Ten Honest Scraps about Myself

We'll see if this works. I'm on the computer that hates AOL and likes to freeze up, but here goes...

Gwyn Ramsey sent me this--and challenged me to come up with ten honest "scraps" about myself:

Honest Scrap Award
I've received the Honest Scrap Award from a blogging friend who has asked me to share with you ten honest scraps about myself. My friend, Morgan Mandel has no idea how hard this is for me to share these scraps with you. I have to dig real deep. So as I sit here pondering this assignment, why not visit Morgan's site by clicking on her name.

So here I am on a rainy (yep, how weird is that?) day-after-day-after Christmas, scratching my head and thinking...thinking...thinking.

Here's my list:

1. I love all sorts of critters. Even most snakes, and amphibians. Certainly anything with fur. And bugs. I think bugs are cool. I even had a bug hospital as a child. (Read Louisa May Alcott's story about a bug hospital, and you'll see where I found the inspiration.)

2. I have all sorts of books mapped out in my head...but more and more I need solitude to write. I used to be okay with folks in the house, but as I've moved from non-fiction to fiction, I absolutely LOATH having people in the house when I write. I feel like I'm being watched. And if they interrupt me while I'm working, I hate it. Ugh. So one of my New Year's Resolutions is to map out the books I want to write and to get cracking.

3. I love to dance. My mother was a professional ballerina, and I grew up taking ballet in our dining room. I even substitute-taught for her when she got bored with plies. I'm very limber, and I can't keep still when I hear music I love. My favorite dancing song is "I Wish I Didn't Need You Anymore." I also like "Don't Jump My Pony." (Ahem. I blush when I hear that one.) I once jumped up and danced with a friend who's a bellydancer and we really had the crowd cheering as we did backbends.

4. I would have made a great actress. Yep. I was involved in theatre in high school, and I'm really very good at mimickry and at reaching deep and finding my emotions. That's what made me a good motivational speaker.

5. I'm learning to draw and I'm becoming more and more artistic. I spend hours working on images, learning to shade and shape and color. I always think of my sister Margaret as the artist in the family, but I'm struggling to be a self-taught artist. (I'll never be as good as she is, but I'm getting better.)

6. I miss England. I really loved living there. I went to as many lectures on history as I could. I like English food, English culture, and I'm a raving Anglophile. I loved collecting "royalty sightings," and I shocked the heck out of a docent at Windsor Castle by repeating verbatim to him the motto of the Order of the Garter. He said, "I've never had anyone who knew it, much less a Yank." (I've known it for years because legend has it that one of my ancestors was a Knight of the Garter...it's "Honi Sois Qui Mal E Ponce." (Or something like that. "Evil to him who thinks evil of it.")

7. I love traveling although I really miss my home when I'm away. I've been to Egypt, Australia, China, Korea, Japan, Austria, Italy, Germany, France, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Mexico, Haiti, Jamaica, Bermuda, Aruba, the Cayman Islands, St. Thomas, Cozumel, Belize (I forget if those are cities or countries...oops), and Canada. I could easily live in another country, for a while, because I love exploring and I'll eat anything that doesn't move.

8. I'm a horrible packrat. But what would you expect of someone who loves saving memories? Give me a break! That said, this is my year to purge and clean out the closets. It's getting to me. I hate the clutter.

9. I hate being cold. It reminds me of being poor. My skin gets soooo dry that I slather myself with Eucerin. And I hate the darkness of the winter. It depresses me. I try to make myself exercise and go outside, but yuck. I just want to curl up with a book and eat bonbons. (Well, not bonbons. Chocolate gives me a headache.)

10. I have a scar on my face from where Darvin G. through a hunk of concrete through my cheek.

Now I need to nominate friends and family to take up the Ten Scraps Challenge:

I nominate:

Emilie Richards www.emilierichards.com
Camille Minichino www.minichino.com
Shirley Damsgaard www.shirleydamsgaard.com
Jane Campbell (my sister) www.sleepcompass.com
Angie Fox http://www.angiefox.wordpress.com
Doug Brendel www.dougbrendel.com
Bill LaDow www.raynichels.com


Meanwhile, I better get off the computer--there's a horrible storm outside--and if I know Charter, the 'net will go down fast!

And here's the link to Gwyn Ramsey http://www.gwynramsey.blogspot.com