About Me

I am quite sure that you are bored of reading "about me" pages.  I am tired of writing paragraphs about myself.  Instead, here are some random things, all true, that might actually be interesting:

  1. I have lived in seven states in the western United States.
  2. I went to four grade schools, one junior high and seven high schools.  Why?  My father had wanderlust.
  3. I think there is a lot to learn from the unconventional women listed in the first chapter of Matthew.  Still, I am pretty conventional.
  4. My favorite books are JANE EYRE, PERSUASION and GONE WITH THE WIND.
  5. I quite often feel the emotions of people around me so strongly, they drown out my own.
  6. I first met my husband when I was three and he was ten.
  7. I am the tallest of all my female relatives.
  8. I have only ever left the United States in my imagination, and often.
  9. I am not a great conversationalist and often worry later about something awkward I may have said.
  10. I am more confident in my ability to write a 100,000-word novel than to write a personal message on a greeting card.
  11. It is almost impossible for me to cry in front of other people.
  12. When I feel vulnerable, I shiver.
  13. I don't generally like to cook, but I like making soup.
  14. I think it is impossible to love God unless you try and get to know Him.
  15. I went to preschool with Charles Bronson's daughter while he was in Idaho filming "Breakheart Pass."  I have never seen that movie.
  16. Rain cheers me up.
  17. I once had a dog named Alfie and, later, a cat named Marvin Elliott.
  18. My ancestors have been on this continent for almost 400 years.  I am thoroughly American.
  19. I caught a foul ball at a Diamondbacks game once, without even standing up.
  20. When I was a little girl, we lived in a very old house that had a ghost we called Fred.

Popular posts from this blog

Truth Lies & Everything in Between: A Propaganda Almanac

Image
When I was in third grade, a family of Vietnamese refugees moved to the small Eastern Washington town where we lived at the time. The family was large and included two school-aged boys, Wa and Him, who started going to our school. Wa was in my class and I wanted to make them all feel welcome, so one day after school, my sister and I walked to their house and knocked on the door. Wa’s family welcomed us inside and gave us watered down Coke to drink. None of them spoke English, but they smiled and nodded at us while we drank our Coke. I don’t remember much else about the experience except that my feelings were all positive, they were super nice and I was glad that our little town had taken in refugees from a war-torn part of the world. I tell this story to remind you of who I am. To soften you for what I am about to say next. Because I STILL want to accept refugees from war-torn parts of the world and from our neighboring countries to the south. My heart bleeds for people despe...
Read more

Dear Hiring Manager: Here's Why you Should Hire that Candidate with Autism

Image
Dear Hiring Manager: This is  Autism Awareness Month , and one of the areas where "awareness" is most lacking is probably in your human resources department. If you have spent any time at all interviewing candidates for positions at your company, you have encountered some with autism. You might have seen them come and go without even knowing that AUTISM was the reason they talked a little different, struggled with their words or failed to look you in the eye. Why am I so sure you have already interviewed someone with autism? Because roughly one percent of the population has autism . Most of those, you probably rejected immediately. In fact, employment rates for people with autism -- even autistic  college graduates -- is discouragingly  low . Lower than those in any other disabled group.   And yet, research also shows that people on the autism spectrum make great employees . They are honest, dedicated and punctual. In addition, many autistic people have...
Read more

Dreaming of Neverland

Image
J.M. Barrie's PETER PAN**   E very once in a while, I wake from a dream and remember the strange place I have been visiting.  It is only familiar in those vaporous moments between sleep and wakefulness.  A peculiar house is there with white peeling paint, a spiral staircase that leads up to a room with walls made of glass, and views of the island in every direction.  I remember in that moment that I have been there before.  I remember Neverland. If I were still a child, I would know better than to rub the sleep from my eyes.  It breaks the magic of memory.  The only way to return (if only in my dreams) is after a childlike day – perhaps spent at Disneyland, wearing mouse ears and eating cotton candy – or building living room forts with my children.  It absolutely cannot return unless licorice has been consumed and something odd has been worn as a hat.  But grownups like me forget the important things so easily.  We ...
Read more