I’ve been spending the last few days cleaning up my computer.  Through an “accident,” I ended up with two user accounts on my computer.  I decided to utilize this accident, and add a third account to compartmentalize all my interests.  So I have “business,” “photography,” and “writing” sections on my computer.  While I was moving things around from section to section, I found this and found it pretty entertaining.  I’ll work on posting the second half another day.

1. I was born in a Texas town that celebrated its 200th birthday long before the United States Bicentennial.
2. I love the color blue in all its various shades.
3. I lived in the Virgin Islands for almost 15 months when I was in high school.
4. The two times I’ve flown to Pennsylvania, my flight has been cancelled and I’ve been stranded there.
5. I learned calligraphy when I was in high school.
6. I drove the teacher to distraction because I sat Indian-style in the chair.  She emphasized good posture to achieve the best results.
7. She was distracted because I proved her wrong by being a very good calligrapher.
8. I hate the humidity of the part of Texas where I live.
9. I’d like to live somewhere that enjoyed four seasons, but it will have to be within the Texas state lines.
10. I have a large freckle to the right (my right) side of my nose.  In junior high, I took a modeling class through J.C. Penney’s, and the teacher thought it was a bit of foundation that I hadn’t blended in properly.
11. I fancied myself a writer when I was younger.  My first “work” was a pitiful little story about the Bishop’s Palace in Galveston.
12. I won an honorable mention in the Houston Post Scholastic Writing Awards competition in 8th grade.
13. Lynn Ashby presented the awards and I got his autograph.
14. I won third place in the same contest my senior year in high school.
15. Leon Hale presented the awards and I got his autograph, too.
16. I learned to scuba dive when I was 15 years old.
17. Diving over the Cane Bay Wall in St. Croix, I almost gave my dad a heart attack when he saw my regulator float out of my mouth as we swam along.  I grabbed it, cleared it, and kept on going.
18. I find scuba diving very relaxing (and thus have to concentrate on not letting that regulator float out of my mouth…)
19. The deepest I’ve ever dove was 80 feet off the Cane Bay Wall, which drops to more than 2,000 feet from the surface.
20. St. Croix is probably the one place that I would consider living, outside of Texas.
21. I took Creative Writing my junior and senior years in high school.
22. The second time I took it was when my physics teacher advised me to drop his class.  I ran to the counselor’s office to return to my favorite class.
23. I was the editor of the literary magazine that year.
24. I had a ridiculous crush on the same boy from 8th grade through my freshman year in college.  Thank God for unanswered prayers.
25. When I was a child, I had a play house with real glass windows.  Three of us were playing together and two of us ran in and locked the door.  My friend tapped on the window with a stick right when the other child pressed his face against the glass.  The window broke and cut his forehead.  I thought it was my fault.
26. I also had a Schwinn bike with a banana seat and tall handlebars.  The same friend who busted the window in the playhouse gave her sister a ride on my bike.  The sister caught her toe in the spokes, cutting it badly.  I thought that was my fault, too.
27. I planned to be a school teacher until I realized that I would probably end up in prison for hurting someone’s “baby” for misbehaving.
28. I’ve been to Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington State, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico, plus British Columbia.  Granted, I only changed planes in Florida, North Carolina, and Oregon, and I touched my toes in Illinois and Kentucky on a driving trip, but I have been there!
29. I love photography.
30. I have five cameras that were purchased specifically for me.
31. I also have a 1980 Olympic commemorative Canon 35mm that belonged to my grandfather.
32. I enjoy scrapbooking, but have a difficult time finding time to do it.
33. I used to teach scrapbooking classes.
34. I would like to start cross stitching more.  I used to cross stitch a lot, but haven’t in a while.
35. I was a perpetual student in college.  From August 1982 to graduation August 1986, I only sat out one summer session to go on a family trip.
36. I earned my Associates Degree in 2 years — 62 credits were required, but I graduated with 83 credits.
37. I transferred to Sam Houston State University and earned my B.A. (English major/History minor) in 2 more years.
38. One of my great great grandfathers was named in honor of Robert E. Lee.  His first name was “Jeneral” and his middle name was “Lee”.  My middle name is Lee, too.
39. I met my husband on the phone, initially.  Several weeks later I met him in a bar when I went dancing with some friends.  I didn’t make the connection between the person I spoke to briefly on the phone and the person I met in the bar until we’d been dating several weeks.
40. We dated two years and broke up.
41. After four years apart, our paths crossed again and we married eleven months later.
42. I am glad our paths crossed again.
43. My first job out of college was working as a circulation supervisor for Texas A&M at Galveston’s library.
44. They did not charge late fees on overdue books and the stack of missing books was ridiculous.  I put a hold on all the records of those students with overdue books.  The graduating seniors hated me!
45. I retrieved approximately 2/3 of the missing books and collected payment for the books that were never found.
46. My then boyfriend (now husband) nicknamed me “Conan the Librarian”.
47. After six months, I changed jobs and spent two years working in the rare book and archives collection of The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
48. Then I got a REAL job.  I became a legal secretary for one of the big three law firms in Houston and made good money.
49. And realized quickly that money isn’t everything.
50. When my husband and I had been married for four years, our daughter was born and I quit my job when she turned one year old.