Seven Strange Facts About Me

Hi All!

Well, I haven't done as much laundry as I had hoped or had as nice of a nap as I had hoped but, I am back blogging.

I had hoped (do you see a recurring theme here?) to have downloaded my pictures by now so I could share them with you but, again, things didn't go as I had planned. I promise to have some pictures for you tomorrow.

In the meantime, I was tagged by Lauren so I thought I would give that a shot.

Seven Strange Facts About Me

7. I am a woman (no - THAT isn't the strange part!) and I HATE to shop. You read that right. I don't like shopping. I shop about twice a year for clothes - if I HAVE to - and don't really like it too much when I do. I would much rather do just about anything instead of shopping.

6. I don't match my earrings. What I mean by that is that I wear four different earrings at all times or - if I am in a particularly "normal" mood, I might wear two matching earrings in one ear and two totally different earrings in the other. This all started when I was 16 and got my ears doubled pierced. I suddenly realized that keeping track of pairs of earrings was way too much of a bother so . . . I just tried to find earrings that sort of went together. It has now rubbed off onto my Aunt Donna who has started the mismatched look as well.

5. I am a shy extrovert. Thanks to some moderate pushing by my mother, I have the wonderful ability to speak to pretty much anyone. Talking to people is now so second nature to me that I do it all the time - in fact talking to strangers is how I met Hubby. But, that is a story for a different time. Despite all of this talking to people, I am actually very shy. I might be smiling and extroverted on the outside but on the inside I am trying to hide under the covers!

4. When I am not feeling well, the first thing that I HAVE to do is cool off my tummy. Most people put cool cloths on foreheads or maybe the back of the neck. Me, it is the tummy. If my tummy is too hot it isn't a good thing. Recently, I talked to my parents and they told me that even as an infant I hated being hot. They would bundle me up (as was proper infant attire in those days) and I would cry until they unwrapped me and I was down to my diaper.

3. Vacuum Cleaners are my sworn enemies and I will do almost anything to avoid using them. This one I blame on the old Electrolux canister sweeper that my parents had when I was growing up. Wonderful sweepers but, this particular one was wearing out the and the connecting where the heavy power head clicked into the hose wasn't working well. I would hook the thing up and start sweeping back and forth. The only problem is that at some random time I would push the sweeper out and, when I brought it back, the hose would disconnect from the power head. That in itself isn't a big deal. The big deal is that it always seemed to fall and hit my toes. It really hurt! Now, that memory keeps me from sweeping as much as possible with a vacuum cleaner. Brooms on the other hand are fine.

2. I won't walk on grates. You know, the kind that are just in the middle of sidewalks without any apparent reason? Some are heavy iron looking things while others look like more flimsy wire contraptions. Sometimes man hole covers are okay but, to be perfectly honest, I would prefer to avoid those as well. Grates over drains in parking lots - no way. Hubby has a lot of fun walking with me (especially when we are on vacation in a play like - say - Victoria, British Columbia, where there seems to be an extraordinary number of grates in the sidewalk) and pretending to push me so that I HAVE to walk on a grate. It freaks me out! I am sure that - being such a petite little flower - I will fall right through the three inch wide holes. Yuck! I get the goosebumps just thinking about walking on those things.

1. I have Abductor Spasmodic Dysphonia. I am sure that most of you who read my blog once in a while know this but, I felt the need to repeat this as something that is strange about me. After all, only 50,000 people (estimated) in North America have been diagnosed with SD and I am one of them. SD isn't something that most people have ever heard of making it a "strange disorder." Also, having ABductor instead of ADductor SD is not very common among SDers so that is "strange" as well. Then, getting a voice back when you have SD happens to only an estimated 2% of people (an estimate by my speech therapist) so it is strange that I have such a good voice at the moment.

There - my seven strange things about myself. In no way are these seven the ONLY strange things about me. They are the only ones that I could think of off the top of my head. If my dad reads this, I am sure that he could think up another seven with little effort! Of course, it is important to note that I do take after HIM (I really take after Mom too but for the purposes of this post - I am blaming most of it on him).

Trisha

Voice Update: My voice is still rocking! Most of the people on the cruise didn't even notice anything wrong with my voice. I did manage to tell a few people about SD - remember that is one of my goals in life these days! I didn't do much massage today (only once for about five minutes) and no exercises. I guess I feel like I am still on vacation. I guess it is back to work tomorrow! I did a little inhale work while imitating the woman at the next table for dinner with the odd laugh. Does that count?