Things 1. I have an unusual sense of humor. Fried eggs bubbling & flappity flap videos can make me laugh for hours.. to myself, alone. I often imagine how words were created, like Oregon. Some poor schmuck was up the Willamette with a paddle, wasn’t he? Still laughing. 2. And I’m still laughing. 3. I never drank chocolate milk as a kid because I was afraid it would turn my skeleton brown. You can imagine my internal conflict watching all my friends gulp down all that awful earth tone carton moo juice. I still have strong bones. 4. I am socially awkward. Even though I am articulate & show well enough in public, I often feel like I never say/do enough. This has ruined my chances of being a blues singer in slinky dresses. That & heels. 5. I have ridiculous feet. I should be wearing a size 7.5 or 8 but because of the high arch (?), I upsize to refrain from insanity. My moods are largely dependent on happy feet. Most of my children have the same affliction. 6. I want to live in Italy for a year. Or any other moderate climate country, for that matter. I would like to immerse into a different culture, learn the language, & really validate if I have the adaptability I’ve thought I’ve possessed all these years. 7. I am the Project Dreamer. I have an ever effing list that will never be completed if I don’t quit adding on. You’d thing as a recovering garage sale junkie, that I’d learn my lesson about More! More! More! 8. I was once in the Top “5” for a female radio disc jockey spot. In fact, the station sent out an A.P.B. trying to find me for the competition since my home phone had been changed since the initial interview. I was a little freaked because I would have never used my formal name on the air, but it worked - my friends tracked me down in minutes to call the business line. That was a cool experience even if I didn’t beat out the chick that had a degree in Communications & Broadcasting. 9. My first gray hair revealed itself when I was 17. I’m about 75% now. I’ve been dying rather regularly for 20 years. After Jamieson’s death I wanted to shave my head & go natural. The kids balked, saying that people would think I had gone crazy. (Really I already had, so I should have just gone with it.) In the past year, I tired of the cost & unhealthy texture to my hair, so I’ve grown most of it out. It’s stunning but confuses people that don’t know me. I don’t care. I love how it feels now. 10. I am in touch with most all of my friends while I was growing up despite the excessive amount of times I moved (40+) with a few exceptions: Julie Calloway, she was like a little sister to me & often wonder how life turned out for her; Billy Creutz & Thorton Wilson, I remember when the boys wouldn’t let me into their club until I drew a comic. It turned out decent & I should have kept it. Or the Wendall’s in Kenosha. 11. My memory sucks & it terrifies me. It’s only going to get worse. 12. I asked my children to help me with this & apparently a challenge to them too because they can’t think of a dang thing that I might be annoyed by or people don’t know about. We debated for a while if it might be because it forces me to look at myself a little more closely than I prefer to. And it isn’t because I’m afraid of what I might see, as much as it is that I cannot define it articulately? Their conclusion is that I am too tolerant of many things in this world & secretly listen to Madonna. I won’t apologize for traumatizing them with music while they were growing up. I won’t! 13. Since I flubbed & fudged a little on #2, I am compelled to make up for it by adding one more. I have this internal compass, or OCD if you will, to meet expectations of those important to me. I blame this on my judgmental old coot of a father. He hammered into my head, either do it right or hell make you do it six hundred times to be sure you dont forget the next time. 14. And Im superstitious. Cant leave it at that number & feel swell about it. Im also regarded as empathetic, psychic, and slightly paranoid because I believe in all kinds of possibilities & probabilities. And Im ok with that.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 22:34:34 +0000