Tagged: Joys and Fears in My Life

I've been racking my brain for a few days for some worthy writing material. And nothing has come to mind. I think these are the days that I'm supposed to write anyway and really, truly pay for my craft with some serious, intensive, bone-crushing work.

I'm not much of a bone crusher.

So, thanks to Christine I've been tagged and I'm ready to play along simply to get out of my current writing slump. Hold on to your hats because it looks like another day of self-revelation. (With me lurching wildly from the oh-so-serious to the oh-so-NOT-serious.)

How to play this game.
Post these rules on your blog: List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5-6 people at the end of your post by leaving their names.

3 joys

• Family, friends, gospel: I'm going to combine these all in one because my life as I know it would not be the same without any of these people or this belief system. These are my center, my core, my happiness and my truest joys.
  
  
• Nature: sunrise peeeking through my windows in the early-morning hours, watching the sunset over the lake nearby, hiking up a mountain trail, swimming in a cold, clear creek on a hot July day, watching the storm clouds move in, the first snowfall of the season. Nature inspires and refreshes me continually.
  
  
• Really using my gifts, my talents, my strengths to make the world a little brighter and a little happier; no joy seems to match the joy of using the best parts of myself in a way that is needed or wanted

3 fears

• That I may never wear a bikini (on a private beach, people, for just one viewer) and look smokin' hot.
  
  
• That some day I will actually wet my pants in public when I'm laughing too hard. (Oh, you think that is funny? Try having poor bladder control, terrible skill at remembering to empty said bladder and wickedly funny people surrounding you and see how long it takes before this same fear overwhelms you.)
  
  
• That people will not believe me when I say "STOP tickling me." I watched a cousin get tackled, pinned down, and tickled mercilessly once by her fiance and I swore in that moment that if I ever got engaged and my fiance ever did that to me, I would break the engagement immediately. (Not that engagements have been wildly numerous in my life). This fear relates directly to fear #2. Because if some one does have me pinned down and is tickling me then I can guarantee you the outcome will NOT be pretty. And I will have realized two fears at once.

3 goals

• To some day overcome my lose-my-breath-and want-to-die reaction to being tickled (I have a friend who claims it is all in mind control. All I can say is you come live in my body for one day and we will talk about mind control. pfffffftt!) Note to anyone who comes near me: This does not mean that I welcome any attempts to assist me in overcoming this reaction.
  
  
• To one day be prepared for any event--a trip, a party, a visit from a friend, a class I'm teaching--before ten seconds to the zero hour. Yes, I'd like to throw off the procrastination/avoiding technique that I've become quite adept at. Maybe I can start working on it tomorrow.
  
  
• To really turn in the rebate for my iPod Touch so it is free, free, free.

3 obsessions/collections

• I have a thing for bags, I guess. I'm still not sure I believe it, but it has been pointed out to me a lot recently. I've never had an obsession with shoes or clothes, but I certainly like to find a good bag and hold on to it. I'm lately enamored with Butler bags. This woman is a kindred spirit. She has figured out a way for a customer to store a lot of things in one bag and be able to find all of those items. This is my one great search for any bag: compartments. I detest searching and searching through a bag for the one item I need: my pen, my bank card, some change or whatever. And I end up doing it all the time. I think it is because I have yet to find the perfect bag. I love the idea of a compartment for everything. My perfect bag would be small and carry all of my cards, money, receipts, pens, notebook, cell phone, iPod, make-up, food, and a book to read. And that would just be everyday bag. Then there is my work bag, my church bag, my play bag, my traveling bag. etc. etc. ad nauseum. Okay, so I like bags.
  
  
• Papers. I wrote about my love of papers a while back and that love endures. Papers are a passion for me because they are the genesis of books, ideas and thoughts. I keep articles I read and like for future fodder for my own writing on that topic. I keep cards and letters sent to me that have special meaning. I keep my writings and journal entries. I keep talks that inspire and educate me. All of this paper has to be organized and accessible if it is going to be really useful. And it has to be organized or I would drown in paper.
  
  
• Teaching people how to park correctly. I don't know what it is but I seem to attract the parking-challenged wherever I go. My favorite thing is to approach my car and find someone parked so close to me that I have to enter my car from the passenger side and climb over everything just to get to the driver's seat. I keep sticky notes and a pen in my car just so I can write loving and thoughtful notes to these parking neophytes and instruct them on the appropriate way to park a 2-ton vehicle when it is next to my car. I'm not sure my campaign is really working. Or that my notes are as lovingly received as they are intended.

3 random surprising facts

• I always forget to go to the bathroom. (Which is one of the reasons I so hate to be tickled. I can guarantee I'm almost never in a state of preparation for it.) I know this sounds insane but people who are around me a lot will start nodding their heads in affirmation. I will have this intense urge to go now! and then get so absorbed in whatever I'm doing that I don't realize I'm rocking back and forth chronically for the next three hours. It is just an awareness that takes a very long time for me to register and respond to on most days. And because I'm so forgetful, it drives me nuts when someone notices my nervous tic of insistent rocking back and forth before I do and gently asks, "What is wrong with you?" 
  
  
• I had no idea I had naturally curly hair until I moved back East in my twenties. In junior high, I just thought it took an awfully long time for me to grow out a perm. (Yes, perms. Remember when it was ultra-cool to perm your hair?) I was always surprised that two years later my perm was still hanging around. Then when I moved back East to humidity central, my hair frizzed out daily and it slowly dawned on me that no, this was not my latest perm from six years ago coming back to haunt me and that yes, my hair was naturally curly (or more correctly, naturally wavy). I learned to love just putting some gel in my hair, scrunching it a bit, and letting it dry. Fast and easy hair was such a bonus to discover.
  
  
• I'm easily startled. This has something to do with my ability to get quickly absorbed by whatever is in front of me. Please never, never walk up behind me (or beside me, or really, even in front of me) without sounding some kind of alarm or notice or warning. Fog horns work best. If you do walk up without warning me, be prepared to defend yourself. I've been known to utter a shriek so high-pitched your ear drums will split. Then I will begin to flail wildly in your direction and I take no prisoners. (Think Jackie Chan meets Baloo the Bear and you will have the right idea of what a terrifying spectacle you will behold). I nearly took my boss out a few months ago when he approached my desk suddenly and with a booming voice. The black eye was with him for about three weeks.

If you really want to be permanently removed from my "inner circle" list then just try one day to startle and tickle me in a public venue. It will be your funeral, my friend, your funeral. Did I mention PERMANENT removal from my inner circle?

Let's just never go there.

You are it
Now you know far too much about me and so to return the favor, if any of my lovely and loyal readers would like to respond with their own posts, then tag, you are it. Just let me know in the comments section so I can come and read right away.

Otherwise, here are a few people that might want a bit of nudge for a new post: Meg, Julie, Cissy (what a great way to get your blog going), Rus and Michelle (a post for each of you!).