Monday Random Miscellany...

Mondays just beg for random miscellany... don't they? Well, even if they don't, that's what you're getting, 'cause I've got nothing else. So, here are 5 random, miscellaneous things about me (calm down now... all that excitement can't be good for you)...

1. When I was in my early 20's, I developed an allergy to perfumes. As a result, I can’t wear the stuff, though I’m always on a quest to find one that won’t make me sick because I like the idea of having a 'signature scent' (that isn’t deodorant or, you know, that sweatshirt I haven’t washed in a week). But when I’m in a smelly store and I spray perfume on (or near) me, it takes about 10 minutes for me to get a Texas-sized headache and feel as though I’m going to vomit. It’s so annoying. I’ve had to ask women I’ve worked with not to wear their signature scents, which I always hated doing, but it was the only way I could function. Strangely, men’s cologne doesn’t affect me the same way. In fact, I’ve been known to go weak-kneed at certain man-smells (not to be confused with man-stink… which makes me go weak-kneed, too, but for entirely different reasons).

2. Until Ryan gets home in the afternoon, I spend my entire day in complete silence... no music, no TV. I like quiet. Maybe because when my kid is home, I experience so little of it.

3. When I was 11, my cousin Stephen shot me with an air rifle. I still have the scar, about an inch down from the hollow in my throat. Having the pellet removed was horrifying, as I had to get a shot to numb the area (and there’s nothing but bone there) and then the doc pulled it out with these big things that looked like pliers. It hurt. Fifteen years later, Stephen became a police officer. When he graduated from the academy, my first words to him were, “I can’t believe they’re actually going to let you carry a gun.”

4. My senior year in high school, I won a state writing competition with a story about 2 girls named Ryan and Elizabeth. Sixteen years later, my daughter and niece were born 4 months apart and though my ex (who picked Ryan’s name) and my brother (who picked Elizabeth’s name) never read my story, our girls wound up with the same names. Weird, huh?

5. When my dad was sick, I used to write him letters from my dogs. I had 2 Cocker Spaniels, Shandy and Tucker, and I’d find cards with pictures of spaniels on them and then write these ridiculously long, silly letters to him in their ‘voices’. I even had a paw print stamp I’d use to sign them. Yeah, I’m a dork. But he kept them all and I found and re-read them several years after he died. They were pretty funny, really.