Did you know that I ...
This has nothing to do with the post, just a random photo that I found on my camera card.
- Moved to California at 21 to pursue my first career.
- Grew up with a (fraternal) twin sister who is one minute older.
- Throughout elementary school, learned in the same classroom as my sister. It wasn't until I became a teacher that I realized how unusual it was for me and my twin to be students in the same room - the general practice is to place twins in different classrooms.
- Used an online dating service - and ended up marrying a guy I met there.
- Spent almost a year running an elementary school library that serviced about 900 students.
- Worked in a newsroom for two historic events - the momentous 2000 election and the 9/11 attacks.
- Taught fifth grade with just about no experience.
- Through reflection, research, and reading, improved as a teacher.
- As a high school student, won a contest that turned my anti-drug commercial idea into spot that aired on a local channel.
- Earned a black belt in the Japanese martial art of aikido (hoping to get my third-degree belt next year).
- Passed an oral exam to earn my library sciences degree and got married in the same month - just about a week apart.
- Served in AmeriCorps VISTA for two years, promoting literacy in elementary schools.
- Folded almost 1,000 paper cranes (I had friends and my sis help) for someone ill.
- Visited New Zealand and India.
- Served as weekday caretaker for a close relative with Alzheimer's/dementia for almost two years.
- Sampled alligator on a stick (it does kind of taste like chicken!)
- Earned a spot in the acknowledgements section of a real live printed book. (Proof here)
- Provided technical support for a poetry show my friend did on public radio.
- On my first (and so far, only) trip to New York, woke up in the dead of night with vertigo and took an ambulance ride to the E.R.
- After said stay in the E.R., walked 9 blocks back to the hotel. Note to self: when you have vertigo, DO NOT take the nurse's advice to walk because it will be too hard to get a cab. It was the longest, most wretched walk of my life.
- Wrote a novel - then dumped it.
- Read my poetry on stage when I lived in California.
- Rang up one of my favorite authors (Haruki Murakami) when I worked part-time at Borders. I was too shy to say anything to him!
