{Another Year Older}

It's my Birthday weekend! Did you know that? Well, in honor of, well, ME, let me share with you a few more little tid-bits about me-eight is a "few," right?:

1. This is a new revelation, but a lifelong condition: I hate being barefoot. I've always been aware that I prefer to have socked feet. I thought this was because I love socks. But I have just recently realized my appreciation for socks stems from the solution they offer to bare feet. What it is is this: I don't like walking on floors, carpet, grass, or any surface without something covering my feet. I like my feet to be clean, and I cannot trust the ground to be clean. And at the end of the day, I have to change my socks because I cringe at the idea of sticking dirty socks into my clean sheets...clean sheets...that's a whole other tid-bit...

2. I fantasize about singing backup for someone. anyone. I don't want to be center stage, just someone sashaying in the back harmonizing at just the right moments. I've dreamt about this for as long as l can remember. And for my birthday last year, Mr. Smarty paid for voice lessons for me. Don't think they really helped much, but it was a sweet gesture and I still dream. Maybe someday my uber talented bro-bro will write a song to highlight the way our sibling voices mesh.

3. I make two specialty pizza recipes. One is a NY style, hand-tossed crust that involves the usual kneading, rising, and using my make-shift peel to slide the pie onto pre-heated stones. This is my favorite. Mr. Smarty's favorite is much quicker and easier and has a very different taste. It is an oat-bran crust with milk, e.v.o.o., and a touch of s+p. Don't know where my deep love for the pie came from, but I remember eating pizza forever with my family as we rang in the weekend. For years my mother made her own, then we started ordering from a nearby pizza place. Later I took a job, (one of my most favorite jobs) at Little Caesars. This was in high-school when I packed unclaimed pizzas for my lunch almost daily.

4. I love peanut butter. Now I have never binged or overdosed on pb, like some true pb lovers, but if I had to eat a pb&j sandwich for every meal for the rest of my life, this would not be a problem. I may gain the weight of a small child around my middle section, but I wouldn't complain about lack of variety. Variety I like, but peanut butter I love. Of course I am particular about my kind of peanut butter. It must be the natural kind, like Laura Scudders or Smuckers Natural. Either Crunchy or Smooth is fine, as long as the only addition is salt. Again, I don't know where this stems from, but one of my other favorite jobs (I have 3 if you're wondering) was as a lab technician at the Southwest Peanut Flavor Lab. We tested for aflatoxins in peanuts for companies like M&M/Mars. One of the tests we conducted was a flavor analysis...this was really hard work. I was a poor college student and the job was fun and the money was appreciated. Maybe in my twisted mind I equate the taste of peanuts with provisional money. okay, nuff therapy, let's move on to no. 5.

5. My parents grew up in North Jersey. So growing up, whenever we made the trip "home" that was where we were driving. My grandparents were there, my cousins were there. New York was just a hop, skip and toll away. And growing up, I always pictured myself making my home there, either in the city or the suburban life made so appealing in Mary Higgins Clark suspences. If I could just get an apartment or home there, I'm sure the housekeeper/cook/groundskeeper are included in the utilities.

6. During one of my trips "home" in the fourth grade, I had my appendix removed on or near Christmas day. My memory is fuzzy, but I do remember it was taken out at Englewood Hospital of Englewood, NJ. And for some unknown reason this memory is permanently linked to John Travolta. After pondering this for a few moments I think it is because a few years later, John's character in Look's Who's Talking claimed Englewood as his hometown. Yes, I called him John. We are practically neighbors. I had my appendix removed in Englewood, he played an Englewood resident in an early 90's family movie...see, anything but John would be waaaay too formal.


okay, two more to go, how ya doin? still with me? or are you just salivating for more juicy facts about yours truely? either way, here they are:

7. In college, I played intramural sports. Is that too generic? Let me tell you which ones. I earned t-shirts for basketball, football, softball and rodeo. Rodeo gave me the most shirts. I finally let go of most of them at a garage sale, but they were for events like (why does this make me cringe?) calf-roping, hog-tying and anything else that most 20 year old girls would have more respect to try. Don't read too much into that last statement...let's just move on and pretend that never happened...

8. okay, I guess I'll share my final favorite job. My last job ever was as a 6th grade student teacher at a small Christian school in Austin, TX. These 6th graders were the oldest in the school-which seems to make a huge difference...6th graders who are the youngest in a Jr. High are a whole other breed. But I loved these kids and I loved the job. I realized this one morning as I was walking them to specials in another building. I walked with 20 plus 10 year olds trailing behind me, and I noticed it was 9 AM on a Monday and I was working at a job for which I received less than $200 for the entire semester, and I was smiling. Genuinely smiling. I was really happy leading those kids to PE or music or wherever they were going on that particular day. I never thought I would have had such a job let alone enjoy it, but there I was...smiling.

But now, (sigh) I am smiling in another classroom on a weekday morning...only we usually call this room the kitchen and there are only 3 trailing behind me...so far.

Okay, nuff about me...tell me something I don't know about you...come on...play along, it's my birthday, remember?