Twenty-Five Random Things About Me

1. I believe in magic.

2. I spent my whole growing up life in the house my father built. He finished it the day I was born. It sat down a dirt road that had the most wonderful farm across the street. My dog and I would climb a sentinel eucalyptus tree that was out front of Mrs. Cooper’s farm and think great thoughts.

3. I danced on our front lawn with the setting sun every summer evening as I was growing up.

4. There were no other children most of the year down our road, so my playmates were a couple of billy goats who lived in the field out back. For the whole summer when I was ten I played in the fields and I made up plays to act out and sing songs. The goats were my audience.

5. I love the scent of lavender and believe that it could very well calm us all down, ending wars and arguments and sleepless nights.

6. I am a roadbabe. I prefer to drive solo so I can listen to my choice of music, think about life, and wave the people on the roads. I have driven across the United States so many times I can no longer count them. I have visited every state in the nation except Hawaii and Maine. Maine was an oversight, apparently not meant to be. Of all my different routes I have driven, Route 66 is my favorite and I will find some way to hit at least a portion of it as I travel each time. I didn’t actually drive to Alaska but I have been there. I didn’t see Russia from any windows or porches.

7. My sons were born on the same day, two years apart. They are the best things to ever happen to me.

8. I met my partner online on Internet Relay Chat (IRC), channel #41plus. He lived across the country from me. He followed me home and I really did have to keep him. We’ve been together since 1996 and are now married 10 years. It jes don’t get no better dan dis.

9. The ocean is where I gather strength. I believe that the saltandsandandsea smell is the most best most wonderful most calming most invigorating smell ever created. I learned to surf while in high school and often skipped school my senior year to drive to the beach. Gas was 23 cents a gallon. I usually “sold dandelions” for change in order to get home (begged for change but gave them a dandelion for the favor).

10. I sing songs at the drop of a word. There really is a song for everything. I sing old 60s lyrics. I sing commercial jingles. I secretly love jingles, but don’t tell anyone. My grandgirl and I make up songs and sing them in the car.

11. I have the most best delightful darling grandgirl. I listen to her reasoning and her six-year-old logic and think she is brilliant.

12. I was married at age 18, had my first child at age 19, my second child at age 21, divorced at age 25, and began college at age 28. I earned two degrees and a minor in four years while working four jobs.

13. I was one of two people in my department at the University to be hired as a full-time instructor who did not have a PhD. They had never before hired someone with a master’s only.

14. I am a vegetarian. This isn’t a philosophical stance on my part, but I have learned that this is how my body runs smoothly. At 59, I want my body to run smoothly.

15. I believe in karma. Well, my own concept of karma. I think it is important to not take anything for granted, so I thank even the light signal for staying green long enough for me to get through. I’m kinda strange at times.

16. I make quilts. I feel that each quilt I make puts positive energy out into the atmosphere. I made my first quilt in 2003 as an answer to ugly things happening in the world—war with Iraq, economic downturn in the nation, my good friend’s painful death—and I have since made about 200 quilts for my family, friends, and Project Linus.

17. It is my civic responsibility to question authority.

18. I have a tattoo of three daisies on the inside of my left ankle. Daisies are the perfect flower. Happy. Summer. Crisp.

19. I learned that the first step toward my own future always starts with a step off a blind ledge. I first learned this when I needed to escape from my first husband, who abused me.

20. I do not particularly like chocolate.

21. I can’t seem to learn a second language. I can understand at bit and can read a bit, but can’t seem to learn how to speak. I have tried sign language, Spanish, French, and German. I think it is something in my brain that is a bit screwy.

22. I believe in the human spirit, in the greatness of people, in humanity. I believe that one person can make a difference and that we can change the world.

23. I have firsthand knowledge that the joys of menopause have been exaggerated.

24. It is now believed by my doctor and me that I may have fibromyalgia.

25. Life is such a random swirl of people and events and emotions that I have learned that when in doubt, we should twirl……