to the 6th grade. It's interesting to observe the things about me that have changed and what has remained the same. Sometimes I take them out of hiding and read them again, and still remember what I was doing and feeling at the time. It's weird how I can look at a piece of paper from that stack and be immediately transported back in time to the moment I wrote it. One piece of paper in particular comes to mind. It is a pale yellow sheet of tablet paper with light blue ruling. It is stained with a blurry pinkish-red splotch from where I was eating a wild strawberry picked from the grass next to me. I was sitting alone out in the yard as I was writing. I did a lot of writing there. It's one of my favorite places. I was probably in 6th grade when I wrote it. Which brings me to...

6. I would like to publish a children's book. I have already written it, and if I could paint or draw well enough I would have illustrated and published it by now. I wrote a poem parallelling a conversation I had with Kevin one day a couple of years ago that I believe would be perfect for a cute little children's book. I can see in my head how I want it to look. Hopefully someday I'll find someone to illustrate it.

7. I'm bipolar. That can be an entire blog entry unto itself... sometime.

8. I abhor light pollution. Seems like everybody and his brother have 'security' lights. There is no more 'country dark', or at least it's getting harder and harder to come by. You can't see the Milky Way anymore from my mom's yard, not like I used to when I was a kid. I would stretch out under the stars and try to spot meteors and make out the constellations. I tried to feel the earth turning beneath me as I lay there and watched the amazing display in the sky. Now I feel lucky to catch a glimpse of the Big Dipper or Orion's Belt much less spot a shooting star from any place I visit...anywhere. If we as a society could be free of the majority of 'security lights,' just imagine how much money would be saved as well as electricity and fossil fuels. I just believe it's a waste.

9. I'm 1/16 Cherokee. My great grandmother was half Cherokee and no one knows the ancestry of her Cherokee relatives. She lived to be 104. She was a very gentle, hard working woman as I recall. She passed away several years ago when I was in college. She was a rock. Always had a small glass of wine before going to bed. Drank coffee every day. I hope to live that long.

10. I would rather wade in a creek and catch crawdads than go shopping.

So there you have it. Ten things about me that you may or may not have known. Of course, there is more. For that you will have to continue to read my blog! I now tag Kathy and Maile.