154.2 - 5 Things About Me

I got tagged with a meme at the end of May by Monica at Run, Eat, Repeat and am just now getting around to it. I pretty much bare my soul here, so it was hard to come up with 5 things you all don't already know about me.

RULES:
(1) Link your tagger(s) and post these rules
(2) Share 5 unknown Facts about yourself
(3) Pay it forward! Link 5 more bloggers and include their names in your post
(4) Leave them a comment on their blog and let them know that they've been tagged

Here are my 5:
1) My first car was a 1972 2-door Chevelle Malibu. We called it The Green Bomb. It had green vinyl interior and a green paint job (my dad had it repainted for me, so at least it was a shiny new green). It had a big bench seat in the front, and brakes that I had to push the pedal hard all the way to the floor when I had to stop quickly. It's no wonder I still have dreams about not being able to stop my car. It was in two accidents during the year I drove it, from 1986 to 1987. The first time, I got rear ended as I was sitting at a stop light after leaving school; it just wrecked my bumper though and was repairable. The second time, I ran a stop sign and got t-boned, and that totalled it. I didn't really like the car--it was too green and too old--but I despised the one my folks gave me next. A 4-door 1980-something Caprice Classic. That sucker was huge and downright fugly. But at least I had a car.

2) Continuing the car theme, I won't drive anything but a stick shift any more. Back in the mid-90's, I got a used Toyota Paseo 5 speed, and fell in love with the stick. I'd never driven a manual transmission before, but after I learned how to drive it I wanted nothing else. After it got totalled (it was in 2 wrecks, too, and the 2nd one--neither was my fault!--wiped it out), my next car was a 2-door Honda Civic 5 speed. If I could, I'd only drive small little 5 speeds because I love the way they handle and you can park anywhere and turn on a dime, plus they get great gas mileage. Since I gotta have room for the kiddos, though, I now drive the next best thing--a 5 speed Saturn VUE. As far as I know they don't make 5 speed Minivans, so unfortunately I'll never be able to own one of those comfy vehicles because I won't drive an automatic.

3) I was valedictorian of my graduating class in 1988. Because they were recruiting "smart kids" to stay local, the University of Southern Indiana gave me a full ride scholarship (room & board included). But it took me 5 and 1/2 years to get a BA in English/Lit. Only 4 of the years were paid for, of course. I blew off one semester after getting half way through it (personal issues that seemed insurmountable at the time), and I changed my major my senior year because I decided I did not want to teach high school English after I started doing the practical classroom stuff.

4) In the late 90s I worked for our Public Television station as the major gifts fundraising manager. What I loved most about the job was when we had TV pledge drives and I got to be on TV. I was surprised at how much I liked being in front of the camera. I was totally relaxed, could speak off the cuff with relative ease (although the first time I was on, my husband called in after we were done and told me I had to stop saying "wonderful" every other word..."We have a wonderful premium gift, if you would support our wonderful programming, blah blah blah." It's still an old joke between us). The director for that night's pledge drive came down and told me he'd never seen anyone do so well on their first time out. I should note that I weighed about 30 pounds more than I do now, but I didn't let it affect my performance, apparently.

5) I am a lipgloss/chapstick/lipstick junkie. I can't go longer than an hour without putting something on my lips. I have lipgloss everywhere--on the side table in the family room, in my kitchen basket by the sink, in my bathroom, in my bedside table. I have 4 in my desk at work. And I have 3 lipglosses in my easily accesible purse pocket, and 3 or 4 in my makeup bag in my purse. I used to keep a chapstick in my car dashboard holder before the heat melted it. My favorite chapstick is Blistex Silk & Shine. I love Smith's Rosebud Salve, which I found in California the first time I visited a Sephora. And Estee Lauder makes my favorite lipglosses, which I have in coral and berry. I'm also infecting my daughter with this love of gloss--we went to the mall last week and she got 3 glosses from Victoria's Secret and 1 from Bath & Bodyworks. She carries them around in her little purse and has to put some on every day before day camp.

I'm going to tag the first 5 people who commented on my last post, so it's a random decision on who I tag:
Jill
Carly
MCM Mama
Helen
Heather

Carly tagged me for a running meme, so it will be up before long.