10 Things about Me
I needed a break from The Irish Project and NaNoWriMo for the morning. My brain is percolating.
Everyone has quirks, little things that make them unique and different from their friends, family and colleagues.
Here are 10 from me, in no particular order.
1. On my eight fingers, I am currently wearing 13 rings, mostly sterling silver, one rose gold. I have done this since I was in college, and my mother does it now, too. I don’t wear any on my thumbs, I think it would drive me absolutely nuts with as much typing as I do. None of the rings I am wearing cost more than $25, although I do have some more expensive ones that I wear occasionally.
2. My day job is also a lot of typing! I am a software engineer aka ‘code monkey’ or programmer. I work for a small company that I absolutely love, and I’ve worked at home for the last nine years or so. I’ve been doing this for most of my adult life. I enjoy it – it’s like technical craft and creative craft in one bucket.
3. I hate onions and will refuse to eat anything which has onion pieces that I can see. So, obviously this is a tricky one, because people put onions in everything! I just don’t care for the taste, or the ‘mouth feel’ of a cooked onion. It makes eating out interesting, let me tell you!
4. I would rather have caramel or butterscotch than chocolate. Again, I realize I’m probably in the minority with this – and it isn’t that I don’t like chocolate – but I’d rather have caramel. There is something rich and decadent about caramel, especially salted caramel. Butterscotch is a very close second.
5. I have just started to build a physical book collection again. So, when I moved from Wisconsin to Maryland, the library in my parent’s small town got gifted with bags and bags and bags of books, because I didn’t want to move many. There were not many I kept – the Avalon Series by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diane L. Paxton, The Black Jewel Series, Tir Alain series (both of which I gave to a friend a few years ago who just started her library at home) But I’ve started to rebuild my collection over the last few months, and now, the Boyfriend has a list of hardcover books to choose from for Christmas – favorites from the past and recent loves. It’s a fine line for him, though – if he buys me too many, he’s gonna have to build me more shelves.
6. Hair Metal is still my favorite upbeat music. I am not sure if it’s because it evokes feelings from me, or if my brain is still digging it, but I can’t help it. I love me some Motley Crue. Tesla. Poison. Slaughter. Quiet Riot. The list is far too long. Maybe I am stuck in my ways. Or maybe it’s just the best rock and roll ever made. You decide. I already have.
7. I have a disease called Trigeminal Neuralgia. I spent many years in almost constant pain, mostly in my right cheek. It felt like I was being electrocuted over and over again. Several years ago, a neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore performed a surgery on me called “Glycerol Rhizotomy”, and since then, I have been mostly pain-free. The problem with the surgery is that it can wear off at any time, but so far, it hasn’t, and I feel extremely lucky and blessed that I was in the right place at the right time for this.
8. I have a thing about trees. I love them. I am probably about as far as you can get from being a “tree hugger”, but I do love me some trees. I am especially fond of the Celtic Tree, and oddly leaved or oddly barked trees. Birch trees are beautiful. Consequently, I have a lot of tree art in my house. There is a piece of it in almost every room of our home. (We won’t mention that there are dragonflies in almost every room either, will we?).
9. I don’t just collect trees and books and dragonflies. I also collect old Pyrex and Fiestaware. I can’t give you a reason for this because I don’t have one, except to say that both of these give me a happy feeling – a feeling of a simpler time in my life – they remind me of my grandmothers, my aunt – and I love having them in my kitchen. When my aunt cleaned out her home, she gifted me with a full set of the Pyrex pink mixing bowls. My mom had this set at one time too (and still has the smallest bowl from it). After I got those bowls from my aunt home, I added a set of the pink gooseberry Cinderella bowls to it. I just love them, even though I’m not a huge fan of pink. Fiestaware started in much the same way – I got a set for Christmas one year from my mom and I have just continued to add to it – different colors, bowls, plates, platters – the colors make me happy, and they remind me of family – which is key, when you live so far away.
10. Every Christmas, in addition to our 7-foot tree, I set up a smaller tree that is full of high heel shoe and boot ornaments. It started small when I still lived in Wisconsin. I had a 2-foot white tree with maybe 10 high heel ornaments on it. Now, I have a four-foot-tall silver tree, with an unknown number of ornaments on it each year. The collection grows every year, to the point where I either must be picky about what I hang up, or I need a bigger tree. The Boyfriend says to be picky. I say I need a bigger tree. I think high heels are beautiful, but I do not wear them (I have balance issues). For me, this is the best option – hang them on a tree and look at them sparkle for 4 weeks out of the year.
