So the Beautiful Blogger stuff made rounds recently, but I was mega busy and couldn’t doooooo it.

So I’m doing it now because the incomparable Biddable (still owe you emails and lovin’.  I have not forgotten!) gave it to me! And also because I’ll take any excuse to spew random facts about myself. I’m going to skip the “give it to three other people” part because I think this thing has run its course.

I’m supposed to tell you seven things you DON’T already know about me.  I am a habitual over-sharer, though, so this might be hard.  Maybe I’ll just show you random pictures of things, and pretend it’s new information even though some of it might not be…  Okay?  Okay.

1 – This Is What My Handwriting Looks Like – This is pretty self explanatory, hey?  This is what my handwriting looks like when I’m not trying super hard, but  AM trying to be readable.  I’ve already had my handwriting analyzed by someone who used to do it for the U.S. government (terrifyingly accurate, btw) so I don’t think you can tell me anything I don’t know, but feel free to have at it.

2 – I <3 Greeting Cards –  I love them so much I MAKE them. These are “Thinking of you…” ones I made and sent to troops overseas last year (so they could mail them home to their family). Patrick told me if anyone had sent HIM cards like that while he was deployed, he would have burned them.  Nice.

3 – These are Two of My Favorite Things – A book of poetry by Pablo Neruda (with both the original Spanish and English translations), and my friend Itty’s journal.  You can’t have them.  They’re MINE.  Neener neener neener!

4 – This is (a small picture of) Harrison   He’s  taking a picture of himself in a reflective sphere. Then he used the computer to flatten out and un-distort the image. Or… something.  I dunno, I don’t understand these things.  And I ended up with a tiny copy of the image, not the real full-size image.   All I know is that’s my baby brother, about two years ago. I figure it’s anonymous enough to show you. 

So there you go.

5 – This is Patrick and Anne.  Yeah, he’s throwing her in a shower. I cropped the picture, so what you can’t see is that the water is ON right there. What you can see is that they are destroying EVERYTHING.  I don’t have much else to say about that, except I’m exceedingly glad I captured the moment. (Oh, if you don’t know, Anne is my roommate, and Patrick is my brother-ish.)

6 – I Made This. Years and years ago.  It’s a cake.  A bunny-shaped cake. A bunny-shaped CARROT cake.  Do you see what I did there?  I’m clever.  (P.S. – That was the baby cake.  There was a mama bun-bun who was bigger.  But I  lost the pictures of that one.) And sorry this is overexposed.

7 -  Before My Precious iPhone, I Owned a Razr.  It had ONE distinct advantage over my iPhone –  A LIVE CACTUS! Itty sent me a live cactus cell phone charm and it was slightly PINK so it matched and omg!  I ADORED it.  Probably to an unhealthy degree. One of the little ones I nannied for took it one day and smashed it against a table, breaking it’s little cactus-stem.  I gasped and said, “Ruth!  You broke it!  It’s going to die now.”  She gasped right back and said, “I didn’t break it!  I set it free.”   Wench.

BONUS #8 OMG!  This is Antonio’s Arm.  Sometimes, he likes to injure himself at work and either not tell me about it, or accidentally let slip, “And then I smashed my finger, and it popped like a grape!” or “And then I splashed hot tar on myself!” and I SWEAR he does it with glee.

I immediately go into panic mode and he backpedals, realizing (as if for the first time, EVERY time) who he’s dealing with.  And he’ll tell me it’s BARELY a mark and he can’t even see it anymore and it doesn’t hurt and he wouldn’t have even known he had hurt himself such a teensy weensy bit if it hadn’t been for me hounding him and asking if he got hurt at work, and really the burn is more like a feathery tingle, you know, the kind you feel after a butterfly alights upon your arm, and honestly, it’s so tiny it makes a paper cut look atrocious and gory…

And then sometimes he shows me pictures of the “less-than-a-paper-cut” injury.

I think he has himself deluded into thinking it will somehow make me agree with him and go, “Burn?  What burn. I don’t see a burn!”  The reality is, it makes me say things more like “For the love of all things holy, would you PLEASE put some antibacterial stuff on there? You’re going to get an infection and it’ll be so gross and it’s going to be a huge scar and FORFUCKSSAKE WOULD IT KILL YOU TO BE MORE CAREFUL AT WORK AND NOT BURN CHUNKS OF YOUR FLESH AWAY?”

(As you can see, he clearly under-reacts and I clearly overreact. It’s all good – it’s just one more small way in which we balance each other out.)

Well, that’s all for the moment, kiddos.  Hope you are all just endlessly fascinated with me.   I was ALL chipper and awake this morning, after only about 5-6 hours of sleep. But now I’m TIRED again.  I blame you guys. For no real reason, I just do.