Shelley Scribbles

Today, I’m going to cheat. I’m late getting to the computer, and have to wake early for a corporate class. The prompt on the NaBloPoMo website is a question regarding favorite books and authors. I am such a passionate reader that I cannot contain my favorites to a simple blog post. So, instead, I’m going to post a modified version of a facebook meme that was going around last year where you were asked to list 25 things that are true about you that people probably don’t know.

My List of Random Truths:

– My paternal grandparents ran a senior’s home through most of my childhood. It was converted from an old hotel ( The Carmelite House in Grand Falls ), and they had most of the top floor as their private apartment. Every room had an ensuite bathroom ( leftover from the hotel days ) and I could spend hours running from room to room making up all kinds of imaginary games and scenarios. They had a gong to ring in dinnertime, and a chapel in the basement with an organ I could play on. A giant moose’s head hung over the huge wooden staircase. We celebrated Christmas in ‘ The Cook’s Room” that had a real old-fashioned bathtub. This place was absolute magic for me, and mythical in my childhood. Someday, I am going to set a novel in this place.

– I am very very good at being alone. As a child, I never needed to be entertained, could always amuse myself, and still can. I get antsy if I don’t get regular “alone” time. Most people fear being alone. I revel in it.

– My husband is 7 years younger than me. He is also the more mature one in our relationship. Most of the time.

– I fell in love for the first time in St. Pierre when I was 18 studying on a French immersion program. I broke his heart ( dumped him when I returned home, for the previously-mentioned-on-this-blog acting student) and have had the same recurring dream about that boy ever since, where I go back to St. Pierre looking for him, and every time I’m just about to see him, I wake up.

– I really really wish I could go back to university and study all over again. Although I was always a “good” student, I really didn’t take advantage of what was available to me there. I had some amazing profs that I just didn’t appreciate at the time . I would love to go back to being a student now, when I could forget all the silliness, and love the learning.

– I can’t handle the sight of blood and guts. I’m sure I would love House, but I just can’t watch it without running from the room every time someone starts to bleed.

– I have never ever had surgery.

– I have alternatively wanted to be: Tori Amos, Pj Harvey, Liz Phair, Joni Mitchell and Rickie lee Jones. But mostly, I am secretly Ani Difranco, in my “musician wannabe” fantasies.

-I once had a crazy and or drunk, apparently homeless guy correctly guess that I’m a sagitarrius because he could tell by the way I walked, that I was “half-horse”.

– When I first moved to Halifax, I was so poor that I lived in a house on the hooker side of Barrington, with a guy named Josh who kept aquariums of snakes in his painted-black room and a really angry woman named Roberta who used to scream curses at her little girl during her frequent yelling spurts. My room was a closet with a curtain, and I slept on Didi Gillard-Rowlings’ leaky air mattress, waking up with it curled up around me every morning. In spite of this, I felt very happy and free.

– I’ve been working since I was 16, and have been: a jewelery-maker’s shop assistant, tourist information officer, box office clerk, paintball” instructor”, insurance salesperson, hostess, art class model, hotel room cleaner, canadian tire card “application getter” ( which I was surprisingly good at) and held various different theatre jobs. I tried to be a waitress, and really really failed.

– My drink of choice is Crown Royal with Ginger Ale.

– In my early Korea days, I was a regular at the bar “Nori” in Shinchon, long before it became extremely popular and often would be one of maybe two or three foreigners in the whole bar. The owner would sell me a bottle at cost and keep it behind the bar for me. I miss having a “regular” bar that I can walk into alone and feel comfortable in.

– I have to read, every single day – good fiction. If I don’t read, I can’t sleep.

– I rarely laugh out loud. It’s hard for me to break out of my serious heart, sometimes. Still, some things that make me crack up: www.gofugyourself.com, Craig Ferguson, Leno doing “Headlines”, my office partner Gary, The Graham Norton Show….

– When my husband first met me, he told me I looked like Janis Joplin. THe fact that he thought that was a good thing made me stay and keep talking to him.

-I figure skated for a really long time, and I wish I had stuck with it longer.

-When I meet Korean people, I sometimes lie about how long I’ve been here, because I’m ashamed that my Korean is not better than it is..

– I’ve always been a “guy’s” girl . Most of my close friends in my life were male, and I always felt more comfortable with that . Surprisingly, at this point in my life, I am hungry for the company of good women, and would list the lack of foreign women of my age group as the only major drawback to my life here in Korea.

That’s my list. Please comment with a random truth of your own.