A few things you didn’t know about your blog hostess

Hope ya’ll don’t mind if I take the evening off from serious-issue blogging – I figured something light-hearted tonight would do us all some good, so here are a few oddball things about me that you may (or may not!) be interested in knowing (in turn, I hope readers will join in with their own list):

1. I was one of the first kids in my first grade class to read 100 books in a school year. My mom even has the T-shirt I was awarded to prove it.

2. I learned early on (around the second grade) how words could cut like a knife. Utilization of this new and exciting knowledge led my bus driver to kick me off the bus one day, with the stern warning that if I ever said ‘those mean things’ again, I’d be off the bus for good. It was small wonder not many of the other kids wanted to sit next to little ST on the bus on the way home.

3. I won a spelling bee when I was in third grade. My prize? A navy-colored leather-look zippered pencil holder with red and white stripes down the side. I carried it with pride.

4. When I was about seven, my dad painted the house we lived in a pretty yellow color. He’d barely finished painting one side of it when I decided to lean up against the freshly painted wall (vanilla ice cream cone in hand) in my new shorts set my grandmother made for me. It’s the only time I could have ever been legitimately accused of having a yellow streak down my back. Though I thought at the time that the little yellow paint streak was cute, my dad was not amused. Neither was grandma.

5. I had a cat named “Choo Choo Train” when I was very young. My dad worked at the railroad at that time and brought Choo Choo home as a stray. We also had another cat at that time named “Lollipop” (I didn’t name that one) and later, Felix. We had a rabbit, too, for a short time, but gave the lil gal to a family friend when we moved from the house I lived in when we had these various animals.

6. I remember one year when I was 8 or 9 I was very excited to see that my mom and dad got my older sisters a drum set for Christmas. Big mistake. I don’t have to explain why.

7. File this under “so THAT’S why she’s like she is now”: When I was learning how to ride a bike, the first moment the training wheels were off I rode it straight into a tree, and knocked my head into the side of the tree. Years later, I was swinging on a neighbors tire swing when the rope holding it on to the branch broke, and the tire fell to the ground with me in it, slamming my head on the dirt ground which had no grass for cushion. Within a year or two of that, while playing kickball in the fifth grade, I decided in the middle of playing a defensive position that I no longer wanted to play. So I sat on second base. Right about that time, the gal at the home plate kicked the ball and it hit me directly in the head

8. When I was around 12 or 13, I was still in the tomboy stage of my life, even though my mom insisted on me wearing ‘girly clothes.’ I made a deal with myself that I would do so, but would still continue to do things tomboys did – like try to swing across the nearby creek using an old rope that was hanging off a tree branch. The day I attempted this, several other friends had done so and succeeded. But I, wearing a tangerine colored shorts set, – the top of which had this cute sailors collar – gave it a go, and in the end, I didn’t have a good enough grip on the rope and fell into the creek, ruining an outfit my mom had only recently picked out for me. I guess I had this thing for ruining clothes. Thankfully, I outgrew it (and outgrew the tomboy phase as well)

9. An early influence on my life was Wonder Woman. In my pre-teen days, I used to pretend to be her by wrapping a black towel around my head to symbolize Lynda Carter’s hair, and I’d wear white sweat bands for my bracelets. I’d then go out in the front yard and twirl around, like Wonder Woman would do when she was getting ready to kick bootie. (C’mon, now – how many other women do you know would admit to that?)

10. Though I live in NASCAR country, I am not a NASCAR fan. The rare times I do watch are mainly to see the pre-NASCAR race shows where you get to see the drivers walking around in those cute uniforms. Hey, I’m a woman, ok? I enjoy the sight of a fine gent in a cool-looking race uni. I admire men in other types of uniforms, too (Ok, so this last part wasn’t exactly an “oddball” fact about me …)

11. I have this intense fear of two things: deep water and Godzilla movies. The deep water I’m afraid of because I nearly drowned in a pool when I was very young. The Godzilla movies I can’t explain the fear – I just know that *if* I watch one, it’s because I’m with someone who wants to be watching it. My mother and sisters watched Godzilla movies religiously when I was younger, but I always opted out of joining them. I personally think Godzilla is THE scariest creature ever created for the movies. Update: Gasp!

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