100 things about me

100 things about me that you probably don’t know…….

1. I once sang professionally at the Hotel Negresco, on the “strip” in Nice, France.


2. This isn’t nearly as easy as I thought it would be.


3. As a strategy for keeping my brother and me in bed when we were little, my dad told us that the “Man in the Moon” would get us if we got out of bed.


4. I didn’t realize that the man in the moon was fiction until I was about 10 years old.


5. I once got a sliver through my knee that was about 10 inches long.


6. I thought I was pretty stupid up to the age of about 35 – when I got my master’s degree.  Even then, I was pretty sure that I had somehow pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes.


7. I didn’t realize that I was ADHD until well into my 40’s – even after being diagnosed and taking medication for a couple of years.


8. Being ADHD helps me tremendously in doing my work with children.


9. Being ADHD is the greatest gift! – Right after Kristen, Heather, Kevin, & Sara.


10. I love to sing as much as I love to ski.


11. I am not a confident person.


12. After living for 52.5 years, earning a B. A., an Med, and a PhD, I am finally beginning to believe that I am not stupid.


13. After living for 52.5 years, earning a B. A., an Med, and a PhD, I am finally beginning to build self-confidence.


14. I am worried that I really don’t know how to change things in my life to restore more vigorous health.


15. I can not do my job without trying my very best – even though “trying to do my very best” might kill me.


16. I love my daughters more than they realize.


17. When Heather was born, her mother and I did not let them put silver nitrate in her eyes – something else (I can’t remember what) and because of that, she could see.  She and I stared at each other for about an hour, until she fell asleep.  That was when she established power over me.


18. Heather has no idea, I think, of the power she has over me.


19. Kristen has done and said things that have hurt me more than anyone besides Kevin.


20. The people I love the most intensely have the power to hurt me and they do so mostly without realizing it.


21. I try not to let the ones who I love know when they have done or said something that has hurt.


22. For some reason, I can tell Heather that she has done or said something that has hurt.  It has only been a short time since I have been able to do this.


23. My mother is beginning to realize that she has Alzheimer’s.


24. I love the work I do, but feel that I need to quit my job.


25. I still feel guilty about the evening when Kristen – at age 1.5 – fell and caught her tooth on the edge of the rocking chair and it came out.


26. I was sitting in the chair at the time and I figure I should have seen it coming and should have prevented it.


27. Coming out was probably the most difficult and scary thing I have accomplished in my life.


28. I still feel guilty about the pain I caused Sara when I came out.


29. When I met Kevin for the first time, I thought he was sort of cute, but that he wouldn’t like me.


30. At the end of that first evening, when I met Kevin, I was already intrigued and wanted to see him again.


31. I passionately believe that children are our most valuable resource.


32. I love to watch men who dance well.


33. I still have ideas that I haven’t tried and am feeling an urgent need to do so before I retire.


34. I really need to go away somewhere and refresh and recreate.


35. “Taking a Strip off” another person is a concept I do not understand.


36. I also can not understand how anyone could EVER really need that?


37. I do not understand why people make decisions before gathering ANY information about the issues surrounding the decision.


38. I do not understand how a parent can be too busy to answer a crisis need of their child.


39. I sometimes try too hard to meet the needs of children – often trying harder that the parents of the child.


40. I have little-to-no compassion for people who abuse children.


41. I HATE it when my nose runs.


42. I sometimes take too many medications to get my nose to stop running.


43. I try to stay away from school when I’m sick so that I won’t ruin what I have worked so hard to create by making some stupid mistake because I am not feeling well.


44. I over identify with the children who find school difficult.


45. When they hurt, so do I – sometimes more than they do.


46. I always want to be sure we have tried everything in our power to help before I will refer a child on to the next step in the system.


47. Not only don’t I have all the answers, oftentimes, I feel like I don’t have many or any.


48. I miss seeing friends who have retired and moved away.


49. I miss seeing my daughter every day, or being ABLE to see her.


50. I think I am more Canadian than American these days.


51. I still love my country of birth, but I truly believe that they are so self-destructive that it is no wonder so many countries detest the politics of the nation.


52. Canadian political scandals seem so tame next to the ones in the states.


53. I think I am becoming immune to political outrage.


54. Local things bother me more.


55. Racial prejudice is something I can not understand.


56. I can not understand how anyone can adequately dehumanize a child to the point that they could be tortured or killed.


57. I would like to solve the problem of homelessness in North America.   It seems so pointless and avoidable.


58. I believe that we have the capacity to eradicate AIDS from the world.


59. I wonder why we do not have the will to do so.


60. I am getting tired of cooking for the homeless – I’ve been doing it monthly for five years – and wish that our provincial government would step up to the challenge of solving the issue!


61. I hate lying awake in bed at night trying to go to sleep.


62. I love going out to the mountains.


63. If I could, I would live where I could get to the mountains as easily as getting to the sea and then would have two of my favourite places near enough to be there whenever I wanted.


64. I would love to write children’s books.


65. I love reading children’s books.


66. This is much more difficult than I thought it would be.


67. I work with some of the best teachers I have ever known.


68. I still get frustrated with them and want them to be better.


69. There is a place inside me where I want to be cruel to someone.


70. I sometimes think very unpleasant thoughts.


71. If it weren’t so destructive, I would love to gossip.


72. I don’t understand why people want others to support them in being less than they are.


73. Sometimes, I want to be taken care of as well as I take care of others.


74. I need a massage.


75. I am NOT a reckless spender.


76. I am not a good record keeper.


77. I hate the accountability measures being imposed on public educators, not because I don’t think I should be accountable, but because they take so much time away from the work that really needs doing.


78. Sometimes, I wish I would be fired.


79. I tried to kill myself once.


80. I am really glad that I didn’t succeed.


81. I play too much spider solitaire when I can’t sleep.


82. I hate power struggles.


83. I wish I could be closer to my parents.


84. I sometimes think that I am missing some of the most interesting parts of life because I am too busy at work.


85. I sometimes realize that some of the most interesting parts of life happen at work with the children with whom I work.


86. I enjoy reading.


87. I believe that we are truly spiritual beings.


88. I believe that our spiritual lives came before our human ones.


89. I believe that my human life is finite, but my spiritual one goes on forever.


90. I believe that when my human life is over, I will join a much more pleasant version of a spiritual collective than represented by the Borg.


91. I believe that when Jesus lived on earth, he understood this but knew that most people wouldn’t be able to grasp the sense of an infinite ambiguity.


92. I wonder about other religions and would like to know more.


93. I am coming to believe that the whole spiritual collective is God, not separate from God.


94. I wonder why we agree to forget our spiritual lives in order to have a human experience.


95. When I totally trust in God, I sleep better.


96. I wonder why I don’t always turn that trust and worry over to God – especially when I believe that God is infinite.


97. I wonder why some see the glass as half empty.


98. I find life a whole lot more enjoyable and worry free when I see the glass as at least half full.


99. I wonder if the rainbow connection is working with children.


100. I really wanted this list to be profoundly self actualizing, but found it really wasn’t easy to do and that it took several days to complete.