1. This won't be a big shock to anyone who knows me, but I LOVE to cook. I'd hate to cook as a profession (too much pressure), but I love to cook for my family and friends. If I had time and resources, I could see myself planning elaborate (yet always casual) dinner parties every weekend.
2. I'm horrible at making new friends. Always have been. (Just ask the people who knew me in elementary school and high school.) I don't like approaching new people or talking to them. I get all self-conscious and uncomfortable, and it often comes across as if I'm haughty or egotistical. But every once in a while I find someone who won't let me get away with that and gets to know me in spite of myself, which sometimes results in a friendship. Once I do have a friend, I'm fiercely loyal and would do anything for them.
3. I desperately miss playing in an orchestra. I started playing violin in 4th grade and kept it up until I was about 25. I always had a panic attack anytime I had to play alone (which makes for difficult auditions!), but I adored playing classical music in a symphony. I wasn't a great musician, but I was decent. One of the highlights of my Phoenix-based high school musical "career" was playing at Carnegie Hall in NYC with my city-wide orchestra. In fact, the orchestras I played in through junior high, high school, and college gave me a sanctuary and friendships that I would've had trouble finding otherwise at the time.
4. I would love to go back to school to become a labor and delivery nurse. My mother (a nurse-midwife) thinks I'm crazy because she's come to hate the politics of medicine and the health care system generally - and I don't disagree with her on those points. The industrialized world, and the U.S. in particular, has definitely developed some incredibly wacky viewpoints about pregnancy and birth. I don't see me ever going back to school at this point, as I think my life is on a different path, but it's a dream.
5. I think the education system in the U.S. (from infant day care all the way through college) is deeply, deeply flawed and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. I would love to get involved in education reform and "do something about it" but I'm at a loss for where to start. So instead, I'm very active in my son's public school and advocating for micro-changes where I can. (Oops - is this too closely related to my life as a mom?????)
6. My husband first asked me out on a date when he was a freshman in college. We met through the Pep Band (he played saxophone, and I was recruited to play bass drum since band music isn't really written for violin). He thought I was a sophomore. If he'd known I was actually a junior he never would've asked me out. And thus goes the course of history.
7. I love to travel. Domestic or international. I could sit on a beach on a tropical island or tromp through all the sights in Rome. Tourist trap or off all paths. I would try it all. I credit my late maternal grandmother with instilling that love in me. She brought me to New Zealand when I was in 6th grade and to China the summer before 8th grade. I've been hooked ever since.
I’m supposed to post the rules, so here they are:
- Link your original tagger and list these rules in your post. (She's at the beginning)
- Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
- Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
- Let them know they’ve been tagged.
