Show and Tell

My new and wonderful juice feasting friends Penni and Carrie have tagged me for this fun game. I need to share some little known facts about myself. Hmmm, where to start. I thought about this and thought about it. Here is what I came up with:

1. You know that I have an uncle in Australia but what you don't know is that my mother's side of the family is actually from Australia and I have been there twice. I went the first time when I was 14. My parents just got divorced and my mom decided to take me out of school for a month to go visit the family in Australia. We stopped in Hawaii on the way for a few days (this is when I fell in love with Hawaii), went to Sydney, met all the distant relatives in Melbourne and then spent some time up in Queensland with my Uncle.

My second trip was when I was 17. I actually went by myself and met my grandmother in Queensland. My grandmother fixed me up on some dates with local boys(!) and I was out and about dancing and going to parties. I spent a month there that time too. I was ready to move at that point but my mom didn't share my interest.

2. When I was in second grade my house burned down. It happened in the dead of winter, during a blizzard. We came home and the door had been blown open. We started a fire to warm up and then my parents sent me to bed. On the way to my room I noticed smoke coming from the closet (where the furnace was). I never saw my dad move so fast. Apparently the crawl space below us was engulfed in flames and we got out just in time. The house burned all night and because it was so cold, there was a report about it in the paper. The firemen had frozen beards from being out there fighting it. The firemen also offered to let us sleep in bunks at the firehouse which I thought was soooo cool but my parents said no.

About a week later we took off and went to the Canary Islands for a vacation. I know, it's weird. We lost everything in that fire and then we went across the ocean for vacation. Who does that? It was pretty cool. It was the first time I ever left the country and I loved going up into the mountain towns, climbing over the big sand dunes to get to the ocean and looking at all of the African Artifacts in the market. I didn't like drinking warm goat milk though.

3. I grew up in a restaurant family. My parents owned many restaurants throughout my life. Let's see, there was Georgie's, Pucci's Italian Pub, Big Burger, Dr. Livingstone's Incredible Edibles I Presume (2 locations), Captain Kelly's (2 locations), Catfish Charlies, Michelle's Pizza Express, Garfields Street Pub, and Elliotts' Off Broadway Deli. There was another one in there and I can't for the life of me remember what it was called... oh I know, Pumpernickles. I worked in everyone of them. It was our life. I used to serve food, bus tables, hostess, cook, prep, clean, you name it I did it.

Michelle's Pizza Express was actually located about 4 blocks from my elementary school and when I finished school I would walk over there, open the doors with my key and begin preparing to open. I was the manager. I was in 6th grade. I actually had people working under me. Can you imagine that? So bizarre.

Dr. Livingstone's was inspired by our above trip to the Canary Islands. Since we didn't have any luggage or clothes we only had a small carry on bag to bring with us. While we were there in the markets my dad got the idea that we could take some artifacts back to decorate a restaurant. He went out and bought about 6 large suitcases and stuffed them full of African masks, spears, antelope skin, and whatever else he could find and we smuggled it all back into the states. When we got back he started building bamboo shacks with thatched roofs, covering the walls with grass cloth and putting up all our contraband. It was the first theme restaurant in our area and it was a huge hit.

4. I was what you might call a "burn out" when I was in high school. It wasn't that I was really intro drugs or anything. I tried pot but it just put me to sleep. All the people I hung around with were into drugs. I just drank and smoked cigarettes. I used to wear black eyeliner, feathered hair, skin tight jeans that were about a foot too long and often sported holes and bleach stained peace signs, and moccasins. Of course I was 5'7" and weighed about 110 lbs so I looked good. I went to many rock concerts in my life including Rush, ACDC, Def Leppard, and Aerosmith. I asked my mom once when I was older what the hell she was thinking letting me leave the house dressed the way I did. I am so lucky my kids are pretty straight laced. They don't know about my history.

4. I played the Viola in the middle school orchestra. I loved it and was 2nd chair. Of course it started becoming uncool and I would ditch orchestra to go hang out in the field next to the school and smoke or hang out at the bakery next to the school. I was the only "bad girl" in the orchestra and eventually quit before I hit high school. It is one of the things I regret in my life. It would be great to be able to play the viola now.

OK, so that's it. A little long but you asked for it ladies ;o) Now I guess I have to pass this on to the next victims, I mean people so I am going to tag, Ben, Hanlie and Lisa. You're it!