Six Things You Might Not Know

I was tagged this morning by Andi (http://www.andilit.com) to participate in a 6 Things You Don't Know About Me posting.

I started thinking about audience. There are lots of things the average person in my life doesn't know about me. Lots of things my mother doesn't know about me. But they aren't the same things. For this post, I chose friends - not lovers or family - as the audience. We'll see if I can hit anything new for anyone.

1) My first award in writing came in the 7th grade. I wrote a short story called "A Heartbeat From Happiness" in which a black cat loses his family after the family moves west. (Hmmm... this was the last year we lived in NC before we moved west, and yes, we had a black cat named Charley, and yes, we left him in NC with friends). The cat in my story walked all the way across the United States. When he got within feet of the door of his family, he died. I won 1st place among all the 7th - 12th grade entries at my school. My dad helped me with the title. I still suck at titles. And, I still have issues with happy endings in fiction! (Charley never walked across the U.S. to find us. I think I'm still a little mad he didn't!)

2) When I was in the 9th grade I believed I used to be an oak tree in a previous life.

3) The first ghost (other worldly energy) I ever saw was when I was five. The ghost of a wolf was outside my window. No one believed me. I've never seen another wolf-ghost, but I've seen others. Very few people believe me still. :-)

4) More than anything else in the entire universe, I want to be a blues and gospel singer. This is one desire that won't be fulfilled in this lifetime. Maybe next time around! I always have someone singing in my novels, though.

5) For six months after my dad died, I put nothing in my body but plain M&Ms and diet coke. This "diet" gave me the opportunity to experience, albeit for a very short time, what it feels like to be a size 3. Haven't seen those days (or those jeans!) in many a moon. I got to experience how men look at a woman when she's a size 3 instead of a size 12. I got to experience the bones of my body without my flesh. I got to experience a whole year of going to the doctor without the doctor telling me I need to lose 20 pounds. I got to spend a year being able to pull ANYTHING off the rack I wanted and know it would look fabulous. (That part was pretty cool...)

Funny, though, the people I drew to me when I was tiny and empty were people with tiny and empty hearts. The people I draw to me now when I am my natural size are full and fluffy and large, no matter what their physical body size is.

6) I want to have a tail. I think about this at least once a week. How fabulous would it be to have a fluffy orange feline tail that curled around my waist, or swished behind me, or stroked my cheek. Think of the accessorizing I could do! Bracelets for tails! Flowers! Glitter! It's too thrilling to think about for too long. Losing the tail is an evolutionary error, I think. Perhaps we'll have it back one day. Until then, I try to walk like I've got one anyway!

My wish for you this weekend: Do the stray cat strut! Walk like you've got a tail and know how to use it!