Voila!

1. Yes it is true that I was recruited by the Marines when I was in high school. To the point where they tracked me down at home and then showed up at the school to meet me and a couple other students. Seriously. Even then, I was curvy and (at the time) was in a 36DD bra. Can you imagine me running at Boot Camp? The only running I did in high school was treading the boards of our local theater's stage. Obviously, they really didn't want me; I so did not enlist.

2. When I was 5, I was diagnosed with ADHD. My pediatrician wanted to medicate me, but my parents refused. I did not make my first A (outside of Drama and Choir classes) until I was in the 10th grade. I have learned to cope. As an adult I have developed my career around working with people who have mental illness or mental retardation. I think my childhood issues have had a direct effect on every aspect of my life - for the best.

3. I am so left-handed it's sick. I cannot drive a stick shift, knit, crochet, shuffle cards, or twirl a baton. So, if you haven't figured it out, this is the Stinkin' Lie!

4. Yes I have had some brushes with death..

a. I have been in 14 car accidents, 2 of which I had to be "assisted" from the vehicle by firefighters.

b. I was a bank teller in college and was robbed at gunpoint.

c. My college fiance's stepdad was re-habbing a house for us to live in when we were married. My fiancee lived there with a roommate, and the plan was that after we married he and I would live in the house for free, and my fiancee would manage the small apartment building across the driveway. My fiance's stepdad was a total slum lord and he would hire ex-cons on Work Release to do construction and maintenance around his rental properties. One guy was a known murderer. I knew this because he was my dad's best friend's step-brother, and when he killed and was jailed the first time, my family was freaked. I tried to tell my future FIL about him, but he didn't check him out. My fiancee and I had a huge fight over the whole situation, because he thought I was being reactionary and accusatory. I knew the truth! I refused to go to the house or stay there as long as that man was employed. About a month into the guy's employment he murdered a woman who lived in one of the apartments across the driveway. He stabbed her with my fiance's roommate's diving knife, planted my fiance's watch in the kitchen, and stole her jewelry, money, credit cards, and car. She was a social worker and knew him from where he was doing construction on our house. He went to her door and asked for her help. She trusted him and he killed her. To me, that's a little too close for comfort.

5. I am extremely ticklish and cannot stand for someone to touch the backs of my legs, especially on the backs of my knees. It's been like this for years. I don't know why, but I believe it's a visceral reaction to too much sensation. It's a total sensory overload, and as soon as someone touches me there, it automatically makes my stomach roll and I feel queasy. I will physically react by kicking out and gagging from the nausea. During my annual exam a couple of years ago, my GYN put his hand around my knee to check my reflexes and I almost took out his teeth. He doesn't check my reflexes anymore. I know. I am a freak.

Thanks for playing along!

San Antonio

Per Johnny's recommendation, I decided not to blog about our recent trip to San Antonio until we returned. I hinted several times on the blog that we were headed to Texas, but never said when we were going to be gone. Not that I believe any of the few readers I have were going to rob our house.

B and I had a wonderful week in San Antonio at the 2007 SITE conference. Instead of comprehensive exams, my university requires doc students to complete a Residency Portfolio. The RP is a capstone experience that each student must complete prior to acceptance to candidacy. I am pretty far into the process. I have developed an online course, taught said course for the last 2 semesters, and presented at our bi-annual student seminar. With this conference, I added 2 more artifacts to my RP - a published paper and a presentation at an international conference. My presentation was part of an 8 person symposia about the RP process and multimedia integration. My piece was about the mentoring relationship during the development of my course. It went off without a hitch, and I was especially flattered because one person (who wasn't B) came just to hear me speak! How cool is that?

On to the trip...

Weather: San Antonio is beautiful, clean and breezy. When the weather was good, it was great. However it managed to rain all day on Monday, and spit in fits on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesday was perfect.

Flight: No big deal. The flights down were cramped and we were seated in the very back of a small plane across from the toilets. Nice. The return flights were just as cramped, but we were farther up the plane. Lots of turbulence from the storms, but otherwise okay. Dramamine is my friend.

Food: Everyone I've met who's gone to San Antonio says that the food is wonderful. To me, it was okay. We had good meals and bad meals.

~On Sunday and Tuesday we ended up at this place, it wasn't on purpose, it just happened that way. The best things were the margaritas and the chicken flautas.

~On Wednesday we went out with our group to this place, and I had my best meal in San Antonio - penne with chicken, spicy chilies and tomato cream sauce. Dang, it was awesome.

Wednesday we ate at this crap place because we were stuck in the Riverwalk Mall and later had junk food at the Spurs game. Wednesday was a bad food day all around.

~Thursday those of us left at the conference had our last supper at this place. Meh. Not my favorite. You can swing a cat in our state and hit a steakhouse. This was my worst meal.

~Breakfast was in the hotel. I loved the chef; he made me tomato and cheese omelets every day. It didn't hurt that he was really cute and had sexy tattoos on both forearms.

~I also discovered these, and I am sad, sad, sad because they are not offered in my state. Actually, it's probably a good thing. If I ate these all of the time, I would have cankles and probably weigh 4000 lbs.

Fun:The Riverwalk that winds through the city is beautiful and relaxing. We walked our legs off every day.

~Before we took our car back on Monday, we went to the Quarry Market and shopped, but it was like any other mall.

~Wednesday was perfect, and was Big Fun Day. We shopped at the Riverwalk mall on Wednesday, and I ended up bringing home many T-shirts and lots of this stuff, which smells like a dream. After shopping we went to the Alamo and then took a River Taxi back to our hotel. Later the entire group of us went to the San Antonio/New Orleans NBA game and were so far up in the arena I got vertigo! Check out the pics if you don't believe me!

Song Memories

The other day I was having lunch with 2 colleagues, and we started discussing music. The older colleague said, "I really can't stand rap." In response, the younger colleague said, "Oh, I love rap, but I hate country." Then I said, "Well, I hate 90s music." It was as if the needle scratched across the record and all sound stopped. My younger colleague asked, "What? All 90s music?"

No, not all 90s music, just most because I had some rough times in the 90s. I was telling B about the conversation later at supper, and we started talking about song memories. Like scent memories, I hear a song and it immediately takes me back to that event, place, and/or time.

Highlights from my musical timeline:

Childhood:
Tie a Yellow Ribbon - Tony Orlando & Dawn: One of my earliest memories is pretending to be Tony Orlando. Even though he was a guy, I wanted to be in the spotlight. I loved TO&D and would regularly force my parents to endure my "shows." If I could harangue my brother into the "show," he would be my back-up. I would also include Donna Fargo's Happiest Girl in the Whole USA in the mix.

Dance to the Music - Sly and the Family Stone: Otherwise known as "The Sloppy Song." When I hear this song, I am 5 years old again. We lived in a little house in rural WV and my dad worked a lot. My younger brother would have to hear this song every day before he would take a nap. He called it "The Sloppy Song," which stuck and we all call it "The Sloppy Song" still.

Come Sail Away/The Grand Illusion - Styx: My mom played this album every single day for years, and we continue to listen to it whenever she and I take road trips together. I can remember the stereo/record player was so big, it took up almost an entire wall. I have a very young mother, so in the seventies she was in her twenties. I can't imagine being 26 and having a 7 and 5 year old. At the time I didn't pay attention, but in memories, she was so cool, young, and beautiful.

Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' - Journey: This song reminds me of being at the local Roll Arena. Usually played for the final Couples Skate, the lights would dim to swirly red, blue and green and the boys and girls would take the rink. I was really young, so most of the time I was in the far corner changing from skates to shoes. I still remember the smell of leather, feet, and popcorn, and how weird it would feel to not have those heavy skates attached to my feet when I stood up and started walking to the return skates booth.


Teens:
Straight From the Heart - Bryan Adams: One of the first 45s I owned, this was also my first slow dance with an older boy. In seventh grade my love for David B., a ninth grader, was strong, true, and totally unrequited. Every month, our junior high would have dances in the cafeteria/commons. After several months of pining on the sidelines, I worked up my courage and asked David to dance to this song. We put our arms around each other and swayed in a circle. I looked off to the left, he looked off to the right, and when the song ended he said, "Thanks," and walked off to his friends goofing in the corner. I played that 45 over and over, reliving every moment.

Little Red Corvette/1999 - Prince: This song reminds me of my Junior High Posse, Kathy, Pam, and Jodi. We were so tight in 8th and 9th grade. Kathy and Pam both had a thing for Prince, I was loyal to John Taylor of Duran Duran, and Jodi loved the Kajagoogoo guy. In retrospect, I think Kathy's love of Prince was typical junior high crush stuff, but Pam's love came with a worldly, sexual knowledge that was foreign to the rest of us. Pam was wild and introduced me to things my mama and daddy didn't feel like a 12 year old in the early 80s should know. She enlightened about the sexual innuendo and drive of Prince's music, and I've been a fan ever since.

Need You Tonight/Kick - INXS: Kathy and I would cruise in her mom's white Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. We would open the sun roof and blast this cassette while driving past boy's houses, gossiping about everybody, and enjoying the little bit of freedom that comes with being 16. A time when the only worries we had were grades, boys, zits, and whether our nemesis Shari S. was going to steal our boyfriends (she did).

College and My 20s:
Back to Life - Soul II Soul: I attended a historically black college in the late 80s & early 90s. There was so much happening with hip hop and rap at that time. I remember dancing in the student union with my college boyfriend Danny. He loved the direction music was taking, and was really into this band, 2 Live Crew, Ice-T, Kid N' Play, Arrested Development, etc... He made me go see New Jack City, and that was the first time this WV girl had ever seen anything like the lifestyles portrayed in the movie. I remember leaving the theater feeling sick to my stomach and ashamed; I felt so uninformed about the world around me.

Mysterious Ways - U2: One of my least favorite U2 songs. Working as a bank teller and taking classes in my 4th year of college, I was so ready shed the mantle of college and move on. Even though I had great friends and a well-paying job, I remember feeling lonely and stagnant. This song was playing constantly; it was huge.

Twisted - Keith Sweat: I was dating a younger man and was contemplating a deeper relationship with a friend who was also committed. I distinctly remember this video playing while I sat next to the friend, sipping Foster's wondering what the hell I was doing. I made the wrong decision.

Crush/Before These Crowded Streets - Dave Matthews Band: This CD had been out for a while, but B loved it (still does). I had gone to a friend's wedding in the same town where B lived. We had only been dating a few weeks, and had made plans for me to meet him at his apartment after the reception. I was having my period, and by the time I made it to B's apartment, I was sick from it. I asked to take a raincheck for our date, and he told me he didn't care if we ever left that apartment, as long as we could spend time together. I stayed, and I laid down on the on the couch with my head in his lap. We were listening to this CD, and I remember thinking about how being with him was like coming home.

I am still building my song memories for my thirties. Some that come to mind are ones that remind me of C when she was small, and where I am in my life right now. A few:
Dream a Little Dream - Diana Krall
I Can See Clearly Now - Jimmy Cliff
Wide Open Spaces - Dixie Chicks
Sweet Surrender - Sarah McLachlin

What songs trigger memories for you?