Five facts you didn't know

Marie Javins had a neat element on her blog. on December 27th. The challenge is to list five things that most people don’t know about yourself. She didn’t tag me, so I’m tagging myself. I think in general a lot of people don’t know a lot about me, so it’s pretty easy to do.


1) I come from a large family of three brothers and two sisters, but was essentially raised as an only child. My oldest brother is retired now, and my oldest nephew is my age. The youngest brother over me was in high school at the time of my birth. I was a surprise, to say the least. What that means is, by the time I was old enough to recognize I had brothers and sisters, they were all living elsewhere. Consequently, when I look at it hard, I see a lot of behavior in me that one typically sees in only children, which is not all really complementary, according to some research. Not realizing this until I was an adult was kind of hard to swallow. But hopefully knowing helps me counteract.

2) I have been in crush, infatuation and obsession over a hundred times in my life. But I’ve been in love—really, truly in love—only twice. Sparkling, indelible, eternal kind of love. More than most people get, even once. I consider myself lucky. Luckier still to have married one of them.

3) I hate talking on the phone. People note that when I leave messages, my voice comes out jumbled or garbled, slurred or rushed. That’s because I hate the feeling of the receiver cradled against my face, and so tend to talk faster.Bluetooth and a cell phone has changed that dramatically, but I still hate talking into a standard phone receiver. That's funny, as about 25% of my job, with coordinating models andphotoshoots, is over the phone, and about 80% of my job at Marvel was working on the phone.

4) I love teaching. Throughout my career, I’ve always had part time work (Saturday school, after school and visiting artist programs) where I worked with kids, teaching them something about art and drawing. Art Education was my minor in college. A favorite part of my job as an Art Director is showing a colleague some neat tip or trick inPhotoShop or Quark or InDesign that I picked up and can pass on. So, if I had to start a new career, it would be as a teacher.

5)I'm pretty shy. At parties, I typically move to the back of the room, to study art on the walls or the design of a table, if I don't know a lot of people there. This is despite the level of verbosity you read here. Writing isn't the same as talking. Writing is thinking. If we were to have a conversation, I may run out of small talk in about five minutes. But the thinking wouldn't stop, nor would it necessarily reflect what was being talked about. Now, I get excited about some things and can go on and on. About a project I'm working on. About a theological debate or philosophical conundrum, or political opinion. About love. About life. About the choices we make. But 9 times out of 10, until I know you for a few years or so, I'm not going to initiate that conversation. I wasn't always this way. But this is the way I am, now. Ties back to that only child thing in #1.

There, that's five. If you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged.