1 + 1 = 11

Dear Sleepy Joe (and friends),

I was really going to just not come up with the other ten things and hope you wouldn't notice, but of course you would do something like this.

Thank you, because I needed that.

So here you are: 

1. One of the strongest memories (read: ‘visuals’ because the context is unclear so I’m not sure if that really classifies as a ‘memory’) I have from my pre-age-10 youth is of my older brother putting a bug into an empty peanut butter jar. I don’t remember what kind of bug it was, but this was significant to me because A) I felt sorry for the bug – somehow I felt like I understood the sacrifice of space and freedom it was giving up by no choice of its own; and B) It was in a peanut butter jar – for a very short period my mother put a ban on peanut butter because we would go through it so fast, and ever since peanut butter has become akin to manna for me. Sacred, perfect, hits the spot every time. The contrast of a bug in a holy jar…it was (and still is, obviously?) mind blowing.

link to original here

2. I deeply crave this anthology. Norton Anthologies generally rock my socks, so to have one for children’s lit? My heart hurts to think about it. Someday when we have more money than we do now, I will buy this book. I may be 50+ by then, but maybe I can read it to my grandchildren, eh?

3. When I was, oh, 13-ish? Give or take a few years? A distant relative at a funeral suggested I get into step aerobics to lose my baby fat. It wasn’t unusual for people to comment about my chub (even though in retrospect I don’t think I was even that chubby) ever since I can remember, so commonly I took it with a grain of salt, but the fact that someone would bring it up at a funeral really got my goat. I unconsciously resolved from that moment on to stay slightly over-weight for the rest of my life. To live a full, happy, healthy life regardless of my shape/size. I still have issues from time to time about what I look like compared to others, but I try to remind myself of that funeral, and how life is about far more than just image.

Me around age 13

4. I store a lot of my tension between my shoulder blades. I’ve always got a knot there, regardless of how much I kneed, stretch, or try to relax those muscles. But meh. I can think of worse places to hang on to tension.

5. Deadlines are key for me to get things done. If someone tells me there’s no rush, I take that at face value and don’t rush. A month, two months, six months later…oh, that’s right. Maybe I should get around to that.

6. I laughed during the push-part of Beta’s labor. My midwife looked at me with a stern face and told me to be serious. The thing was, up until that point I had been freaking out because Alpha’s labor was over-the-top horrible. So my laughter was a release. It was my moment of recognition that things were going to be okay this time around.  

7. We have a ship hanging from our ceiling. The boys love it. Hubs loves it. I love it.

Our sky ship

8. I almost majored in Art/Illustration instead of English/Literature and I very much wonder what my life would be like if I’d gone down that path instead. I’m very happy with the place I’m in, in this moment, but I still wonder.

9. It’s a blue moon when I hear this song now, and usually in really random places, but every time I do it still brings a lump to my throat. I played the viola in the Boise Youth Philharmonic for just one season and the Jurassic Park Theme was one of the songs we played. It may not be all that thrilling to listen to? I don’t know. But it was thrilling to play.

 10. And two for the price of one: when I first met Hubs he had these big bushy chops that came down nearly to his chin I absolutely adored; momo’s are one of my top three favorite foods and coincidentally I had them for dinner the night I met Hubs. This seems important for some reason I can’t put my finger on.

 

There now, I've spilled a bunch of beans. Your turn -- tell me something about yourself in the comments that I probably don't know. Some detail about your youth, your love, the way you see yourself, something you're embarrassed about or proud of...these are just suggestions.

The magic is in the details, right?