FOR APRIL

This post is dedicated April over at Clandestine & Candour. It seems that, during my blogging break, April lost and found her original blog at Coffee Crazy Knitters. April is also the genius behind the Knit2BTied podcast - check it out if you haven't already. Sadly, April is taking a break from podcasting but is following her dreams in other areas so, three cheers for April!

Anyway, back in DECEMBER 2006, April tagged me for a '6 Weird Things About Me' meme and I still have not done it! My apologies, April. Recently, Renee also got tagged for the same meme and it reminded me about April's tag. I'll blame my tardiness on pregnancy hormones making me forgetful (can't wait to hear my excuse once the baby is born but I assume it will be something like 'late due to sleep deprivation induced coma'...).

6 Weird Things About Me:

1. I pick up things off the floor with my toes. Yes, strange but true. However, I'm finding that, as my belly gets bigger, this is one weird thing with great potential. It saves bending over and maintains a certain amount of flexibility. I also know of at least one other friend that does this so maybe this behaviour isn't that weird. Then again, it could be an indication that I also have weird friends...
2. I love children's books. For years, I've used my godchildren or other friend or relative's child as an excuse to head to the children's book section but, I have to be honest. Nine times out of ten, I'm going for myself. I love all kinds of children's books: picture books , chapter books, you name it. I think children's book illustrators are some of the most creative types of artists in the world! I am developing quite the children's book collection. It remains to be seen if I will 'share' with my own child or just create their own little library in an attempt to keep mine intact (thus putting my shelf of books over 36" off the floor!). My dream job would be to become a children's author.
3. I'm not crazy about the taste of alcohol. I might have a tablespoon of Bailey's once a year, or one cooler on ocasion but, normally, I don't have a drop. People must have a certain perception about Newfoundland and Labradorians because, when offered a drink and refusing, I often get funny looks. I just don't like the after taste of alcohol. Give me a non-alcoholic daiquiri any day! When we learned we were being posted to Germany for four years, DH thought "Good! With all the great wine in Germany, we'll turn her into a wine drinker for sure!." Nope. Didn't happen. On the upside, DH always has a designated driver (DD) and my DD experiences have allowed and taught me how to drive a standard/stick shift (something I think ALL people should be able to do as a safety precaution!) and to also drive some pretty nifty vehicles.
4. After thirteen years of living together, DH and I have just launched into the next phase of our electronic lives with the purchase of a television. Yup. Thirteen years without one. And, because DH did the shopping, it's a very large one (50" LCD projection) with lots of home theatre system parts. NEVER send a computer and electronic engineer into The Future Shop with free reign! It's a little scary and I'm concerned about the slippery slope we may now be on (and worry about my arse geting wider is only the start). DH and I love to watch movies and, up until about a year ago, were pretty content to sit with the laptop on a chair in front of us in the living room and watch the little 12" screen. However, we'd both been getting frustrated by the sound quality (what else can you expect from laptop speakers?) and, with a baby coming, I was a little concerned about the social implications of not having a television for a kindergardener. I don't mind being weird and missing out on some conversations about exciting commercials and reality TV shows but maybe my child won't like the idea. So, we have a television. For movies. We are still not hooked up to 'real' TV although I hear the NHL playoffs are coming and DH is a hockey fan...
5. I'm allergic to the sun and too much heat. For those who have been around me in high humidity and/or heat, they would likely argue that I'm a bear in those conditions! When we moved to Ontario, our two biggest needs for a house were 1) a fenced back yard for the dog and 2) air conditioning to ensure the continuation of our marriage. I'm that bad. Come May or whenever the heat hits Ottawa, I turn into a vampire and only come out at night. Part of the problem is that the combination of the sun mixed with my sweat creates a heat rash like no other. I won't go into the gory details but to say that the discomfort of it has almost driven me stark raving mad would come close to describing the experience. And, once I have a flare up, I'm like it for weeks. Unfortunately, it carries over to the winter too. I can't sit too close to the fireplace or I will get a heat rash from that! Similarily, I have to watch how many covers I put on the bed or under a cuddle quilt on the couch just in case my legs get overheated. Hey, you wanted weird!
6. Although I'm an avid swimmer, a lifeguard and a swimming instructor, I hate getting my face wet when I'm in the shower or taking a bath. I'll even stick my head out and wipe my face off if water trickles down my face from my wet hair. I cannot understand these soap commercials on television where the person in the shower is face on to and directly in or udner the spray of water (apart from the fact that the camera person is trying to hide the model's 'bit's' for family viewing so maybe the poor model has to go face first into the spray. You couldn't pay me enough to do that job).

It took me days to come up with this list! Isn't that weird? I could go on and on with this list but I needed time to make the best weirdness choices for sharing! Now that I've bared my soul, I'm going back to knitting...