Thirteen More (Possibly Scandalous) Things You Might Not Know About Me, 3rd

1. I am a liberal Independent and a nondenominational Christian, questioning institutionalized religion, which is weird because about 15 years ago I was a conservative Republican serving as an officer on the student council for a Baptist Student Center. Interesting how people change over time, huh?
2. I once got sent home from Vacation Bible School because my skirt was too short. I was the art teacher.
3. I went to my Senior Prom with the 25 year old Youth Minister from my church. That wasn’t really the scandalous part. My high school was a private Christian school that subscribed to the belief that dancing was a terrible sin, so as a result Prom was not school-sponsored, chaperone-free, organized by the students, and held in a local hotel. The school also had a rule about not “intermingling the phalanges” — you know, holding hands or playing footsie.
4. I once had a dog named “Chekhov” after the character on Star Trek, and my parents’ friends thought I was so literate because they thought he was named for Anton Chekhov, the Russian author. Of course, my parents had to correct them.
5. My great-grandmother moved in with us when I was in high school and stole my dog. She managed to do this by keeping a handful of dog food in her pocket all of the time and every time she sat down she’d put a few on the ground at her feet; so Chekhov followed her everywhere. However, she could never get his name right and would call him “Check-out” and “Quick-check” all of the time. That dog loved her. In later years, she would cook meals just for him. Talk about spoiled.
6. I used to be a stand-up comic. It’s much harder and not as fun as it looks. I took on stand-up comedy because I had a fear of talking in public. As a result of my year in depressing, smoke-filled bars cracking jokes, I now cannot do a work-related presentation without making smart-ass side comments.
7. Audrey Hepburn is my favorite actress. I don’t think there’s ever been anyone as graceful or as beautiful since she left the silver screen. She was timeless. Not to mention that she was a great lady — a courier for the resistance during WWII, a singer, a dancer, an actress, a humanitarian, a survivor. She’s a real inspiration to me.
8. My mother once told me that she thought I was like Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I hadn’t seen the movie at the time, but years later my best friend and I rented it. Quite frankly, I’m still a little confused. My friend thinks my mother must have meant that Holly and I are alike because we’re both quirky, neurotic, and kind of free-spirits. I can see that, but I’m definitely not a gold-digging man-hunting call girl flitting from party to party and visiting mobsters in prison. I don’t know anyone in prison.
9. I’ve discovered that it’s just as hard to meet single guys whether you are interested in getting married or not. For the record, I’m not. Ever. Since I made that decision, I’ve had a strange problem with guys lying to me about not wanting commitments. My mom actually once found out from a boyfriend’s mother about our wedding plans, to my surprise. He was also lying about not wanting to have children. There are lots of guys in their 30s just as desperate to get married as women apparently.
10. I managed to remain friends with all of my boyfriends after we broke up. Supposedly it’s my superpower. In fact, we have helped each other move more than once, we’ve been on vacation together, I’ve helped one of their now wife move, I’ve been to one’s wedding, and some of us still email weekly. In fact, most of them are friends with each other. I believe one of their now wife’s once thought we were rather “incestuous”. None of us are related. O.K. I did date those brothers, but that was like 20 years ago or more and no one’s heard from them in ages.
11. We saw The Secret of N.I.M.H. on my first date. It was many, many years before I had another one. Maybe it just felt that way.
12. I have a metallic lime green iPod Mini, which they don’t make anymore. Inscribed on the back is “do a loony-goony dance” from the poem “Put Something In” by Shel Silverstein. I’d really like a 30G iPod, but they only come in white and black. Oh, and they cost money.
13. I am trying to learn to knit, but so far I’ve only succeeded at knitting a scarf using only the knit stitch for 300-something rows. Living in Maine, I really want to knit lots of scarves, hats, mittens, and socks — mittens and socks in particular scare me because of the use of more than 2 needles.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

• Erin Gordon
• Nancy Liedel
• Nicole
• SusieJ
• Christine d’Abo
• Gloria
• TeaMouse
• L-Squared
• Angela at mommy bytes
• Ed
• Damozel
• Emmyrose