8 things about MWAM

My cohort, Laura, over at This Is What I Do tagged me to a tell 8 things about myself. Ugh. I don't like these things. I can never think of anything interesting.

1. My college internship was at a feedlot. Exciting, huh? Before you get the image of me riding horseback and wearing chaps I should tell you that my degree was in accounting. I worked in the trailer house/business office. I paid the bills and helped keep the "medical" records for over 50,000 of our four legged friends. Yes, that was enlightening. I got to keep track of what shots each cows received and how many grew sick. (Jeez, that statement now means more to me than it did back then!) Truthfully I am surprised that I can still eat meat! Did you know that a cow can eat itself to death! Thank God, I'm not a cow.

2. I played competitive softball all through high school. I loved the competition. Sports really do teach us a lot about people and life. Our rival team started rumors that our softball coach was a lesbian (they used a less politically correct term). Our coach was a single woman who had played collegiate softball. I felt that they were just being nasty and perpetuating the stereotype. I was angry that a silly game would give them the right to pass judgment and talk trash about someone else. After graduation, one of my teammates moved to Texas with our coach. To tell the truth, I pretty much knew about my coach. I was blown away by my teammate. To each his own (although the whole coach/student thing kind of bothers me still) . Last I heard they were still together.

3. Like Laura at This is What I Do, I was also on my elementary school safety patrol. This was rather hysterical. You see I am very short. I remember being made fun of during my 6th grade year because there were (several) 1st graders that were taller than me. I am now 5'2". I swear I am!

4. I had C-sections with both of my boys. JP was 8lbs 12 oz and T was 9lbs. As I mentioned before I am 5'3". Those boys were not going anywhere. I am convinced that if I had to birth them a century ago they would have never came out. Then I would be 5'4" across as well as 5'5" tall.

5. While in college my father tried to grill himself. It is a long story. Let's just say that he "fell asleep" leaning up against one of those old fashioned heaters in his house. It was winter and he had had to walk home in the snow. He leaned up against the heater to warm up and "fell asleep". When he woke up he got in the shower to "cool off" and discovered his skin was still stuck to the heater. He spent several weeks in a burn unit. He is doing fine now but his back is now made of pig skin.

6. I have two half sisters. They are 10 and 12 years older than me. We share the same dad. I have always longed to share a sisterhood with them. J, the one 10 years older, and I are doing pretty well keeping each other in our lives. She lives in my hometown. D, the one 12 years older is another story. She and I went 8 years without talking until she developed cancer. I reached out to her. Fortunately, she is now better. About 3 years ago she just dropped off of the face of the earth again. We didn't have a falling out. She just never returned my communications. I continue to send her a Christmas card. She has never met T. She has never acknowledged his birth or JP's diagnosis. She lives a couple miles away from me here in the big city.

7. I have a boys name. Well, I have met other girls with my name but there are very few of us. In fact, when I was getting my transcripts together for college applications I discovered that my school district (where I had attended since Kindergarten) had my gender filled out as "male". Of course, the transcripts showed "Girls PE".

8. My husband and I have interchangeable names. His is a name that is acceptable for either males or females. However when paired with my name the standard assumption is that DWAM is the she and I am the he. This makes it very easy when we answer the phone. We can pick out the telemarketers by the ones that assume the wrong name.

Well, I'm not sure who or how many I am supposed to tag. I know it breaks the link and ruins the game but I'm just going to leave it as an open invitation. Anyone who feels up to the challenge should consider themselves tagged!