10 Things

(this is kind of a cheat post, since most people put this stuff up in their profile, but hey, deal with it.)

1. I have a very hard time being still. I can sit in one place for several hours, but only if my mental gears are churning away. If I'm not processing something, it is impossible for me to be idle.

2. My dreams have scared people. Not just the halloween one, either. I once woke up in a sweat over a dream about a horrific car crash involving my sister. I called her up in the wee hours (yeah, they loved that) just to check in. They kinda laughed at me, until they realized how shook up I was. Two days later, a terrible car accident happened RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, and the struck car jumped the curb and smashed into a pole RIGHT where I had been standing 5 seconds earlier.

3. I don't own that many shoes. S has even commented that I don't have enough shoes. But really, I do, it's just that most of them are task-specific: XCski boots, sherling-lined apres ski boots, steel shank hiking boots, light day hikers, trailrunners, trackrunners, indoor soccer shoes, non-marking deck shoes. The shoes I wear to work are either Dansko boots (to jobsites) or Franco Sarto pumps, the most comfortable dress shoes I've found. Now that I think about it, I have a LOT of shoes, I just wear the staples 90% of the time. Whew. I'm a 'real girl' after all. Just not a stiletto/strappy girl. And open-toe? To me that is akin to walking down Mission Street nekkid. Blech.

4. I like manual labor. I own an Estwing framing hammer (from building Habitat for Humanity houses in Texas), a random orbital sander (from remodeling my house in Oregon) and a stretcher/stapler gun (for stretching my own canvases). I once assembled a Craftsman table saw on my own (granted, I ducked the first time I turned it on). My sailing org has fought over me for maintenance weekends. My freelance work once centered around designing and building sculptural room dividers for loft apartments. I've welded aircraft parts.

5. I'm still a delicate flower.

6. I was a delicate WALL flower, until, at age 29, a good friend of mine taught me how to talk to strangers. Not in the fliratious way, but in the 'tell me a good story about your world' way. Aside from my father teaching me how to change a flat tire, it is the best life lesson - the best gift - that anyone has ever given me. And I am thankful for it - and her - every single day.

7. I procrastinate. I am learning that this has much to do with my #1, and that if I remove all other stimulus and allow myself to concentrate on something uninterrupted, that I will plow through it, and that procrastination is my minds way of saying that there's too much distraction. I guess this means I have a form of ADD, but then, I ask you - who doesn't?

8. I have a cat, but I am a dog person. A big, sleek, bird-dog person. The Charch and I tolerate each other, but if I could turn her into a Short-Haired Pointer, a Ridgeback or a Vizsla, we'd be inseperable.

9. I'm an existentialist. 90% of the time, I'm observing the world as if I'm not in it, just marveling at how it works (or doesn't), completely separate of how I work (or don't). I attribute this to reading Robert Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance during my first year of college. It's a tough read - I've literally had to re-read sections numerous times to really absorb it, but once you do, it doesn't undo.

10. If I could have one wish, it would be to be fluent in every single language in the world.


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