Now on to my deep, dark secrets. Stephen's award, the Versatile Blogger, requires that I reveal seven things about myself.
I'm rather a boring person in real life, so I will have to scrounge a little for seven things I haven't already blogged about.
Ahem. Here goes:
1. I can write backwards as quickly and fluidly as I can write in the regular fashion. It's called mirror writing, and I never had to practice it or learn it, just always knew how to do it. In fact, I took a lot of notes in college like that because for some odd reason I can focus better when I write like that. Without too much effort, I can also write upside down and upside down backwards. I can read things very easily written in like fashion. Don't ask me to do higher math, though. We'd be treading in tricky waters there.
2. I've been driving since I was nine years old (remember I grew up on a farm) and have never had one accident, not even a fender bender. Thank you, Lord!
3. I play piano and guitar, but my husband and our kids are the real musical talents of our family.
4. Somewhere in Italy, there is a small cruise ship with my name carved in the banister of its main staircase. Another story for another day, though.
5. Heights make me lose all composure and dignity. Period.
6. I LOVE I Love Lucy. I've seen each episode multiple times and can quote you most of the dialogue verbatim. Lucille Ball is one of the most gifted comediennes of our time, but I think Desi was even more talented than she was.
7. I once had a brief meeting, when I was a teenager, with Johnny Rotten in London. It's kind of a sad commentary that he's the most famous person I've met.
OK, I've dug some things out. What about you? In a comment back, even if you've never commented before, let us know something about you!
You can write backwards as well as you write forward and at the same speed - I have to say that is AMAZING! Congrats on the award. sandie
ReplyDeleteSandie: If only I could do math backwards and forwards. Afraid that will never happen. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteFun! You have at least met someone famous. What I have to share isn't so much fun. My hard drive was fried last night, so my blogging habit will have to go unnourished for a time. Maybe I can find an occasional person who will loan me a few minutes on the 'net?
ReplyDeletevanilla: Oh, I hope you can get it fixed! Is there a public library anywhere near you? Or, if you have an ereader, like a Kindle, most of those have wireless capabilities if you're in a wifi zone. Surely, in this day and age, there's a way!
DeletePlease write your next post backward. Then, please do a video of you playing the guitar and singing---backward. Can you drive backward?
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you about Lucille Ball. She was outrageous.
If I ever had a meeting with Mr Rotten, I would repress it. Ha.
Something about me? I am a lesbian trapped in a man's body.
Clint: Bwahahahahaha!!!! What really had me rolling, though, was your last comment. I hope Cindy knows!
Delete"LooooooooSEEEEEEEEE! You got some 'splainin' to do! I tolt you a thousand times I diden want you doin' a numper down at the clup!"
ReplyDeleteYou wrote:
<< I'm rather a boring person in real life. >>
This revealed something about you, Shelly. You lie! (LOL) You're anything but boring. I am simply amazed by your ability to mirror write along with your other special reading and writing talents.
It's still hard for me to believe you were into the punk scene.
Congratulations on your awards and on the exponential growth of your blog membership in recent months. I also thank you for sharing all of these fascinating tidbits about yourself.
Something about me? My name is carved on the ladies' room wall at the Shady Dell. Another story for another day, though. (LOL)
Shady: Now that's a post you will have to include for sure in your series on the Dell- inquiring minds have to know!
DeleteMaybe one day I will pull out some pics from my teen years, but I will have to be a lot braver than I am now. I was a VERY different person then. I'm not sure the world is ready to have the teen me unleashed upon it again.
Oh my gosh, Clint! So that is why I have this strange attraction to you! Shelly is going to get plenty of Google hits on this post. (Clint is kiddin', folks!)
ReplyDeleteWell, since we amongst friends and these are deep, dark secrets ... I am about to reveal a first to the blogger world. My original birth certificate stated under "sex" that I was a male. I discovered this one day when I was a child and my mother had never gotten around to having it corrected. I AM NOT A MALE! Anyway, when Clint and I were preparing to get married, I wanted to make sure I had a totally correct and most recent version of my birth certificate and got a new one. In these days and times, one could really being questioned about their sex with all the sex change shennaigans going on in this troubled world! Also, it had crossed my mind that I could have been drafted into the military. :~D Moving right along to something happier ...
I share your love of Lucille Ball. I felt almost as sad about the Desi and Lucy marriage breakup as I did my own parent's. My middle name is Lou and I loved it when my grandmother called me the nickname "Lucy". I often named my cats Lucy and named my daughter Lucinda. I have read every biography of Lucille Ball that I could find.
Congratulations on your many blogger awards, you sure deserve them, Shelly! ♥
Cindy: Oh my goodness! Now that, paired with Clint's, is something you two should do a shared posting on! I'm so glad you were able to get a new one. Someone really made a boo boo in the records office when you were born! Gosh- you're right- in this day and age, that could cause you some real trouble!
DeleteI, too, have read everything, biographies, tell alls, anything I can get my hands on about Lucy and Desi. It is so very sad their marriage didn't last. They really created some genius when they were together.
Shelly:
ReplyDeleteYears ago I was backpacking through Europe with my wife of two years when we landed in Athens late at night. We struggled to find a place to stay but everything was closed. We searched for a long time until we heard the wonderful sounds of "I love Lucy" blaring on someone's TV. We followed the sound and found a pensione for the night. A dozen Greeks were huddled around a TV laughing at Lucy. I still remember the episode--the one where she gets a trophy stuck on her head.
Stephen: What a terrific story! There's just something about that show that deeply says Home. It would have been a great comfort to me to be so far away, so late at night, and to hear those familiar lines and laughs.
DeleteI enjoy writing left handed, especially with my Mitsubishi very fine gel pens of many colors. I am just a little bit slower at it than my natural right, and my penmanship is quite good. I especially liked doing my groc shopping lists, but now I use my iPad for shopping.
ReplyDeleteDriving: I remember driving my cousin's minibike straight into the back of a vehicle, probably the first time I got on it. I think I am a slightly better than average driver as an adult, but there are so many severely dangerous drivers now, so I have moved "up" to a large F-350 Ford 4x4 pickup. I plan to drive it for the rest of my life, or something larger!
I love to play the piano but I do not own one. I love to compose instrumental pieces.
I think Italian is probably the most beautiful language, although hearing Texan English is quite something surprising from day to day.
I don't enjoy heights, but I have roofed some very high places including grain elevators, as a young person, not now of course!
I enjoyed Lucy as a child, she was a genius. One of my favorite episodes of office humor in my last year at work involved a brief impromptu episode where my boss and I were in character as Desi and Luci-fer. I was Luci-fer with a very deep guttural voice. We laughed veRy much, but the new guy's eyes were bugged out. He probably thought, "all those rumors about Ernie must be true".
I have met several famous people, but only in my dreams. I have worked with a local guy who is a first cousin to Dennis Quaid, and the lady at the guard gate at my former place of work had a son who was a crew chief on George W. Bush's presidential helicopter. Some day I may be famous, but it is not goal or something I desire.
esbboston: At one time I could handle a pen with my left, but I've not tried it in a while and it would probably reflect it.
DeleteMini-bikes! Oh, I had forgotten about those. We used to have so much fun with them. You are right, that the truck is a whole lot safer.
Bwahahahaha!!! Luci-fer!!!
I find it fascinating about your writing skills. My daughters both see words when people talk. My sister sees colored numbers. There is a word for this, but I forget what it is. Loved reading about you! I loved Lucy too. Her and Desi were a riot.
ReplyDeleteI read your blog to my husband just now and he said, "The most famous person I've talked with is Jon Bon Jovi. He was with people from work at a pub in Vancouver and Bon Jovi was at the next table with his band. Dan didn't know who he was and they had a nice chat. I would have known who he was!
Belle: Jon Bon Jovi!!!! Wow!!!! I would probably have died right there in the restaurant. That's probably why your husband had such a good convo with him, though, because he wasn't star struck.
DeleteIf you find out the name of what that is with seeing the words and colored numbers, would you please let me know? I am fascinated with how the brain works and how we learn. That would be great for me to look up!
Those were totally fun to read.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to hear the stories that come from those!!
My kids love I love Lucy too, they are always good to watch!
I want my kids to watch those old things, kids today are missing out on great comedy. (we also DVR The Brady Bunch)
One thing many blogging people don't know, actually my kiddos don't know either...I was married before. (anulled now of course) I was young and stupid. He suffered from depression and was a very angry person. 2 priests told me to leave.
One of the priests told me, after I said I'd never marry again, that I'd be married within 2 years. He was actually right. I was and now it's 15 years later!
Too long of a story, that, too, will have to be for another day.
Jamie: You certainly ended up all the richer for it, with who you have now, for sure! I have a friend who had an early, short lived first marriage and has gone on to a long, happy second one. She was like you- she said she'd never marry again, and is so glad it wasn't true. I really am so happy for you, because it's obvious with your beautiful family and hubby that God led you to the right one.
DeleteBrady Bunch rules, too! I just finished reading Florence Henderson's autobiography. Carol Brady in real life she was not!
Oh, interesting...now I wonder what she was like. We all know that the dad wasn't actually Mr Brady either...
ReplyDeleteJamie: Well, she just liked having more than one Mr. Brady in the picture at the same time.
DeleteAmazing! You really should video yourself mirror-writing and post it. I would be mesmerized by something like that! And now you know something strange about me. :)
ReplyDeleteNancy: Ha! I do freak out my 6th graders at the beginning of each year when I write the rules on the board for them backwards and tell them there's a special way we write in middle school and they will have to master it quickly. Some of the looks on their faces border on freak out. I can be a little demented, I guess...
DeleteAnd, you're not getting off that easy- give us a big fact about you! BTW- I LOVED your post about brushing the horse's teeth with your sister's toothbrush and telling her after she'd used it- HILARIOUS!!!
Oh, Shelly. You make me laugh! I would love to have all my kids go through your 6th grade class. I know they would come out better because of it. With a little healthy fear as well. :)
DeleteThanks for your comment on my horse story. It really was funny, no matter what she says.
No deep, dark secrets here. They're all pretty standard: I love cake batter, I can shoot a .22 with amazing accuracy (or at least I used to), and I'm shamelessly addicted to those stupid vampire books. However, I once sang a song in Hungarian on live television from a stage in Budapest--even though I'm pretty much tone deaf. And hours after my dad taught 16 year old me to drive a stick shift he was in the ER from a massive heart attack. Once the initial crisis had passed, my siblings thought (and still think) that that is hilarious.
Nancy: Oh, your poor dad! I'm sure it wasn't the teaching you to drive stick shift that did it...although that was what I learned to drive when I was 9, and I thought my dad was about to have one.
DeleteI'm a pretty good shot, too, although I only shoot skeet, and only when I want to beat someone. It's a good skill to have, though right? Never know when it will come in handy.
I am completely amazed at your writing skills. How do you do all the backwards and forwards and upside down? Awesome.
ReplyDeleteI have never really watched I love Lucy but I trust your judgment in media. Perhaps I'll give it a shot. I do love to laugh. :)
I don't think you are boring at all, by the way. Quite the opposite. :)
Crystal: Welcome back! I don't know how I can do the writing stuff, but I do wish I knew why math makes me break out in mental hives.
DeleteLucy is silly, but classic. I also adore the fashions of that era. For that reason alone, it's worth the watch.
you wild woman!! driving before you are 16 and writing on a cruise ship!!!
ReplyDeletemy youngest son says the alphabet backwards but i think you have that beet.
Hope you have a great day!!
momto8: Well, you know, we live a wild life here on the ranch. Gotta keep up! Hope your day is ultra terrific, too!
DeleteYou've no idea how impressed I am with the mirror-writing, et al. I love quirks of the mind, and clearly, that is one awesome quirk.
ReplyDeletePearl
Pearl: Quirks- I'm full of them. Wish I wasn't so full every now and then...
DeleteWell then, there you have it, a most deserved award by all means!!
DeleteCongratulations, it's fun learning new things about blogging friends!
Saimi: Thank you! I love to learn things about folks, too~
DeleteShelly,
ReplyDeleteIf you are boring, then I am already dead and buried. What a fun post!
Marsha: Ha! Thank you!
DeleteDearest Shelly,
ReplyDeleteYou are fascinating lady♡♡♡
I have never heard of "mirror writing"; so when you said you can write backwards as quickly and fluidly, you lost me, haha. What a talent you have, I want to see you write with that fashion. Maybe, it is hard for Japanese words to write it that way (we use 3 types of words; kanji, hiragana, katakana).
Wow, you've been driving since young girl and NO accident♪♪♪ I don't have a license and really inconvenient(^^;)
I vaguely remember I have watched "I LOVE LUCY" even in Japan. It might not have broadcasted long.
Well, I loved watching dramas and movies from your country,p;) My favorite were "Be witched, Little House in the Prairie" and so on. My dad who fought world war 2 loved combat, which was sort of strange for me. Or Colombo and movies; we both liked Charlton Heston's spectacles. "Gone with the Wind"... haha I'll stop it. Probably, one reason for my interest in English (especially pronunciation) came from my memories with my dad watching these thing together wondering how they speak.
Oh, I think tiny me doesn't look so dignified and I have a jealous feeling toward beautiful tall lady♬♬♬
Love you always, xoxo Miyako*
Miyako: Oh, sweet friend, you are so kind, as always! I love the image of you watching those shows with your dad- I used to watch those shows, too! How wonderful that he loved them, even after being a warrior.
DeleteI'm quite sure I could not do the same thing with writing Japanese (if I should ever be blessed enough to learn it) as I can do with English. Japanese is so complex and sophisiticated. I'm always very impressed with how well you handle English- I would one day love to learn Japanese.
I am so glad you are my friend, dear Miyako!
My brother and me skipped school on day to show our cousin the Public Gardens, then walked to our grandma's place and then were sent right back to our home along with an aya ( a servant) in a rickshaw and we were told to write a hundred times that would not skip school again. After that we never skipped school. My mom was a teacher.
ReplyDeleteMunir: Wow- what a terrific story! I can imagine what your grandma thought when she saw you both, and then what your mom thought, too! It was a great lesson, though, it sounds like, since you never repeated it.
DeleteI was a terrible skipper. In fact, much of my senior year I skipped all or part of the day. I still did really well with my grades, though, and somehow didn't get into trouble for it.
Dear Shelly, I love that you are interested in the inner workings of the brain. You might like to read My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. She's one of the reasons why I decided to teach myself to start a business. The way she explains how anger works has made a huge impact on my happiness levels.
ReplyDeleteAnd I completely agree with Marsha, if you are boring, I am dead!
The mirror writing skill is phenomenal! I'd never heard of anyone being able to do that until now.
Something about me: Hmmm. My senior capstone class in college was killing me. My son was a baby, my husband was heavily medicated from his recent knee surgery, and my daughter was a young and defiant early teenager. Everything demanded my attention all at once. Then I would go to class and come home with reading assignments so unbelievably hard that they made me cry. There were words in these scholarly articles that could not be found in any dictionary. In tears I went to see a tutor, who also happened to be a poet. He told me that scholarly articles are constructed of bullsh*&t, and that it was perfectly fine for me to tell my professor that. So even though I felt the tryanny of an unimaginably difficult English professor (who was a blond Cali girl not much taller than me, but with an enormous ego), I went into class, and in front of everyone, told her that the papers she assigned were complete bullshit. She was speechless!!! And after that she relaxed her standards. I got an A and several recommendation letters. She is my friend today. The thing I learned is not to let anyone intimidate me like that, ever again!
Jenny: I love that book! We got it when it came out and passed it all through my family. It truly taught me so much, and it makes me realize how little I actually know about how these amazing brains work. I'm so glad you got so much out of it, too. We keep buying more copies to give to people, some who have had strokes, and some who haven't. My father in law just had a stroke a couple of weeks ago, and I'm going to be re-reading it.
DeleteDo you hear me yelling for you all the way down here in Texas for how you handled the professor??? Bravo!!! Those things need to be called out for what they are. I'll bet her mouth dropped all the way to the floor. Did anyone in the class applaud when you said that? If they didn't, they were thinking it. What an empowering things. I also love that you two are friends now. I would really have loved to have been a fly on the wall that day!
Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that your father in law has had a stroke. I'll be praying for his recovery and for your family.
DeleteAfter I said that, you could hear a pin drop. The silence lasted for a while and I was sure that I had just failed. As class was ending, she called me up to the front of the room to say, "Jenny, I know you say that you hate all of this business of literary criticism, but you are one of the best students I've had in 10 years." I didn't know if that was her BS or not! But it sure did change things.
Thank you for the prayers. He's improving a little each day.
DeleteYour story is just a treasure! What a way to take the power back for yourself in such a frustrating situation and turn it into good!
Hi Shelly...thanks for the mention in the opening, but you dear friend did thank me before and you are a dear to worry about that at all. Something I may have not mentioned? LOL, well as a teacher you may not approve, and as a parent I never owned up to this with my children until they were way past their days of temptation. I used to skip school during high school with by then boyfriend. We would go to the beach and he would surf, I would dabble with it. Presented a problem explaining my suntan or sunburn as it was in the beginning to my parents. P.E, was my explanation and oddly enough they bought it. My Dad travelled a lot for business when I was young and once we were old enough my Mom often accompanied him. I was taking advantage of a situation when I shouldn't have, but I sure did have fun! Oddly enough I was able to keep up with my school work. So there you have it...my awful secret, out in the open for all. Good thing my kids aren't into blogging.
ReplyDeleteHugs~
Sush: You're such a dear- thank you for reminding me! And far from condemning you, I am a member of the skipping sorority with you. I was horrible, especially as a senior. I even got caught once by my dad, who was superintendent. I kept my grades up, though, and never really got into trouble for it, I guess because I had such an innocent face. Ha!
DeleteI am addicted to your stories! Something I've never told anyone? When I lived in NJ and would get hired to babysit, I'd swipe one of their cigarettes and practice smoking it while watching myself in the mirror (kids were in bed!) Luckily for me, I decided that smoking was highly overrated, and I would never do it now! Shame on me... Most famous person I've ever met? Robert Redford...after trespassing on his property in Utah when I was 14. For the record, he was very kind.
ReplyDeleteKaren: ROBERT REDFORD!!!!! Wow- you've got me beaten by a mile! What a cool story- have you blogged about it yet? I'd love to hear the whole thing- hint, hint!
DeleteI'm glad you nixed the smoking thing. I did it for several years in my teens and regret every minute of it. With age comes wisdom (usually).
Robert REDFORD!!!!!!!!!!
DeleteKaren, I love how you're so casual about ROBERT REDFORD!!!!!!!
DeleteIt was a joy to read this post. Thank you for sharing and putting a smile on my face. Blessings.
ReplyDeleteJust Be Real: How sweet you are! Thank you!
DeleteJohnny Rotten? What was that like?
ReplyDeleteNeat post.
Life 101: He was pretty impaired, as was I. Not the highlight of my life, to be sure!
Delete