Sunday, June 22, 2008

My Interesting Seven

Long, long ago, in a far away blog, Alli tagged me to tell seven interesting things about myself. Here you have them (and I hope they are interesting...).

1. My fingernails have been perpetually painted since sixth grade. I don't take off polish without a plan for putting more on. Motherhood has caused the occasional time lapse between manicures, but never more than 24 hours, if I can help it. My fingernails are my greatest vanity, and if I had money beyond reason, I would treat myself to a professional manicure every single week.

2. I cannot hit a ball with a bat. I cannot catch things that are tossed to me. I cannot shoot a basketball or hit a golf ball with any degree of success. I struggle to paint my toenails, light a candle, cut a string, or pick up small objects. All of these inabilities stem from poor depth perception, the result of a vision disorder I was born with. My eyes do not work as a team, but rather as competing entities to accomplish a task. This leads to vision fatigue: my eyes get very tired very quickly if I do not have my glasses to aid in the perception process. (This quirky thing about me is actually beneficial when I am watching any form of entertainment in a theater; if my view is obstructed by a bald head or large pole, I simply look through my other eye. Can you do that??) At the end of the day, I often have to listen with my eyes closed, because my eyes just get too darn tired to keep up. So if you are with me in the late night hours, know that I really am listening; I just have to rest my eyes.

3. I love bracelets. I collect them and wear one everyday, even just at home. I love them.

4. I cannot bring myself to sleep or use the bathroom if there is something more interesting to do. If there is a party happening or an intriguing conversation to contribute to, I will not go to sleep; I can sleep later. In the same way, I will not stop what I am doing to use the bathroom... for my entire life, I have always seen that task as an intrusion and distraction from what I would rather be doing. (This has resulted in some very sleepy "morning afters," and I am pretty sure I am on a path for renal failure. But I am a party girl and I love the people I am with far more than the needs of my body... in the moment, it's always worth the risk.)

5. I have always wanted to be an author and a teacher. While other little girls were playing house and rocking babies, I was playing school and writing books. I was lining my dolls up in rows in my imaginary classroom, and I was reading my own stories to them. It's what I was meant to do.

6. I am a clutter bug. I leave piles all over the house (and frankly all over town) - a veritable trail of where I have been. This is one of my husband's favorite things about me. Too bad he doesn't have a blog to tell you how much he adores this endearing quality of mine.

7. I have a memory with crazy accuracy. I remember outfits I wore for notable events, precise wording of important conversations, and the dates of events, both happy and sad. It's all in there, locked up in my steel trap. Just tell me what you want to know, and I'll tell you what I remember about it.

In case you're still interested, here are a bonus three:

8. Spelling is very important to me. I must know how to spell every word I encounter. If a movie character's name is new to me, I have to stay for the credits to know how it is spelled. If I hear a word but I cannot picture it in my head, I am more than a little distracted until I know how to spell it. (This character trait earned me the title of Eighth Grade Spelling Bee Champ, I'll have you know.)

9. I am obsessive about my handwriting and the pens I use. I cannot use a subquality pen, and if I make a mistake on the page, I will start all over again.

10. I always have a melody in my head, and I absent-mindedly harmonize with the melodies happening around me. I've been known to hum along with the pianist while the pastor is praying, and that's a setting where one should really just sit quietly and listen. If you're humming a little ditty of your own, I might hum along without knowing it. (It's just what I do; I don't mean to be annoying.)

There. You know a lot about me now.

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