Scraps of Honesty

Melissa over at the always interesting This Too . . . blog gave me an Honest Scrap Award. I'm supposed to share ten honest things about myself. Not so hard because I can do honesty in snippets. Move into my house and you'd get The Full Monty of how my life really is, something nobody wants to see, trust me. But, here are ten glimpses:

1.  The very best thing about getting older for me was realizing I am truly not in control of other people, but instead am responsible for my own attitude and actions. The honest bit: I'm a recovering control freak.

2.  Before I turned eleven, I lived in New York, Colorado, Saudi Arabia and California. For middle school and high school I lived in Oklahoma. My choice to go to college in California was based on, um, following a guy. I think I’d scream if my daughter did that, but it (the college) was the perfect place for me. I’ve been in California ever since, and I LOVE it here.

3.  The first date I had with my husband was to his post-game Christmas party. He showed up at my dorm room worried I might have stood him up because I didn’t go to his basketball game beforehand. In fact, I had never gone to a college basketball game until we started dating. Today, I’m a huge basketball fan.

4.  My mom kept Glamour, Vogue and Ms. Magazine by her bed. I snuck looks at/read these as a little girl. Result: Proud to wield power tools, change my own flat tire and wear these (never at the same time people!):

5. Three of my favorite films are The Princess Bride, Babette’s Feast and Fight Club.

6. A favorite book is The Great Gatsby because it’s brilliant.

Guaranteed Results

7.  Sometimes my husband and I stay up until three a.m. listening to music together. We also stay up looking at pictures of our kids, watching SNL shorts, reading The Onion or, once, reading customer reviews for this shirt (pictured on my husband, right. Totally click that link; the reviews are hilarious).

8.  I am living a life my nineteen-year-old self would never have approved of. She’d have thought me a total sell-out because younger me thought Faith with a capital “F” meant turning your back on material goods a lá Mother Teresa. Back then, I was certain I’d be living a spartan life in the poorest of nations, teaching literacy. Currently, I teach immigrants literacy/English as a Second language, but I do so while living in one of the wealthiest communities in the nation. It still sometimes feels like I took a wrong turn except I feel so grateful for life as it is now.

Photo by Jacinta Richardson and Paul Fenwick

9. I went through a vegetarian phase and ordered sea cucumber at a Chinese dim sum restaurant thinking I was getting an ocean vegetable not ingesting a giant slug.

10.  Dancing! Love, love, love to dance. I miss being young enough to go out and do it all the time. Now, I resort to embarrassing my kids during spontaneous “Hey everybody, It’s Family Dance Time!” sessions.

The last instruction for the Honest Scrap award is to pass it on. I'm giving this award to bloggers who don't necessarily have the format to post ten things about themselves, but these are authentic people whose honest words I've enjoyed reading:

Pauline at the Fun Table: I met her after she read an award-winning piece at our local writer's conference. I sobbed it was so beautiful. Her stories are lovely and she's my favorite local librarian.

Kristen Kittscher: This is a newer blog that's always provocative. No pressure, Kristen. :)

Travis and Craig over at On The Fence With Jesus: A pastor and a skeptic discuss religion. I knew Craig, the skeptic, from high school and got sucked into this blog mostly because it amazed me to see the commenters and moderators discuss religion in such a civilized manner. More truth = I cut myself off from commenting because I knew I'd end up writing long emo treatises on one side of the fence or the other, but it's an interesting, non-writing related read.