How well does anybody know anybody? What’s TMI***? There is definitely such a thing!

Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.

– Daniel J. Boorstin

I’ve shied away from writing here in what I’ve come to see as the dreaded (by some) listicle form.

Listicle:

a listicle is a short-form of writing that uses a list as its thematic structure, but is fleshed out with sufficient copy to be published as an article.

But I fell for it today for a couple different precursors; as usual…time. I’m busier than usual right now, but I don’t want to miss another Tuesday Blog post. I mean I don’t even know if it’ll get read, but it’s important to me. It’s my outlet. And also, I’ve been wanting something fun to do this week. This was fun. It is also November 11th, a solemn day of remembrance.

Things You Might Not Know About Me…

 

1. I worked at a golf course, a hotel, a coffee shop, 2 restaurants, 2 clothing stores, 2 bars, a temp agency, & a package-shipping company before I was 26 years old.

2. I’ve been to at least 14 ‘Dave Matthews Band‘ concerts, over twelve years, in three states (VA, FL, CO) and the District of Columbia. The band hails from here in the Charlottesville area ,and I’ve met Dave at ‘Whole Foods‘ & Boyd Tinsley, their violin player, at ‘Downtown Athletics‘.

3. I have a scar from childhood, where I didn’t listen to my mother when she told me to stop jumping on my bed, and I fell and banged hard onto the foot board.

4. I really, really, really want to spend an entire year or two living in Scotland.

5. I never found out while I was pregnant, but BOTH times I thought for sure I was having a girl. Wrong…thankfully because I wouldn’t trade my boys for anything!

6. I’ve got an amazing internal alarm clock, but I don’t trust it so I use an alarm too.

7. I prefer caramel & butterscotch & maple, over chocolate every time.

8. I love, love, love, love finding things people need or want, and that includes gifts. I’m pretty good at finding deals too.

9. Myself & a few friends got to meet & party with ‘Hootie & the Blowfish‘ in Tucker’s Town, Bermuda, back in their 90s heyday! I even finagled concert tix from one of their crew. 🙂 Nice guys!!

   

10. I’m a total ‘Gilmore Girls’ junkie. Total. I guess it’s my Mother-Daughter fix? I love the snappy dialogue with clever pop culture references, the Lorelais, the townsfolk, Luke’s Diner, everything…plus I really want to live in “fictional” Stars Hollow, CT one day…

    

11. I always bring back at least one sea shell whenever I get back to the ocean! Sea glass too, if I can find any. (Being landlocked is tough!)

    

12. I once had a pedicure where I submerged my feet in a tub and little tiny fishies nibbled away at them until they were smooth! It felt like my feet were up against jacuzzi jets, tickled, but didn’t hurt at all.

    

     

13. I’ve loved John Cusack for, like, ever. For my 40th birthday dinner my husband took me to ‘Serendipity III‘ in NYC, the same restaurant from the movie ‘Serendipity’. They’re famous for their ‘frozen hot chocolate’. It was so much fun!

    

14. I won’t play Yahtzee with my husband anymore because he gets “YAHTZEE” at least two or three times a game…it’s unnatural! (haha)

    

15. My maternal great-grandfather and 2 of his wife’s, my great-grandmother, brothers all fought in WWI. One brother was killed, and one was wounded.

    

     

     

    Lest We Forget   …Today is Veteran’s Day in the US, and Remembrance Day in Canada, marking the common (British, Canadian, South African, and ANZAC) tradition includes a one or two minute silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (11:00 am, 11 November), as that marks the time (in the United Kingdom) when the armistice became effective. The federal department of Veterans Affairs Canada states that the date is of “remembrance for the men and women who have served, and continue to serve our country during times of war, conflict and peace”; specifically, the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and all conflicts since then in which members of the Canadian Forces have participated.

    The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem In Flanders Fields. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red colour became a symbol for the blood spilled in the war.

The first chapter of In Flanders Fields and Other Poems, a 1919 collection of McCrae’s works, gives the above text of the poem.

 

— Raina K Morton  November 11 2014

*Title from the song You Don’t Know Me sung by the amazing Ray Charles…

 **You might recognize it from the soundtrack to the film Groundhog Day!

*** TMI* too much information!