Onionskin

I have been tagged by Skip Zalneraitis for the “Seven Things” meme. I am grateful for this, first because it’s so nice to have friends, and second because my blog needs a jumpstart — again.  (Yes, I tend to be very dependable in my blogging, if you count once a month as dependable.)

The “Seven Things” are intended to help others get to know you, and are supposed to be things your PLN doesn’t already know about you. This provides quite a challenge for me, as I have encountered (and initiated) some deeply personal conversations with my plurk friends. Is there really anything they don’t already know about me? Hmmm.

1. OK, here’s one that only one or two people know if they have met me in real life. Where others may proclaim to be “directionally challenged,” I am volume-and-distance challenged. When I add milk to my coffee, I add it until the color is right — which often results in the cup overflowing. I also have difficulty estimating distances, being only able to compare them to things I know, such as the length of a football field, or the height of our ceiling. My husband would undoubtedly add that this volume-and-distance disability applies to our family budget, but this is MY blog, not his, so…

2. I’m soon to be a grandmother of five. I think all of my plurkbuddies know a lot about my two sons, but when I met my husband 20+ years ago, I met his adorable 7-year-old son Brian. Now 31, Brian and his beautiful wife Sara live in the southern California desert and have a blended family of four gorgeous and smart children. Newest Baby Mulford is due this summer. If you ever want to hear an unbelievable story with gut-wrenching twists and turns and cliffhangers — just ask me about their visit to Illinois last August.

3. I was a foreign exchange student to Germany in high school, and my host family owned one of a very few summer cabins in the Austrian Alps that were surrounded on all sides by nationally-protected areas. We hiked five kilometers in from the road to reach a tiny hut with no power or water. Not being much of a camper, I didn’t appreciate the charm of bathing in an icy waterfall, but it makes for a good story these days. (And yes, I did belt out every single song from “Sound of Music” while I was there, much to the chagrin and amusement of my host family.)

4. As a 9 year old girl, I attended a 10-week class called “White Gloves and Party Manners”. My father’s new wife had been tasked with making my sister and I into “ladies,” so I was promptly signed up for this class, ballet, piano, violin, and French. I rebelled by learning German (see above) and preferring blue jeans and sneakers for life. (Do you suppose I would have been more prone to acting ladylike if they hadn’t cut my beautiful long blonde hair into a “pixie” for easier maintenance?)

5. I’m a firm believer in the payoffs of a serious scholarship search. I received excellent advice on this from my high school counselor in the late 1970’s, and shored up 27 of the 29 scholarships for which I applied. While the last thirty years may have produced some modifications in the process, I believe the formula for success is still the same. We’ll put that to the test in the next two years for my oldest son and let you know if my theory stands.

6. As the daughter of a public high school teacher, it was both an honor and a terror to be sought out by an Ivy League college. My father’s chest swelled to the point that his shirt buttons strained, and the family budget suddenly strained even more. There was a “need-based” process for financial aid, so a tremendous portion of my tuition was paid by alumni donations. However, the work-study program was demanding, and the student loans were a definite challenge to pay off. My husband was so pleased when we actually accomplished this that he turned my framed diploma around and proudly displayed the letter stating that the loan was paid in full.

7. My parents spent my third Halloween night with the California State Troopers, scouring mountain ravines for their lost daughter. Apparently my mother thought it was a good idea to let me Trick-or-Treat with a neighbor lady who had a larger group of kids than she could keep track of.  I can’t imagine the conversation that took place between the neighbor and my parents, as the neighbor returned to my house to report that she had lost me somewhere along the way. I can only imagine the surprise of the other poor woman who turned around to count noses in her station wagon and found that she had one too many children — and that this small “Indian Princess” (with long blonde braids, LOL) didn’t know her last name or address or phone number…

Whew! Coming up with those “Seven Things” took me almost a week. (Thanks for your patience, Skip!)

And so now… I have to tag others. This will be a great challenge, as much of my PLN has already been tagged. How about the following – consider yourself tagged!

@athorp
@scarter
@caffeinatedelf
@abeam
@yoyosciteach
@vanishingpoint
@kolson