The things you did fine not knowing...

Lori, weeks ago now, tagged me for the ten little known (and hopefully interesting) facts about me meme. I guess now is as good a time as any to give it a shot. That I procrastinate doesn't count, obviously (and I believe I already fessed up to that one).

1. My accent fades in and out approximately proportionally to how much I have been speaking the Old Country Language lately. Since I got to the camp this year mere three days after getting back to the States, it wasn't particularly surprising that I couldn't get the "w" sound right almost for the duration. Nobody could understand it when I said "wall."

2. I met my husband when I was ten and he was twelve and we were in the same chess club. I don't remember much about him in the first two years that we knew each other, but when I was about twelve, I developed a major crush on him. We didn't start dating until I was 18, many moons and an ocean later. I had to give up on him in the interim, but it didn't take much for me to reconsider.

3. I went to undergrad and grad school at the same place. Also, except for a summer job after my freshman year and the small stipend paid to me by the camp, I have not been employed by any entity other than that same college since I started there fifteen years ago. We call that "being a lifer," but I am pretty sure that part of my life will be over in another month.

4. My first job in the States was at a Burger King. McD's was next door, and those who got fired at the place I worked went over there. Sometimes we would get together with them on our breaks and they would tell us how crappy things were at their new place of employment. To this day, I try to avoid eating at any fast food places, but especially at branches of that establishment that was next door.

5. I was also a page at a library, and had to, on occasion, shelve romance novels. Having read too many jackets as I was doing it, I can't even contemplate reading one of those for real.

6. My mom says that one of the funnest parts of having the second child for her was seeing her first (that would be me) be amazed and delighted by the second (that would be my lovely sister Adelynne). I loved being a big sister, and wanted a longish break between my first and second, to allow my oldest (that would be Monkey) to be aware and helpful as a big sister. Of course, that meant that Monkey was fully cognizant of her brother's death. I believe they call that "blowback."

7. JD graduated with honors from the Old Country version of Stuyvesant. I went to the same school until I left for the US. Out of JD's homeroom class of 30 or so, five are in our City, and many more are in the US. Only one of my classmates is in our City. The group of friends that formed, like an ice crystal seeded by JD's school friends, is a close one. We rent a house for a week each winter to go skiing, and we started doing a similar thing for a week in the summer, although attendance at that is spottier. Our kids in many cases are closer to each other than to their respective cousins. It's mindblowing to look at our old pictures from the skiing trips and realize how long we have been at it. It is even weirder that the oldest kids are now skiing with us. Although "us" is certainly relative. I missed last season, and, with any luck, will miss the next one. I am looking forward to our summer thing in a month.

8. I once broke eight ribs when I met a tree on a ski slope. My friends showed up at the hospital to say that I was lucky the Chinese food place across the street didn't take credit cards, because they were planning on ordering spare ribs to be delivered to my room every hour. Do you know how painful it is to laugh when your ribs are broken? Do you know how happy I was to see them? When our friends showed up at the house after A died, one or two at a time, there were less jokes and more food, and for me, the wonder of having all these people there for us.

9. I am an excellent cook. I don't mind cooking for large parties because I came into my own as a cook while living in a dorm community where (among other things) we cooked and ate dinner together. A lot of my recipes are still written for 25+ and require scaling back when cooked just for the family. As a housekeeper, though, I am lousy.

10. One feature of our house that makes me think we will eventually move is the smallish dining room. We can only comfortably sit 12-14. I need to be able to sit at least 20, and maybe more. A house with an open floor plan seems to be the answer. Ours kinda is, but not really. I have crazy ideas like moving the outside wall instead, but something tells me that won't be happening.

Whew! Turns out ten is a lot of things to come up with. I am tagging Sara and Aurelia for this.