I Thank You--A Bit Tardy

Step 9 of the 12 Steps of Recovery instructs a person to make direct amends to people that they have harmed or hurt. Way back on March 31st, Ann T. blessed me with a second award, the "You're Going Places, Baby" award. I needed to pay more attention to this, as I didn't even give a thanks comment to her blog post. What an ingrate! By the way, please go and read the post--it's a hoot. I did start this entry on April 2nd with the required tell five things about myself, got to four, and then yielded to my ADD (or something). So here are the five things about me that go with the Bogey.

Blogger Ann T. has awarded this humble writer an award with a challenge to tell five things about myself and to at least link and name two blogs that I enjoy reading. So first, the five things.

1. I am as mutt Western Euro as you can get. My mother's family Dutch and Scottish. My dad's family Irish and German. The Dutch part has been in America since New York was called New Amsterdam. The Irish and German parts arrived sometime in the 1800s, probably with the large immigration of Germans and Irish that came in just after the Civil War. I was born without any hair. When it came in, it was bright red. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), it turned brunette as I got older. Now, as I approach a half century, it's salted with gray.

2. When I was a preteen in New York. I thought graffiti was cool. I wanted to be a tagger. I kept a running record of graffiti tags I saw in a note book I as I moved around my neighborhood and the city. I would sometimes invent lame tags and commit small acts of vandalism in New York (mainly in buses) before we moved to Vermont. I was only 13 at the time. I still think the art of graffiti is cool, but I'm not much for the vandalism part any more.

3. I've been taking pictures seriously since I was 10 years old. My elementary school had a dark room. I loved working in the dark room. When we moved to Vermont, I was able to put together a little bit of a dark room in the basement of our house, and help with the school's dark room. There will probably be a place for dark rooms, but digital cameras have really changed the landscape. My dark room is in the computer, and doesn't require much "dark."

4. My first car, a family hand me down, was a Volkswagen 412. I really liked that car, even though it wasn't the most reliable we'd ever had. A friend taught me to drive a manual transmission on our family's first four wheel drive, a 1974 Bronco. Three on the tree. Anything I've driven since is easier. My mom has a 1988 BMW that is the coolest, slickest 5 speed around. Only 69,000 miles on this car; she only drives it in the summer. I want!

5. I played all three sports offered in high school--soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball in the spring. I've played some rec and church league hoops and softball as a grown up. Yes, I do love my sports! Did I say I growed up? I still play with cars and balls--maybe not so growed up. ::grin::.

I just did 15 blogs in the previous entry, so I'll just mention that peedee at Queen of the Dogs has the cutest dog pictures ever on her blog--and she'll make you want to move to Florida with her scenic shots.