7 secrets?
There's a meme going around the Everyday Matters group and though I normally don't have time, it's early, I'm just waking up, and I got tagged. So I'll give it a try! (Maybe I need more coffee first though--I'm a pretty open person--embarrassingly so, sometimes!--and I don't know that I HAVE seven secrets!) (Heh. Turns out I did. You get on a roll, huh?)
#1. is, maybe, that I have quite the little Irish temper. (Some people already know this, so it's not REALLY a secret.*GG*) It may not show unless you know me face to face--that's one thing I like about e-communication! I can write whatever flaming rhetoric I like, full of sound and fury, and then--NOT SEND. Cool-off time is goooood. So is venting. On paper. In private. Then I print it out and burn it. Very cathartic!
I did learn early to control the temper...I was a little girl when the porch swing banged me in the shins. Made me SO mad I kicked it!
Guess what? It kicked BACK. Harder. Um. Never mind.
I also learned a lesson that a lot of people (OK, my late husband) didn't seem to have--if you get mad and throw things? They break. Or otherwise make a mess. Somebody's gotta clean them up. That's generally me. So. Um. Never mind. I'll throw a pillow.
Besides, my sister's lovely mother-in-law, the consummate lady, may she rest in peace, always inspired us with her example of grace..."I'm just going to RISE ABOVE IT." So that's what I try to do...(after I burn the rhetoric...)
2. I took care of my invalid mother from the time I was 8 till she died ten years later. Maybe that's when I learned to deal with whatever life hands you, come to think of it! It wasn't her fault she was ill....and it caused her a lot more pain than it did me!
3. I used to be REALLY afraid of spiders--till I started drawing them (and everything else in nature!) about 15+ years ago. They're really very interesting, and some are quite beautiful. Still not a bit fond of brown recluses though--I've seen too many near my bed (and a dead, dry one IN it, brrrr) and in my clothes! (Please do NOT send me photos of what their bites can do. I've seen them. Ig.)
4. I had a jumping spider for a pet/friend all one summer a few years ago--it lived in a corner in my bathroom. They have huge round eyes (well some of them are huge--spiders have a lot of eyes) and their little furry pedipalps looked like mittens, waving at me. He--or she--was really cute...ended up in one of my illustrations, even! I ought to frame that one...
5. I worked as a janitor for a while, after my husband lost his job in the early 80s. It's not glamorous, but it's honest work and it kept food on the table--I wasn't earning enough as a freelance artist to pull that off very often!
6. I like lutefisk. Yes, I do, too. (My Danish friends know this is no secret.*G*)
7. I dislike Drama, capital D, in emails, in blog form, in person--passionately. Maybe even dramatically!*GG* Politics, too.
Oh, wait, that's 8...but then my dislike of politics isn't exactly a secret, either. I've worked in local politics, in the past, so I know it's on every level, not just national party politics. EVERYTHING gets politicized, and there's almost no way to find that kernel of truth. Blasted spin doctors...
Not to mention the fact that perfectly lovely people who like and even love eachother and normally respect one another get all vicious and hateful on the subject. Been there, seen that, and even done it, I'm embarrassed to admit.
So maybe that leads me to #9. (Or maybe that's really 8? It's no secret I try to avoid political discussions! I really hate to hear things I know or suspect to be untrue, or at the very least one-sided, espoused so fanatically, from either end of the political spectrum.)
Anyway--7 1/2, 8, 9, whatever--I don't watch TV. For me, anyway, it's a massive waste of time and energy. And emotion. People ask me how I get so much done? I turned off the TV 10 years ago. Voila, instant time!
(Now if I'd just shut off the computer more often...*G*)
#1. is, maybe, that I have quite the little Irish temper. (Some people already know this, so it's not REALLY a secret.*GG*) It may not show unless you know me face to face--that's one thing I like about e-communication! I can write whatever flaming rhetoric I like, full of sound and fury, and then--NOT SEND. Cool-off time is goooood. So is venting. On paper. In private. Then I print it out and burn it. Very cathartic!
I did learn early to control the temper...I was a little girl when the porch swing banged me in the shins. Made me SO mad I kicked it!
Guess what? It kicked BACK. Harder. Um. Never mind.
I also learned a lesson that a lot of people (OK, my late husband) didn't seem to have--if you get mad and throw things? They break. Or otherwise make a mess. Somebody's gotta clean them up. That's generally me. So. Um. Never mind. I'll throw a pillow.
Besides, my sister's lovely mother-in-law, the consummate lady, may she rest in peace, always inspired us with her example of grace..."I'm just going to RISE ABOVE IT." So that's what I try to do...(after I burn the rhetoric...)
2. I took care of my invalid mother from the time I was 8 till she died ten years later. Maybe that's when I learned to deal with whatever life hands you, come to think of it! It wasn't her fault she was ill....and it caused her a lot more pain than it did me!
3. I used to be REALLY afraid of spiders--till I started drawing them (and everything else in nature!) about 15+ years ago. They're really very interesting, and some are quite beautiful. Still not a bit fond of brown recluses though--I've seen too many near my bed (and a dead, dry one IN it, brrrr) and in my clothes! (Please do NOT send me photos of what their bites can do. I've seen them. Ig.)
4. I had a jumping spider for a pet/friend all one summer a few years ago--it lived in a corner in my bathroom. They have huge round eyes (well some of them are huge--spiders have a lot of eyes) and their little furry pedipalps looked like mittens, waving at me. He--or she--was really cute...ended up in one of my illustrations, even! I ought to frame that one...
5. I worked as a janitor for a while, after my husband lost his job in the early 80s. It's not glamorous, but it's honest work and it kept food on the table--I wasn't earning enough as a freelance artist to pull that off very often!
6. I like lutefisk. Yes, I do, too. (My Danish friends know this is no secret.*G*)
7. I dislike Drama, capital D, in emails, in blog form, in person--passionately. Maybe even dramatically!*GG* Politics, too.
Oh, wait, that's 8...but then my dislike of politics isn't exactly a secret, either. I've worked in local politics, in the past, so I know it's on every level, not just national party politics. EVERYTHING gets politicized, and there's almost no way to find that kernel of truth. Blasted spin doctors...
Not to mention the fact that perfectly lovely people who like and even love eachother and normally respect one another get all vicious and hateful on the subject. Been there, seen that, and even done it, I'm embarrassed to admit.
So maybe that leads me to #9. (Or maybe that's really 8? It's no secret I try to avoid political discussions! I really hate to hear things I know or suspect to be untrue, or at the very least one-sided, espoused so fanatically, from either end of the political spectrum.)
Anyway--7 1/2, 8, 9, whatever--I don't watch TV. For me, anyway, it's a massive waste of time and energy. And emotion. People ask me how I get so much done? I turned off the TV 10 years ago. Voila, instant time!
(Now if I'd just shut off the computer more often...*G*)