Honestly this week’s measly two days have felt like an eternity. Phew…is tomorrow the hump day for real? Someone commented that you could fit the entire year into the last couple of weeks and I wholeheartedly agree.
The Russian Queen of Gratitude, the Thanksgiving Girl whose blog I enjoy greatly, tagged me in a “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Me” sort of thing. Here’s a short scoop on some random tidbits about Gropius:
1. I wish I had Patsy Cline’s voice. (Pre- mortem)
2. I’ve always been fascinated with snakes and have had Corn Snakes, Eastern King Snakes, Florida Kings Snakes & others for pets…along with a pet tarantula.
3. I love to buy clothes. And jewelry. But not typical jewelry. Diamonds and gold mean little to me.
4. My favorite day was my wedding day: all of my friends and family in one place at the same time, all with the same sentiments of joy, festivity and happiness. That’s a great feeling.
5. Nature is what holds me together: I am forever fascinated and in love with the beauty of leaves, insects, breezes, bark and cloud formations.
6. I think a lot about reincarnation and past lives.
7. I moved to Florida when I was a senior in high school and the departure from life as I knew it at such a sensitive time broke my heart. But here I am. Still. It grows on you.
8. My fingernails have always sucked and I could care less.
9. I still don't understand what's so exotic about red hair and freckles but they've plagued me all my life.
10. Making a difference in the lives of others is really important to me. I am constantly trying to weigh the impact I’ve had—or could have had—or didn’t have on people who are in the sphere of my life.
So here’s the fun part. I’m going to tag a few of you and hope you’ll play. If you don’t, you’re still on my good list. So how about it, Pines Lakes Redhead, Water Witches’ Daughter, Nurse Myra, Ken Brennen, Picture Imperfect, Jessica, Diane, Uncommon Blonde, Maureen and Blue Violet? I'd love to hear a few factual finds about your inner workings, gleaful glitches or otherwise interesting "you" trivia.
Thanks for the shout out, Julia! Your posts have been an excellent reminder to me that gratitude should rule my daily world.
16 comments:
I love you despite #2 and I can totally relate to #9.
Snakes? I was born in the year of the snakes but I have this total uncurable fear of snakes. I'm scared even o earthworms.
Snakes and tarantulas?? Scary.
My fingernails suck too. No matter what I do. Or don't do.
I moved the day after I graduated HS; probably not as bad, but it really sucked. And when I'd come home from college, I knew no one in the new place.
I seriously don't think I could come up with 10 things no one knows. I probably say too much too often...
Great post! A very fun glimpse into your life! :-)
Gropius! I learned a lot of interesting things about you here!
Wasn't Patsy Cline incredible? Her voice gives me goosebumps!
Thanks for the tag! I think I might just go and start with this one now. :o)
More about me than you wanted to know but you asked for it and now it's too late to stop me.
1. Bill Cosby and I were classmates at Temple U. in the days when we were both unknowns.
2. I feel like I can communicate with most dogs on their own terms.
3. I can't stand having any kind of jewelry touching my skin.
4. I have a collection of very nice rings left to me as remembrances by deceased relatives that I really liked and I feel guilty about not wearing them.
5. MUSIC IN MY SOUL? I really wanted to learn the trombone in 6th grade but it just led to three months of self-humiliation. I still think it's a cool instrument.
6. MUSIC IN MY SOUL? Directors of two different choruses have told me "You stand there and mouth the words but for God's sake don't sing."
7. I lived in New York City (Manhattan) for four years and thoroughly enjoyed it.
8.A colleague and I were the first people ever to take the electrocardiogram of a large whale in the wild. (Part of a cardiology research project, since you asked "Why would he?".)
9. I keep trying things I'm not very good at just for the experience.
10. I was asked to resign from a men's golf league after I was cajoled into joining by a bunch of guys telling me "It's just for fun. We don't take it seriously."
11. I once held a men's low average bowling trophy and a mens high average golf trophy - simultaneously!
12. I can laugh at myself and often do. It irritates the hell out of those who take insignificant activities, like bowling and golf, seriously.
13. My handwriting and drawing ability are at least as good as my bowling prowess.
14. I had far more days of camping out than anyone else in my Scout group. By highschool graduation I figured I had about three months of time living in a tent and I loved it all.
15. I haven't a clue about dating. Two marriages and a few other relationships with women grew out of on-going acquaintances.
16. I built a really big worm box in our basement for composting kitchen scraps.
17. The fact that I don't smile much doesn't mean that I'm not happy, even joyous at times.
18. In 2005, six years after retirement, I learned that I'm somewhat autistic (Asperger's Syndrome) even though I have a
PhD and do fairly well in written communications.
19. Numbers 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, and the last two parts of 18 are somewhat typical of a person on the Aspergers spectrum of developmental disabilities.
No wonder I made it big in the comic strip world. Well, as we used to say there,
Notary sojac my friend!
Smokey Stover
I think I've done this meme before so there's not much more I can reveal about myself that I haven't already...... can probably manage about 5
1. I have a half brother and half sister in New Zealand who don't even know of my existence
2. I have a pale brown birthmark on the right cheek of my bottom
3. I'm a really good cook but hardly ever make the same dish twice
4. When I was 22 I worked as a topless waitress in a wine bar for 4 months
5. My youngest son has the longest eyelashes in Australia
The Russian Queen of Gratitude!!!! This sounds so good on my ears, I could get used to this LOL JK! Thank you dear!! :)))
I've always been fascinates with snakes too! I never had one as a pet, but whenever I see a snake available for photos on the streets I always come up and ask if I can touch them lol Looove touching snakes! Their skins feel so different depending on teh weather and air temperature... Good about number 5! I have soem things in mind to be thankful for and some of the posts would come with pretty pictures :) Love #6 and 10 too.
1. Here’s a news flash, being a tenor…I HAVE Patsy Cline’s voice.
2. Hey snakes are…someone else’s pets…works for me.
3. Clothes are a commodity item to me. Shopping is like having dental work, which is probably why I look as I do. I am, reasonably, thrilled if anyone reading this would like to underwrite my wife’s shopping for me.
4. I’ve had three pretty great days: The day my oldest daughter, born very premature and fragile, came home from the hospital. Days two and three…birth of daughters two and three.
5. The chance to make a meaningful difference gets me through each day. (Doesn’t make me rich…but makes me feel good about the life I live…)
6. Don’t think much about reincarnation and past lives. Worried that I am going to end up learning to like warmer weather for eternity unless I clean up my act.
7. Florida is like Spanish Moss…what the heck is it and why is it here…but it is really unique no matter what.
8. I didn’t know I HAD fingernails. Do any guys think about this?
9. Being bald, fat and old…I would be happy to have green curly hair and buttons and would delight at the attention it brought me!
10. And finally…can’t make this one any better than you did…
Nice job Gropy…
Sure, I'll play. Not as interesting as you though! Snakes and tarantulas...those are the things in my nightmares. No fingernails here either. Making a difference is a wonderful thing to strive for.
You already know everything about me, Gropy! I'm an open book. But oh well, it's cold outside and I'm too lazy to do all the things I should be doing right now, so...
1. I always, always read Craig's List in cities where I wish I could live, looking for jobs. Sad fantasy for someone approaching retirement age fast!
2. I used to love ladybugs but I never see them around here. Their perfectly designed, tiny bodies give me the same joy I felt watching the beautifully realized animation in the movie, "Up": a feeling of wonder that's somehow poignant and wistful and fleeting.
3. I've never planned much of anything in my life. I always fell into things like college and marriage and jobs and children. I keep thinking I'll make a plan any day now...but nah.
4. I love to buy jewelry and shoes. But I never like my body enough to enjoy clothes shopping. Like Cathy in the comic strip, I'm forever in the dressing room trying on clothes and feeling like a fashion misfit.
5. Patsy Cline is one of the very few country singers I can enjoy. She had some really great songs, alright.
6. My favorite day hasn't happened yet. But I'm very lucky to be married to someone who keeps trying to create one for me.
7. Sometimes I think it would be magical to hole up in a log cabin in a beautiful woods and write, just as Dominic Dunne did after he fled his life in L.A. But I don't want to end up twisted like the Unibomber!
8. I'm a pop culture junkie with a bad, bad habit.
9. I need to be more grateful and Zen about my life and the people in it.
10. Raising children who are good, kind and compassionate human beings is very important to me.
Lovely insights. Have always been partial to redheads but never hooked up with one. I really like snakes, find them fascinating, but I'm not fond at all of the eighter-leggeders. I like those happy festive times with everyone all together. My 30th birthday night was one of those more recent such occasions.
Found you from Suzicate's blog! Good to know I get a head start getting a first hand impression on you. I like your header.. we all get annoyed at something..
I never really thought that someone with red hair wouldn't find it as appealing as those of us without. But then again, we all wish we had what we don't. I wouldn't change my hair color, but I'd sure change the texture, thickness, etc.
My fingernails are horrid. I just clip them until they're not really showing at all. It's not attractive but whatever. I do try to paint my toes though (or hide them.)
I was tagged a couple times for a 7 things post so this will will work itself into it nicely. I'm slow to do these things, I warn you, but I will do it...as long as you keep your snakes away from me!
"Diamonds and gold mean little to me" ... and then I knew we could never be best friends. LOL just kidding, it was actually when I read the part about the snakes ;)
Ok, I'll try to play. I don't know if I can come up with 10 new things, I'm an open book!
My favorite day is today, as it is every day. This is the longest I've ever lived, out of all my lives. Most of them were short and brutal and ended violently. I know I'm living on borrowed time, and I'm thankful for it.
Why do you think about the effect you have on others? It's probably a lot greater than you suspect.
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