Seven Things: Homework from Ink

I hope you accept late work, Ink! But really, I've been SO busy, and my car died . . . er, I mean my computer died, oh, and I had a lot of other homework, and, um, what was the assignment again?

Oh, yeah. Seven things I haven't mentioned before on my blog. Here we go:

1. Although I have mentioned this over at Acadamnit’s place, I’m not sure I have fessed up here. I was a cheerleader in high school. I cheered freshman and sophomore years and made varsity my junior year, but I didn’t try out for my senior year. I decided to skip it so that I could party with my friends. They were tired of waiting for me to finish games before we headed out to whatever unwise activity we had planned. They did wait, since I was often the DD, but they were tired of it. And I was tired of the cheerleading drama. But I could do a mean herky, and I really loved choreographing and performing competitive routines.

2. I was often the DD in high school because I am allergic to marijuana. Like, totally allergic. I get sick as a dog from even the tiniest bit. Barfing sick. Can hardly move sick. If I ever get cancer and need something to increase my appetite and decrease my nausea, I’m not sure what I’ll do. In grad school, I tried it again to see if I had “grown out of” the allergy. Nope. It’s like a bee sting allergy. It actually gets worse at each exposure. I think I’ve only met one other person (that I know of) with this allergy.

3. In addition to my English degrees, I have a M.Ed. in Counselor Education with a specialization in College Student Development. After earning that degree, I ran a residence hall (of 600 students) for three years. I wisely changed careers so that I could work with students in the classroom, rather than working with students who are drinking, vandalizing, fighting, and even (once) dying. Not that those things can’t happen in the classroom, but they don’t’ happen on a weekly (or daily) basis.

4. Have I mentioned this before? In high school, I was a rocker. My first concert was Van Halen 1984. I saw Motley Crue twice (or was it three times?). I saw Bon Jovi (with Cinderella) twice. I saw White Snake (when they opened for Quiet Riot). I saw KISS twice. I had giant hair and wore a lot of zebra print. But I also got good grades (which was a secret).

5. My senior year of college, I had Susan Gubar as a professor. It was a Feminist Literary Theory course, and she was fantastic. The same semester, I was also volunteering for the Rape Crisis Center and minoring in Women’s Studies. You can see (if you look back at #4) the ways in which I changed during college.

6. Maybe I have talked about this before, not sure, but, for a while, several years ago, I surfed every day. I have never been much of an athlete (my version of cheerleading was not very athletic since I wasn’t a gymnast), but I loved surfing and was decent for someone who didn’t learn until her late 20s. I was in the best shape of my life. And I felt cool. Actually, I was cool. Once, I got barreled, and it was awesome. I haven’t surfed since my second child was born (it’s hard to have two surfers in the family, and it’s very hard for women to be “weekend warriors” when it comes to surfing—what with the need to maintain upper body strength. Therefore, hubby is our designated surfer.). Still one of these summers (the waves are small is summer), I’m hoping to get back out there.

7. I have written some songs on my guitar. One is called “Boobs Not Included.”

And now I'm passing this homework onto a few other bloggers in my own private (or, um, public) blog world. But no pressure! But I will do herkies for each of you who do it.

The Thirty-Something Bride (who might not respond because she's in Chickety China)
Contemporary Troubadour
Gaga's Journey
Bavardess
StudentMum
LovesKidsLit
WeinerDogTricks

(I would also pick Dr. No of Acadamnit, but I know zie is hibernating in hir sabBATical cave. That's okay. I'll take late work.)