Happy Blog Birthday

It has been a year since the birth of Something to Say. How time flies when you are having fun! I remember signing up on Blogspot, all the good names were all ready taken - thinking, you have no idea what you are doing, waste of time, silly you. As most know, I was inspired by Erica's Currently, that was sent to me by a friend stating 'you two were separated at birth'. From that moment I was a faithful reader, annoying her with all kinds of link emails, etc. She was always gracious to answer my mail. And I felt I had made a connection in the ether-world of unknown faces. She has since taken a well-deserved 'blogging break', post once a week and moved to Washington (I hope to see her new house soon).

It has been an incredible experience, full of new found friends, interesting, talented, intelligent, compassionate and giving. Learning how to use my digital camera a little better, wanting to learn more, great links, great conversations, unexpected and generous snail-mail gifts, trying to think of self-portrait Tuesday ideas. Excited when I finish a project that I could 'blog' about it. My friends at work think I am a little crazy but some of them are faithful readers. Unlike my family, that I had actually started this blog for. And isn't that just the way. You map out one course and a delightful surprise takes you down another path. I realize I enjoy keeping my blog because if forces me to reflect on my day, on my son, a project, or a purchase, a meal, a trip, a flower, my animals, a book, something that I would have overlooked pre-blog days. Would have fallen into bed, exhausted from the day and not given the sweet details a second look. I think that has been my gift from my blog. That second look. It has been a long time since I did that in my life. It has made me very appreciative of what I have, what I do, the ones I love, the world at large. So Happy Birthday, Something To Say!

I never thought I could do 100 things about myself in the past, but found it rather easy.

1. I never thought I would be a mother.
2. I was blessed with one son when I was 36
3. I love being a mother, but don’t think I am very good at it
4. I did not think I would marry after I was 33
5. I got married at 36
6. To the only person that understood the artist side of me
7. I married an artist
8. I consider myself a loner but most people think I am an extrovert
9. I love being alone, in a quiet house
10. I use to stay up until 3 a.m. to do my artwork
11. I love late nights, quiet, no phones, no questions. I can hear myself think
12. I have always felt that I was on the outside of life - looking in
13. I love dark chocolate and red wine
14. I can cook but make a big mess when I do
15. I am a good friend
16. I still have friends from Jr. High, High School, University
17. I was home-coming queen x 2
18. I feel very lucky to have really good, loyal, intelligent, witty friends
19. My mom is one of my best friends
20. I have more female friends than male
21. I had wonderful grandmothers and aunts
22. Most men in life were complete flakes and losers
23. I don’t really trust men to make good decisions
24. I did not have good male figures growing up
25. I was best friends with some of my teachers in Jr. High and College.
26. Mrs. Hunt, 8th grade English, was my hero, she died of a brain tumor.
27. I have had wonderful mentors in my life
28. I lived abroad some of my youth
29. I lived on a small island in the Mediterranean
30. It was a a great adventure
31. We traveled in a herd of kids, on the buses all around the island all the time, total freedom
32. I love to swim
33. I worked illegally in London when I was 20 at Lucienne Phillips on Knightsbridge
34. I wish I had stayed there, but decided to go to the states to finish up college level education
35. It took me much longer than the average student to earn BA
36. I loved being in school and never wanted to leave
37. I has big dreams of what I wanted to be when I was a child
38. But when I was 20 could not think of how to make a living
39. I fell into my profession I am in now
40. I am a very hard worker
41. I worked 2 jobs most of my life to make ends meet
42. I worked for a commuter airline as a Station Manager/Ticket agent
43. That was one of my favorite jobs
44. I learned to be very calm in the worst of situations
45. I learned to control my temper with bad, verbally abusive passengers
46. I worked for a blood bank and nursing home, those were two of my worst jobs (blood, big needles and shit)
47. I always volunteered to work weekends when I was single
48. I have almost always worked nights
49. I love to paint furniture
50. Once I start a project will hardly sleep until it is completed
51. I thought I would be a portrait painter in college
52. My Lumpkin, one of my professors encouraged me to pursue that
53. He would sit me down and tell me I had to finished school, it was like walking through a door and shutting it behind me.
54. I finally listened to him
55. I still talk to him occasionally, he lives in San Angelo, Texas
56. My mind is constantly churning up ideas, it is a blessing and a curse
57. I go to sleep with the TV on and finally realized it lulls me to sleep, without it, my brain will not turn off
58. I have never owned a new car
59. I really don’t like cars.
60. If I had the car I really wanted it would be a Range Rover
61. If I really had what I wanted, it would be someone to drive me where I wanted to go and I could do something else.
62. My aunt committed suicide when I was in High School
63. We still don’t know what happened
64. She had two young sons
65. My mother never got over it
66. My mother was a single mother until I was 12 and she was an authoritarian
67. I try very hard not to yell at my son
68. I want him to have his own voice and feel confident to say what he feels
69. I am blessed to have a very good son
70. I am addicted to BBC America and love British mysteries
71. Jonathon Creek, Poirot are my favorites
72. I can not list just one movie or one album or one anything that I like, I like too many things
73. I love the idea of embroidery and own a room-full of books on the subject
74. As well as quilting
75. My mother-in-law is an excellent quilter
76. My sister-in-law is a near genius and is the managing editor of a major newspaper
77. My brother-in-law raises snakes for a hobby
78. I have a half-sister, it is eerie how much we are alike although we did not grow up together
79. We are both exactly like my paternal grandmother, very soft-hearted
80. She would make each grandchild (8) the pie of their choice
81. She would stay up late with us and watch scary movies on a fold-out sofa in the living room
82. Sometimes all the grandchildren would sneak in bed with the grandparents
83. I don’t know where we all slept but we did
84. One of the last times I saw my grandmother (she was 80+) we slept together on an uncomfortable fold-out sofa and feel asleep holding hands
85. She died not recognizing any of us.
86. I still see and talk to her in my dreams
87. I am hardly ever afraid of anything
88. I only realized real fear after I had my son was born
89. I lived in complete fear of something happening to him for the first 5 years of his life
90. I always had a good tan
91. I have not had a tan since I moved to the Northwest
92. I love to scuba dive
93. I would never scuba dive here in the Puget Sounds, too dark, too cold, too many weird currents
94. I am part Choctaw Indian.
95. I love Christmas and miss having a house full of family like it was when I was a kid
96. My step-father committed suicide several years ago, and I am still not over it
97. My step-father’s mothers (small) house would be chock-full of family at Christmas and the first people to go to bed were the ones that had the best place to sleep
98. The adults would stay up almost all night filling stockings, laughing, eating, drinking and trying to decide who would get the ‘switches’
99. I love to give gifts but have a hard time just running to the mall for something, will wait until I find an appropriate gift
100. I have half of a room dedicated to wrapping paper, ribbon, old and new and all kinds of wrapping stuff. I don’t throw away anything salvageable from gifts wrapped for me.