Ten Things About Me
A little while ago I was tagged by a few bloggers to write 10 Things About Me. Thinking of ten separate things about me that you may not know is not easy. One or two I could do. But ten? Nevertheless, I’m giving it a go. So here are ten things about me.
1. When I was young I was very agile and very fast. I don’t think Todd believes me when I say that, but it’s true. When I was in kindergarten I was playing a type of tag with a bunch of kids. The side of the cafeteria was Home and if you made it there without getting tagged you were safe. So I ran for that brick wall as fast as I could – which, as I’ve already told you, was pretty darned fast. I looked behind me to see where the closest “it” was and when I turned back to the wall, there it was. I ran full speed into it. Knocked me clean out. Once the goose egg on my forehead stopped growing I looked like a Klingon. I still have a tiny bump from that little adventure.
2. I have a floater in my head. Not a floater as in, “Ew! You backwashed and now there’s a floater in my soda!” A floater as in I-ran-into-a-brick-wall-when-I-was-five-and-most-likely-chipped-a-tiny-fleck-of-skull-that-has-been-floating-around-my-head-all-these-years-and-likes-to-rest-on-my-ear-drum. What’s fun about this little guy is that it causes a sort of vertigo. Nothing dangerous. Just when I lean my head to the left I get a little dizzy. And I like it. It’s fun. Kind of like a big dip on a roller coaster. Every night when I get into bed I say, “Whoo!” and throw my hands up into the air as everything spins around me. Good times.
3. I was born three months after the Watt’s Riots in the same general area. I suppose that’s not really very exciting since the riots were over by then. But what is exciting is that my pediatrician was the same pediatrician that some of the L.A. Lakers used, one of which was Jerry West. We know this because my mother saw him at the doctor’s office. Frankly, I don’t remember. I realize there’s no connection between the Watt’s Riots and L.A. Lakers, but my birth and infancy seem to run together so it’s all related to me.
4. When I was about 14 or so I nearly had my face split open in a surfing accident. What little bit of pride I have is telling me I should stop my story right here and let you use your imaginations. I’m sure whatever you can think up will be better than the truth. But the truth of the matter is it happened in my friend’s pool. She and another friend were trying to climb on her brother’s surfboard. I had my back to them and happened to turn around just as they both fell off the back, causing the surfboard to shoot straight at me. Thankfully I saw it and quickly leaned back into the water. The tip of the board just grazed my eyebrow, causing a totally gnarly black eye, dude.
5. My Mother-In-Law gave me a job at the law office she worked at when I was in college. The two attorneys in the office were less than human, but I enjoyed the job and MIL taught me a lot. Because of that I went into paralegal studies and ended up working as a Legal Secretary/Legal Assistant for eleven years until I quit work to nag my children full time. The last law office I worked at was the large law firm Bill Clinton partnered at before he became the governor of Arkansas*.
6. While most children my age were singing things like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Jack and Jill, I was singing Hey Jude. It was the first song I ever sang.
7. I still have the tonette I received in my 6th grade music class at school. I drive Todd crazy by following him around the house saying, “give me a song,” and then attempting to play it. Either that or “Name That Tune.” Periodically over the last 19 years the little flute has mysteriously vanished, only to be found by me in the oddest of places. Poor Todd. There’s no escaping me.
8. I have an older cousin who was a stunt girl. She did a lot of movies with Burt Reynolds and was Cheryl Ladd’s double in Charlie’s Angels, just to name two of her many credits. At that time I had a friend with a huge crush on Shawn Cassidy (I was a Parker Stevenson kind of gal, myself). So I told her I was sure my cousin could get a small token from him. That was a total lie because I never even talked to my cousin. But anyway, I took some of my sun bleached hair out of my head, taped it to a Tiger Beat poster, scratched a signature and gave it to my friend. She was so excited that I couldn’t keep up the lie. After about two minutes of her screaming I fessed up. I think that cold dose of reality was a favor to her. She went on to be a neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins.
9. In high school my friend, Cindy, and I used to go roller skating at the beach nearly every day after school. We went from Torrance Beach, down to the Hermosa Beach Pier and back again – probably around 8 miles round trip. Any wonder I didn’t have a weight problem at that time?? On one of our trips there was a volleyball game going on at the Hermosa Pier. Wilt Chamberlain was one of the players. He always looked big on television, but in person the guy was huge. Huger than huge! Enormous! Cindy is 6’2” without her skates, but she was a petite little thing next to him.
10. When I was a senior in high school several of my friends and I went to Pasadena on New Year’s Eve. We had lawn chairs, sleeping bags and coolers full of sodas and food and set up camp on the Rose Parade route. We had marshmallow wars with the cars cruising the boulevard and played silly games like charades and I think maybe even Duck, Duck, Goose. We got to see all the floats the next morning, but we were too far back on the route to see the bands. It was fun and a great experience, but not one I was willing to do again. I enjoyed sitting in the stands with my parents when I was younger much more.
* Please do not read as support for Bill Clinton. I’ve had issues with the man long before he was president that have nothing to do with politics.
I can’t believe you would fake out a Shaun Cassidy autograph – especially with strands of HAIR involved!Good thing it didn’t scar your fried for life. I might have seriously maimed any friend of mine who tried to pull something like that. ;)This is a cool list.
That autograph thing made me laugh because in college, my husband and his roommate faked a Metallica guy (I can’t remember which guy) signature on a poster for a friend. He totally believed it though, and here is proof that boys are meaner than girls…they never told him that they did it. He probably believes to this day that he has a real autographed poster.
Running into walls, splitting your face open, floaters in your head…you are lucky to be alive!! LOL A very interesting list of ten things.
Oh man, I thought you just did the 8 Random Things?? I can’t keep up anymore! Anyhoo, I have the same thing as your #2! Not the floater, but whenever I get up, I get dizzy and I always tell Ryan “whoa, turn off the ride!” That’s his cue to make sure I don’t fall over…because that happens sometimes too. I LOVE how you describe the attorneys as less than human Classic. I am going to claim that and use it for my own!
I love all of them! Ha ha ha. I’ve got to say, the Shaun Cassidy one might be my favorite, though. Now that’s ingenious.
I’m not that much older than you. How can it be my crush was on David Cassidy–LOL.
Monnik – I’m just hoping I actually signed his name right! LOLRadioactive Girl – I think we were only about 10 or 11 so I hadn’t grown a much of a mean streak yet. :o)Em – This list probably explains a lot about me…Jodi – Isn’t the dizzy thing fun?? Unless you’re going to run into a tree or something. Then it loses its appeal.And to be fair, I’ve worked for a lot of very nice human attorneys.Swishy – Ingenious? Or devious? You decide.Tara – LOL! I had a crush on David, too. I think that’s why I couldn’t crush on Shaun. He was just too young and immature. That was why I liked Parker Stevenson. I also liked Han Solo better than Luke. LOL!
I like number 8 the best I think. What a great list!! Oh, also like that floaty story!
OMGOODNESS I did enjoy this post, very much..especially since I was just out at the Hermosa Pier not two days ago. I went to pick up my friend and ended up having a bite to eat at Patrick Malloys down on Pier Ave. How cute!And I got this long scar that runs the length of my thigh, ROLLERBLADING FROM TORRANCE BEACH TO HERMOSA!!! HOW FUNNY!!!Oh I loved this! My daughters first song that she sang was a Church song, although I did try teaching her some NSYNC songs, hehe.
You’re lucky…all of the ones I worked for were subhuman…at best!
Manic – the floaty is my own personal cheap entertainment!Rowena – I TOLD you! LOL Hey! I can’t remember if I told you or not, but I grew up on 234th Street, second house from the corner of Ocean. NEIGHBOR! :o)And one more thing. Rollerblading was a new and unusual thing when I was hanging out on the bike path. I guess that shows you how old I am.Jodi – I was VERY lucky. But you know it’s always hit or miss.
More and more, you explain so much about why you are the way you are….. And, we didn’t even have to drop you as a child! LOL
Just because you didn’t have to drop me as a child doesn’t mean you didn’t do it anyway!
Audibly laughing on #4….and it is not an easy thing to make me laugh so.
OOOOOW! ‘Twas a painful list. Actually, I once ran my head into a brick wall. That hurt.I’m also curious about the Bill Clinton thing. But I suppose you wouldn’t indulge us …
April – I’m glad I could make you laugh! :o)DD – Those brick walls are hard, aren’t they??As for Bill Clinton – he was the governor when I moved to Arkansas and since I was in the legal field I knew several people who knew him. Based on his history, a dalliance with an intern should have been expected and the women who came out of the woodwork shouldn’t have been a shock. There were also other very depraved rumors, but I’ll let those go because that’s just what they were. Rumors. So I was never a fan of his personal life.As for his professional life before politics – he was a major partner in a powerful law firm and was just as shady as the rest of them. I certainly don’t single out his questionable ethics because it was pretty common.And what used to get me the most was when some fo the attorneys I worked for (long after he’d left the firm) would sit around, smoking their cigars and drinking their bourbon (just like on Boston Legal) and reminesce about the good old days and some of the crap Bill and others would pull – and they were proud of it!As to how I feel about his politics and how he did as a president – I’m going to keep that to myself. LOL
You’ve been TAGGED again! ;)See my blog…:)Hugs,Dana
How can I top that? You have some very interesting stories.
Dana – I’m curious! I’ll be over to check it out shortly.Slackermommy – I get the feeling you’ve got plenty of interesting stories yourself. LOL
LOL you’re so funny!!! I don’t know that area but you can bet your bottom dollar, the next time I’m out there I’ll be on 234th and Ocean, looking…haha.Oh shush…when I went rollerblading and got that long scar, I had to ask what the heck rollerblades were, I had no clue! LOL.