5 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me

Inspired by Dental Coach Chris Barrow’s blog post, here’s my list of 5 things you probably don’t know about me:

1.  I wanted to grow up and marry Donny Osmond (yes, really!).  Thank goodness that never happened — I’d have a bazillion kids and grandkids by this point..LOL  I was so in love with Donny that my bedroom had purple curtains and bedspread, and I had Donny and Marie pics from Tiger Beat (anyone remember that teen magazine?) all over my wall.  The only compulsion that survived out of this strange chapter of my life is my love for the color purple and all varieties thereof..:)

2. I graduated salutatorian (#2) of the Jasper High School Class of 1981.  My best friend from jr. high and high school, Terry Ferguson (now Terry Eddy), graduated #1.  I think we were only a couple of tenths of a point apart in our GPA.  I was one of the graduation speakers, along with Terry, and my speech was based on a song by the rock group, Styx.  For the life of me, though, I can’t remember which song it was..;->

3.  In my first month of college as a freshman at Lamar University, I was almost arrested, along with my other Alpha Phi Omega pledge class members (this was a service fraternity, not a social fraternity), as we were returning the 700 lb., 12 ft. tall fiberglass cardinal (Lamar’s mascot) that we had stolen as a prank after a football game.  This was the same cardinal that we as pledges had to run across the field on the rare occasion when Lamar made a touchdown.  Unfortunately, Lamar’s football prowess never improved, and they pulled out of the football business in the early 1990s, I believe.

4.  My now ex-husband and I had taken a day trip to a local lake over the border in NY (about 45 minutes from where we’d lived in western MA) and had brought our dog, Brandi, with us on the trip.  Brandi and I were playing on the beach, and she was running around.  Somehow with her running and my running, we ran into each other and she managed to make me flip in the air (now, I’m no gymnast and have NEVER played one on TV!) and land on my back on the sand.  I hit the ground so hard that I was seeing stars.  What I didn’t see at the time (my ex told me about it when my head quit ringing) that there was group of Asian/Japanese? tourists there as well and they started snapping pics of me as soon as I started my airborne journey!  Guess I became their strange and unusual American freak sideshow that was the highlight of their trip..LOL

5.  Back in 1999 or so, I flew to New England to see my best friend, Jacque, in Massachusetts.  However, at the time, Southwest Airlines (if Southwest doesn’t fly to a destination, I figure I don’t really need to go there <g>) didn’t fly into Albany, NY, which was the closest airport to where she lives in western Massachusetts.  So, instead, I flew into Providence, RI, about a 2.5 hour drive from her home. 

I became fascinated with Providence because I’d been watching the TV show, Providence, and really related to the character Dr. Sydney Hansen, who was back living at home after a failed relationship (I had lived with my mom for about a year after filing for divorce in 1998), and she struggled, just like me, to find her place in the world again. Providence (the city) had just undergone a major economic revitalization, and I wanted to walk the canals in downtown Providence where Sydney walked. 

So, Jacque agreed to meet me there and pick me up.  We walked all around downtown and on the riverfront, ate lunch and had a really great time.  It was getting late (around 4 PM) and since we had almost a 3 hour drive ahead of us, wanted to get on the road to her house. 

As we started walking to her car, we both suddenly realized that we were having such a good time talking when we parked the car that we had paid no attention to where we were when we parked the car, and now neither of us had any idea where we parked! I can laugh hysterically about this now, but it was frustrating as hell at the time..LOL.  And, we couldn’t even call the police for help, because that would have been just too humiliating!  So, we walked around for an hour, trying to retrace our steps, and finally began to recognize some scenery and then located our car about 30 minutes later.  Where’s a good GPS system when you need one??? LOL

OK, now it’s your turn..:)