25 THINGS ABOUT ME...

25 Things About Me

1. I love painting my nails in non-traditional colors.

2. I am extremely socially inept.

3. My favorite food is fried oysters.

4. Once, I was so in a hurry to go to Disneyland, we chartered a private plane to take us there because there was an airline strike going on at the time.

5. I got married at the age of 17 and am still married to the same man.

6. I am really, really clumsy.

7. When caught up in one of my obsessions at the time, I fully intended to excavate our whole backyard in an archeological dig, a few years back.

8. In the wee hours, after everyone was asleep, under cover of darkness, my granddaughter and I snuck out of a Girl Scout camp because I could not take it any more.

9. I am not a fan of camping. I almost equate it with homelessness.

10. I once spent a night in a hot underground parking lot in New Orleans…and walked out the next morning to find there was a huge convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses evangelizing all over the streets.

11. In the heat of the summer, one of my sons and I packed a cow skeleton back from a long, brushy hike and I kept it on the shelves under the tv in the living room for a year or two, letting the kids put it together like a jigsaw puzzle.

12. I neglected the front yard terribly in our last house, because I have a severe aversion to having anyone see me in my yard, although I didn’t mind the neighbors seeing me in my backyard.

13. At times, I have communicated with family members exclusively via a sock monkey puppet, just to bug them.

14. I lived in Indonesia for a time.

15. My high school years were the most consistently tortuous, miserable years of my life – a fact that surprises and shocks anyone I knew in high school then, the couple of times I have mentioned it.

16. A few years ago, it struck me as funny to go to food places where they call out your name when your order is ready, and give a really weird false name for them to call out. It really embarrassed my daughter-in-law, who was with me one of those times. Unfortunately, places like that where they call your name are very few any more.

17. I’ve always been fairly adverse to talking on the phone. When my teenage (at the time) daughter was still at home, many people mistook her for me on the phone. So when I was feeling over-worked, over-stressed and hassled (most of the time, actually) I would tell her to take my phone calls, pretend to be me, and tell them whatever the heck she thought I’d tell them, and fill me in later. No one was ever the wiser.

18. I painted a variety of footwear (cowboy boots, swim fins, stilettos, etc.) all in bright pastels and hung them from the main tree in our front yard. I was thrilled with the final result. They stayed there until they weathered beyond salvage.

19. One of my sons once impersonated Lenny Kravitz, even signing autographs for people, since he was getting mobbed and everyone mistook him for the singer anyway.

20. I had a lot of imaginary friends as a child. My family mostly humored me with them, opening doors for the 2-3 who couldn’t come in the house unless the door was opened for them, and setting the table for 10 extras on any mornings we had pancakes when ‘Grandma and the children’ always showed up.

21. If I take the time to write something, I am never able to give the short version…as you can tell from this list so far.

22. I have a thing about the glass I drink from – at home I will only drink from my one ‘special’ glass. And no one else is ever allowed to use it. It is MINE! I do change every 5 -10 years, when I find a new one that I fall in love with, but my glass is the only one that my drink tastes ‘right’ in. It needs to be the right size, weight, thickness and have a look that I like. Currently it is a plastic one of perfect heft, clear, with multicolor retro ‘spangle’ designs on it. The only exception is wine. I do drink wine from a regular wine goblet from a set of identical ones. Of course if I am eating out, or at someone else’s house, I’ll drink from whatever glass they give me, but the drink never tastes right.

23. I ‘never’ look in a mirror. I have an aversion to it. I don’t think about it, or have any reason for it, but I haven’t done that in….decades. If I am brushing my hair, I WILL look briefly at my hair, and when I am washing my face, I take a quick glance at my skin to make sure the cleanser is totally off, but that is the extent of it.

24. One of my paintings was bought by an art gallery in Atlanta, Georgia. That is the only work I have ever sold.

25. I think I am my own worst enemy when it comes to sleeping. Even when I am not specifically having insomnia, I fight sleep. For instance, it is now after 3a.m. and I am sleepy, but am looking for things to do in order to avoid sleep. I don't know why I do this. I also hate naps.

RAIN!

We finally got some measurable rain and the first thing Chuck did was to stick his pick-up in the cattle pen. He was pulling a round bale hauler with a new bale for the cows.

Robert and Ralph helped him get it out, but it took quite a bit of work. Everyone said it was nice to be able to get a vehicle stuck after all this drought.

We locked up the dogs this afternoon, late, and I turned the chickens loose to enjoy some greenery and bugs and whatever. I stepped out of the door and snapped a photo of Midnight and Goldilocks when they started up the porch to visit.