100 Things about me Part I

So…when you can’t think of much to say, it’s great to rely on these old memes and the fact that you’re still weirded out about how much more you’re willing to share with complete strangers or as “She Just Walks Around With It”, Kristy, calls us: ”the Collective Lot of Invisible Internet Friends, or, you know, ‘Cliif.’”

So Cliif, here’s random stuff I’ll share with the world:

Starting with Things About me:

1. I was born on the 12th of March, and have very good friends born the 11th, 13th, and 15th of March, but I have yet to find a March 14th baby and/or friend of said date. Seriously, I was a classroom teacher for FOUR years and have issued library cards for a grand total of almost 5, and no such luck. Ask around, I’m always curious about peoples’ dates of birth! It’s not because I’m into Astrology, nope, just looking for a “full house” or is it called a “flush?”

2. Card games are not my strong suit. When I was much younger, my dad tried to teach my older brother and I Poker, and I never liked it. I think it was the gambling aspect. I don’t gamble. But I love to play for points, like in Rummy or Scrabble.

3. I was an English Major in College and hold a California Teaching Credential in English and ESL, as well as a Hawai’i Teaching License to teach English, and Scrabble is one of my favorite games, but I can’t spell. I used to tell my students that being a good speller was overrated. (Yet, poor things, I still gave spelling tests.)

4. It’s not that I don’t know what letters should be in the words…but I kinda mix them up every once in a while. Spell-checkers are wonderful inventions. I was told in college that it’s part of my dyslexia.

5. I also can’t tell my right from my left. I wear a bracelet on my left wrist to remind myself. Directions like “east” and “west” or “port” and “starboard”… any directions really, have to go through my brain and get figured out. So telling me to turn RIGHT! HERE! NOW! Bad.

6. Does it surprise you to know I get lost easily? I make it a part of every trip to get lost. I even add about 45 minutes for every 3 hours of a trip to account for wrong turns. It’s part of the adventure.

7. While sailing around the Sacramento River Delta area, I was navigator. Yes, we got lost a whole lot. Even if I'd known my right from my left though, our charts were SO OLD that it became obvious that RIVERS CHANGE in 20 years' time!

8. I’m 100% Mexican, but you wouldn’t know it if you saw me. Most people swear I’m Irish. I guess it’s the brown going on copper curls, pale skin (I glow in the dark), hazel eyes, and proneness to freckles; my mom assures me I came from her, and the postman did not ring twice.

9. I’m 18 years older than my youngest brother, and 18 months younger than my oldest brother. There are only three of us.

10. My mother informed me, after the divorce finalized (March '05), that I married “too young” (23). But now that I’m almost 32 she’s wondering if I’ll ever remarry before I get “too old.”

Some crafty stuff:

11. I learned to crochet when I was about seven or eight. My aunt, my mom’s only full-sister, taught me. When I was nine, I went off to my dad’s hometown in Michoacan, Mexico, and my aunts and cousins there completed my training. I’ve given up most single-needle endeavors except for doilies. I have an unnatural fondness for making doilies. I don’t own any, mind, they all find homes elsewhere…but I have this scary picture/notion/daydream of me, like 80 yrs old, fumbling around my doily covered living room…and I shudder.

12. I first picked up the 2 sticks when I was 12 and a cousin (daughter of one of my mom’s half brothers) was living with us. She implored my crocheting aunt to teach her to knit (because that aunt, she’s crafty to the nth degree. I’d call her the “Mexican Martha,” but she’s also a nun and we respect nuns, or we get our knuckles smashed by their rulers). So of course the annoying little 12-yr-old me so wanted to learn too! She didn’t teach me to cast-on or cast-off, but she taught me to knit and purl. It was SOOOOOOOOO boring that I went back to crocheting my Barbie clothes and blankets with my ghetto yarn in all the fun colors.

13. I didn’t pick up the sticks again until 14 years later when I was in a pinch as to what to give a fellow teacher for a secret-santa xmas present. I had The Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, and my cousin’s old needles (she didn’t make it past purling & knitting either). I made the scarf on page 285 using a yummy wool/mohair combo. That yarn ruined me…but I made so many scarves I burned out I think…

14. Small NON-scarf projects are best for me. I finish them. Example one: “Vertically Challenged Basketweave Scarf.” Yes, still unfinished by my bed. Example two: Stripey hat! Done in about 2.5 days! Panta Head-thingy, only a few rows to go!

15. I’ll still crochet with “ghetto yarn,” especially if in Mexico with my aunts and cousins. It’s kinda hard to get anything fancy in little ranch towns. I edit that to note: it's hard to get anything non-acrylic even in the cities NEXT to the ranch towns.

16. I don’t really have a “stash” of yarn worth noting. I think it’s the money issue; as I don’t make much, I can’t really spend it, much less spend it on yarn. I think it would shock most knitters to know exactly how much (little) yarn I keep around.

‘Bout my job(s):

17. I love working at the library. Due to that aforementioned “not making much” I order books from other libraries that everyone is talking about to peruse while at work.

18. I’m the first to tell people that I’m not a librarian, “I just play one on TV.” I'm a Library Page and proud of it! Mostly cuz that means I don't have to answer the really hard research questions :P.

19. I loved being a classroom teacher, and I hope to be again some day, but I really really really could not stand to be called “Miss” by my students in Hawai’i. I’d usually retort, “Do I look like a waitress? I call you by your name, use mine.”

20. My worst teaching moment EVER was being a 22-year-old student teacher and having to tell my 6’ 3”-18-year-old ESL-football player he was not going to graduate if he did not pass my final exam. I thought my life was pretty much over, as in “this guy can crush me.” Instead he started crying. (He did pass, just barely.)

21. One of the reasons I am not teaching right now is that there is a bitter taste in my mouth about it due to my divorce. It was one of the many reasons my X stated we could no longer be together. Something along the lines of my liking teaching more than him. How do you apologize for liking your job? For choosing a career you love? (Edited to note: I mean choosing a career you love, period. I didn't choose it over him, otherwise, um, well, wouldn't I still be teaching right now??? Instead I took a little "crazy break."

22. I hope to teach again. I obviously do it for the money and great bennies. Or maybe it’s just the power trip…yeah, I so love having 160 kids at my beckon call cuz teenagers are just SOOOOOO easy to get along with. (And if you believe a word of this, there’s a bridge I’d like to show you, it’s for sale, cheap.)

23. I did not own a car in Hawai’i. I used to bike to and from school every day, even when it rained (this was Hilo, it rained. All. The. Time.)…unless my hanai mom would call and tell me she could come pick me up.

24. When I got my Raleigh green and silver hybrid bicycle (hybrid = street bike with fatter tires, not electric) all my boys “like try it, Miss, paleeeeeese.” Only if they got A+s and remembered to call me by name…unfortunately that made it nigh impossible.

25. I love reading kids books. I’m on #12 of the A Series of Unfortunate Events. Just like I knit slower than molasses, my reading isn’t gonna break any records. So reading a 200 pg kids book in a couple hours really lifts the spirit at times.

***

Phew, that’s a whole bunch about me that’s none too exciting. I hope you made it through this entry without nodding off. Andy and Tim leave for Seattle tomorrow! Tim and I went to pick up his Penske rental truck and it is filled and waiting for sunrise. Andy’s gonna do some neighborhood recon for our next stage in the plan…where to look for housing.

LOOOOONG day, lights out.