I did a little introduction about myself last year which I think still sums me up nicely, but I thought I’d do an update for this year’s NaBloPoMo.
- My adult children are now a year older (H, our daughter, aged 26; S, our daughter, aged 24; and E, our son, who is about to turn 22), plus E is engaged, with the wedding on Valentine’s Day next year. His fiancée, K, is 22. That means we will shortly be completely empty-nesting, although E only spends a few days a week here because he works in live music production and is touring at the moment.
- I am currently avoiding dairy most of the time. Unfortunately, dairy is my favourite food group, so that is no fun. I find that if I am mostly strict, I can have some dairy for special occasions without breaking out in hives. I am also off coffee because of migraines.
- I have started playing piano in the worship band at church this year. It is a steep learning curve working out how to play with just the chord charts instead of sheet music. My ear needs a lot of development.
- Some more things I like (to add to those in last year’s post): naps, plants shining in the late afternoon/early morning sunlight, a good (not too sweet) sticky chai latte, watching Riley curled up sleeping (he gets a squashed face which looks so funny when he sits up), flipping through photo albums, traveling by train, hiking, the ocean, eating mandarins off our tree, champagne.
- Some of my quirks: I can’t sleep properly without the window open, and I always sleep on the left side of the bed. I used to bite my fingernails, and I’ve started up again in the last few years, but I don’t bite them right down like I used to. I’m an introvert, but I love to party with my friends. I love seeking out the views from up high, but I have a fear of heights, so there is no hanging off cliffs for the perfect selfie for me.
I’d love to hear about your likes and quirks in the comments.
Comments
25 responses to “List #38: Five More things About Me”
Thanks for this post and for linking back to the old one.
Being new here, I didn’t really know much about you, but now I feel like I’ve got a little backstage pass into your world!
It all makes sense now? 😉
I also used to bite my nails, it’s a hard habit to quit. I find if I have them polished I will leave them alone…mostly. I seem to have switched from biting to chipping off polish, which defeats the purpose.
I play piano too and I have never played “with” people, so I would find that VERY hard. I was never the type to play by ear, I always need my sheet music.
The only time I’ve painted my fingernails was for my wedding. I would not be organised enough to keep them looking nice. Luckily in a band it is a lot of chords, but I’m trying to learn some of the techniques for fills, and more advanced rhythyms at the moment. You kind of just have to listen what the other instruments are doing and fill out the sound with what’s needed.
Love this glimpse into your life. I didn’t realize E was getting married on Valentine’s Day. How sweet!!!
I would bite my nails as a kid, to the point of bleeding, but stopped cold turkey one day and have never looked back. But I pick at my hangnails like crazy and it drives me nuts because then my fingers look ratty. Argh.
They were actually trying to avoid Valentine’s Day and were even looking at a Friday wedding because all the other Saturday nights were taken. but we talked them out of that.
Bummer about the dairy. I feel similarly about gluten – what wasn’t to love about it? I don’t sample anything with gluten, but I’ve found that there are some gf options that are tolerable.
I workout a lot, I prefer to sleep on my stomach but since I’m having back issues right not – I can’t and that’s annoying, my parents live walking distance to me (ages 85 and 83), my mom has Alzheimer’s, I’m writing a memoir (fingers crossed it’ll one day be published – otherwise my kids will have a record of my stories, I guess), I run a daycare and I sometimes wish I had a career that I loved where I could have ‘work friends’ and work life experiences – other times, I’m delighted to be at home loading my crockpot and writing during nap time. I’ve never played a musical instrument – but I wish I could. I’m artistic, but don’t have time to sew or paint or draw. Writing is it right now for my creative outlet and I do love it. I’m part of a great writers group, and they are all the things: supportive, kind, but give excellent feedback and don’t sugar coat anything.
Celiac is much more difficult because you have to be very strict; mine is an intolerance to one of the proteins in dairy, and intolerances are generally load-dependent.
Good on you for your memoir writing. I can’t imagine trying to wrangle my like into a sensible book form.
My son is also 22, also in a serious relationship- not engaged yet, but that’s the direction they’re heading. Seems young to me, but I guess they know what they want!
That’s a bummer about dairy and coffee! But, not having headaches and hives is a good thing.
I’m also a big fan of naps!
I think 22 is young too and E is not exactly mature (although he has been working since year 12), but he is very committed and steady with his feelings for her, and she is lovely, very patient and kind.
Since I do write down a list of things that I’m grateful for each week, we can contemplate if we can flip this list around and refer to some of the things that I’m grateful for as the same thing as my likes. If you’d like me to present the list that I came up with last week, Melissa, I can show that to you.
I actually also write my own obituaries. When I do that, I’ll need to contemplate what I’ll put into my obituaries, and thus the things that I put into my obituaries will be the things that are necessary for me to finish doing in my lifetime. In this case, we’ll need to figure out whether “the things that are necessary for me to finish doing in my lifetime” refers to the same thing as “my likes”. I’d like to get your take on that, Melissa.
I’m actually not sure if I can articulate my quirks. I’ll need to consider the scenarios in which what I think of as quirks are not really quirks to someone else, and vice versa. If I use my right hand to shake hands, but I’m with a group of people who use their left hands to shake hands, then me shaking my right hand will look like a quirk to them. On the other hand – no pun intended – if I use my left hand to shake hands, but I’m with a group of people who use their right hands to shake hands, then me shaking my left hand will look like a quirk to them. In this case, I think I will need to list each and every habit that I have so that we can evaluate which of them are quirks and which are not. In that case, I’m not even sure how many hundreds of words my comment will end up having. I’d like you to tell me where I can go from there, Melissa.
I think the good thing about you writing “A LITTLE INTRODUCTION AND A CHANCE TO AMA”, Melissa, is that once you get the rudimentary info down in that blog post, you don’t need to introduce yourself all over again in the future. You can just add a few updates every time you introduce yourself.
It’s nice to learn more about you, Melissa. I clicked over to read the first post, too. I don’t bite my nails, but for some reason, I keep picking at a hangnail on my thumb, and I’ve worn it down to a scary-looking state. Why do I keep doing it? I’m sure it’s some sort of nervous habit. I’m trying to keep a bandage on it at all times.
So there seems to be a lot of nail picking, and a smaller amount of nail biting among my readers.
It’s fun learning a few more things about you and being reminded of the kids and their ages. I didn’t realize E’s wedding was on Valentine’s Day. It will be easy to remember their anniversary!! 🙂 Not that you wouldn’t otherwise!
I love reading, hiking (but don’t get many opportunities to since it’s so flat here), naps, long walks, deep chats with friends, coffee, and mango bubbly water. I dislike when people are consistently late or unresponsive to texts/emails. I also only like coffee served hot. I do not like cold brew or even coffee flavored ice cream.
A quirk of mine is that I like to drink pickle juice! I like to take a little swig from the jar. Only Will and I tend to eat pickles and he doesn’t care. It kind of grosses Phil out. Ha.
Drinking from the pickle jar is gross—naughty Lisa! We seem to have a lot of overlap in our likes, apart from mango fizzy water.
Another introverted nail biter here! It’s SUCH a hard habit to break. I mean, I assume, considering I have never fully stopped.
Playing the piano at church sounds like such a fun challenge. Music has always been my favorite part of any religious service.
So sorry to hear you needed to give up dairy. I did so a few years ago and it was so hard. I hope you find a good dairy-free regimen.
This is my fourth time going dairy-free. I usually need a few years off and then my immune system improves but I’m worried this might be more long term because of perimenopause
Thanks for sharing more things about you, Melissa. There’s always something we haven’t previously known! Congratulations on E’s engagement. 22 – that’s young! Has he been with his fiancée for a while? Do you feel it’s early for him to get married or is it not as unusual as I make it out to be?
I am sorry about having to avoid dairy. That would be tough for me as well. Is this temporary?
They are very young, and it is quite early, but they have been together for a few years now. At our old church it is not uncommon for younger people to get married once they finish uni if they have been dating for a few years. They don’t live together beforehand. E got a job straight out of school in live music production, but K finished her degree this year and is going straight into a full-time position in her field.
Hello from New Jersey!
My quirks: an introvert, an anxious person, an immigrant, a “recovering” people pleaser.
My likes: reading, walking, travel. Personal finance.
We share a number of likes. Your travel with kids is amazing.
I think I didn’t know this with the heights.
A quirk I have… walking the grocery store in a pattern even though I know I don’t need stuff from the aisle. Also I hate it when any cupboard doors are open.
The last thing I would want to do in the grocery store is walk down an extra aisle. I like to get in and out as quickly as possible. I like my cupboard doors closed as well.
I still bite my nails if they are not done. not sure why? is it a symptom of being an introvert?
I can’t sleep without my earplug. they are the first thing to pack when traveling.
I mainly bite my nails when I am reading or similar so I think it could be a bit like my need to doodle when I’m listening to something. The sensory input provides just enough distraction to keep you in the moment.