Opening Up

Last night I received a called from my friend Christine, whom I've known for over a decade. We first got to know each other in the church nursery where we spent many hours talking about life while looking after little ones. She has encouraged me through years of highs and lows. She was my first follower on Classical Quest. I'm pretty sure she's read nearly every post.

Half the stuff on the following list are things about me Christine did not know:

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT ME

Adriana of Classical Quest.

In 2nd grade I was reprimanded for reading Charlotte's Web during Math class.

In 3rd grade I was screamed at during gym class for daydreaming when I was supposed to be guarding the soccer goal.

In 5th grade a teacher found one of my poems on the floor. She sent me straight to the principal's office. I thought I was in trouble! But instead I got to read my poem to the whole school. 

In 6th grade I was bullied in the school bathroom. Three girls banged my head into a porcelain sink while my closest childhood friend watched.

At age twelve I made a list of goals. Most of the things on that list have now come true.

At fourteen I started working at an Italian food commissary where I was trained to mix spices for secret recipes.

At fifteen I learned to water ski on the third most beautiful lake in the world.

I turned seventeen on a ship on the Moskva River in Russia.

Inside the Kremlin, I was sternly scolded for leaning on a czar's coffin.

I subscribed to Martha Stewart Living before "Martha Stewart" was a household name.

At nineteen I spent a summer with my best friend in Hungary. We got lost in Budapest for an entire day -- on foot with no cell phones. The moment we found the American Embassy was one of the greatest moments of my life.

While in Hungary, I came upon the ruins of a small synagogue which had been abandoned during World War II. It was hard to get to because of weeds and brambles. 

I've been to the top of a Turkish minaret where I aided a German man who was paralyzed with acrophobia.

I've never had a graduation ceremony. 

Throughout my teens I lived in a old farmhouse fixer-upper. One morning during our first winter there, I woke up with snow on my chest. I had a bucket on my floor to catch leaks in Spring. I have hauled water. I'm pretty good at building a fire. I can patch dry-wall.

My crumpled high school diploma came in the mail. 

I was a traveling piano teacher for a few years. 

I took lessons on a Steinway grand from a nun who was a student of Madame Conness, close friend of Sergei Rachmaninoff.

My lessons cost $5.00 an hour.

Whenever I attempt to play the piano in public, I feel much like that German man who had acrophobia. I struggle with guilt over this.

I married an ex-rodeo cowboy who could build a log cabin the wilderness with his bare hands. He is the embodiment of the most noble characters I read about: honest, brave, loyal, diligent. He never reads or discusses classic literature, but he is very wise and he makes a mean batch of sausage gravy every Sunday morning.

I've helped process a deer on my dining room table.

I have five kids: boy, girl, boy, boy, girl. 

I'm so scatterbrained that I've learned to depend on my kids for important information like what day it is.

I lived in a basement for four years with a lot of morning sickness and very little sunshine. 

Ina Garten taught me how to cook. (Not in person -- I collect her cookbooks!) I've prepared over 50 of her recipes.

When I feel blue, I make soup.

I dread doing housework every single day.

I used to make cross-stitch samplers for friends; Now I make cyber-samplers for friends.

I wasn't allowed to watch television or listen to popular music for most of my childhood; Most of the 1980s went right over my head.

I always wear waterproof mascara because I cry easily, both happy tears and sad.

The librarian from my local public library once called to tell me that since the card-catalog was computerized 17 years previously, I had checked out more books than any other person in my county.

I've learned more useful insights from mothering than from all the books I've ever read.

I experienced postpartum depression for the first time, after my fifth baby.

My pastor once described me as a "vision caster." That is a description I treasure! I love to visualize achievement in others. Since I started blogging, I've found I have an uncanny knack for following bloggers long before they reach rock-star-blogger status. I really enjoy commenting on growing blogs and helping build communities.

Once you become a rock-star, you probably won't hear from me as much. But I'm still here, and you're always welcome to come over to Classical Quest for a quiet chat and a cup of cyber tea!