25 random things. I caved.
1. When I was in third grade, my parents were unsatisfied with the public schools in rural NC, so they taught me at home. My mom was a teacher; at the time she still had an up-to-date teaching license. Nevertheless, the Chatham County authorities saw fit to arrest them on charges of child neglect. The charges were dropped on the condition they enroll me in school. That was the last time I was in public school. We moved to VA a few months later, in part because there was a law at the time that if you lived more than two miles from a main road you did not have to attend school.
2. I performed at the Kennedy center when I was 15. It was on a makeshift stage in the hallway as part of a youth theater festival, but it was still the Kennedy Center.
3. A stray pony once showed up at our friend Nancy’s house. After searching for the owner for weeks, she finally brought it to me in a U-haul trailer for my 6th birthday with a big red bow on its neck.
4. I’m a spelling and punctuation freak. Give me any publication and I can usually find at least one error-apostrophes and semi-colons are the most often misused. Strangely enough, I didn’t really grasp how to properly utilize a semi-colon until I was in my thirties and took an editing and proofreading class; now I love them.
5. Beadwork is one of my passions. I learned all sorts of complicated beading techniques in my teens, and by the time I was twenty I taught beading classes at Seeds of Light. I still work there occasionally.
6. My favorite stone at the moment is kyanite. I also appreciate lepidolite, which is supposed to help you ward off the effects of electro-magnetic radiation and keep you from interfering with electronic devices.
7. I tend to make watches stop when I wear them, interfere with scanning devices at supermarkets, and cause computers to inexplicably freeze up.
8. I’m somewhere between 1/4 and 1/8 Cherokee. This is part of why I identify as hecastothesitic. Basically, hecastotheism is “the worship of all things tangible.”
9. I’m not a big fan of the AMA and tend to search for other solutions before resorting to doctors. I’ve studied herbal medicine and often utilize it first. I also appreciate homeopathy, acupuncture, massage, etc. My friend Rob (aka ‘Mr. Science’) once argued with me for way too long about why homeopathy could not possibly work. But when I had tendonitis and had tried every remedy imaginable, homeopathy was what finally gave me relief. And acupuncture is like a freakin’ miracle-saved my life many times over.
10. Right now I am reading Marge Piercy’s novel “Gone to Soldiers” for the 3rd or 4th or 5th time. I fell in love with her poetry a long time ago but her novels have proved even stronger than that infatuation.
11. When I read poetry, I’m inspired to write it; when I read fiction, it’s more like escape. I tend to have at least one book to escape into before I go to sleep. It’s the best way I’ve found to distract myself from repetitive thoughts that keep me awake.
12. I went to twenty or thirty Grateful Dead shows in the 80’s and 90’s, and took my mom to her first in 1987 when they played in Roanoke. I don’t feel like the Dead is the Dead anymore without Jerry Garcia, though dropping the “grateful” might have something to do with it too.
13. My thesis advisor, Thorpe Moeckel, and I were at the same Grateful Dead show in Raleigh, NC in 1990. There was a thunderstorm; lightning hit Phil Lesh’s amp in the middle of the song “Promised Land.” The power went out and it was raining hard. Ten minutes later, the rain had eased off, the power came back on, and the band picked back up right where they left off in the middle of the song.
14. I’ve been tagged to do this random list by many different well-meaning friends who I hope are satisfied with themselves right now. I waited until I was done putting my personal statement for my grad school application through approximately a billion revisions before I’d let myself devote the time to it.
15. I love scrabble with an unreasonable devotion bordering on obsession. It calms me down and gives me perspective like few other things can.
16. I also love poker. It riles me up.
17. There are very few board games I don’t enjoy. Monopoly is one that’s hard for me. I have specific associations that make it sad and difficult. Plus, math annoys the hell out of me. So I’m not a big fan of Yahtzee either.
18. I just went into the kitchen to make my daughter a vanilla steamer and she blew into a ziplock bag, sealed it, handed it to me and said: “Keep this bag with you and if you miss me you can open it up and my breath will blow on you.”
19. I would not be where I am now without my friends. They shift and vary, in terms of who I’m actually able to spend time with. But I value them all, and I’m loyal and committed. I could not name a ‘best’ one. I love them all in distinct ways and we fill different roles in each others lives. I’m also devoted to my family, and I’m glad my daughter is growing up knowing her grandparents more intimately than I knew mine.
20. I’ve never been across the ocean, but if I could choose, the first place I’d visit would probably be New Zealand. Or Ireland.
21. I went to a Quaker boarding school called Arthur Morgan School when I was in the 7th and 9th grade. It was an amazing and transformative experience.
22. There’s a woodstove in my basement, which comes in handy when the power goes out. A vent allows the warm air to rise into the kitchen. I love heating with wood. I love to start fires. I’m a responsible pyro-enthusiast.
23. I am fascinated with the concept of pronoia. It’s the opposite of paranoia. Since I have several anxiety disorders, practicing pronoia helps me to keep them in remission.
24. I drive a manual transmission. I like a manual transmission. Being able to downshift instead of brake in the snow makes me happy and safe. I am constantly amazed that so few people these days know how to operate a clutch.
25. Because I do not have internet service at home, I am typing this onto a word document that I will copy and paste onto my Facebook next time I’m at a web-equipped computer. It would make my life a lot easier if I could at least check my email at home, but I’d also want to spend lots of time doing things like this. And playing internet scrabble. Instead, when I sit down at the computer, I write poems.