QUICKIE: Vincenzo, taking off his crocs: “My feet are naked!”
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Anyone on Facebook has either seen or at least heard of the “25 Things about Me” meme. I’m not sure what a meme is, but I think I just used it correctly in a sentence. Anyway, I did it awhile ago, but shortened it to “12.5 Things about Me” to match the attention span of most of my friends. Since I don’t have much to post about today, here it is for the ENTIRE WORLD to read and wonder at.
1. I met my husband on a bona fide blind date. It got off to a rocky start in the café as, while he was working up the courage to approach me, some other guy introduced himself and gave me his number.
2. In April 2008 I gave birth to a stillborn baby boy. It was the hardest experience of my life, but also one of the most beautiful.
3. I spent two summers teaching at a camp in Switzerland. On the weekends I got to take kids rafting, spelunking, to chalets in the Alps for overnight stays, to operas in Italy, etc. It was so perfect I sometimes wonder if maybe it was all a dream??
4. I taught elementary school for 4 years and junior high English/drama for 2. Drama was my favorite, even though it shouldn’t have been. During the first play I directed, in front of an audience of parents, teachers, and students, my main character psuedo-mooned the audience and then changed one of his lines to have an overtly sexual innuendo. I stopped the play and made him do it the right way. Thank goodness he did because otherwise I would have sent everyone home 15 minutes into it!
5. In college one weekend I went on a hike up to some bat caves. The next day I left for a mission in Tijuana and could not get comfortable in the van. Finally, in San Diego I had someone look at my back and it turns out I had a tic. I had to go to a border town hospital and have it cut out that night.
6. I was severely anorexic my senior year of high school, and mildly anorexic throughout college. I don’t think I really overcame it until I met my husband and he persisted and persisted that I eat more. I eat healthy now but still struggle with body image. And my husband still thinks I should eat more.
7. My husband is Italian.
8. I spent one quarter of college studying Spanish in Mexico. Everyone else in my group went down to party, and while they were taking excursions to the beaches and going to clubs I was hanging out at the abuela’s house and playing Scrabble with my hermanas. (Well, I may have gone to a club or two myself.) I feel like everyone else missed out!
9. I have written two middle-grade novels and several picture books. I’m currently working on building up the self-esteem to attempt publishing them.
10. Growing up, our only source of heat in the family room was a real, wood-burning fireplace. From the second grade until high school I’d come home, gather kindling and logs, and build a fire. We also ground our own wheat for flour and made our own shoes out of old tires.
11. I’m kidding about the shoes from tires, but not about the wheat.
12. I bungee jumped off a 100-foot high bridge in Nanaimo, Canada.
12.5. I have taken my underwear off to prove…