5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 20 Things About Me!

I am taking part in Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop today, and chose this prompt:

Five Things. List 5 things we don’t know about you, 5 things you’re knowledgeable about, 5 things you know nothing about, and 5 things you believe.

5 Things You Don’t Know About Me (at least most of you)

1. I was not only the first grandchild on  my mom’s side, but I was born on my grandpa’s birthday!  Mom missed the party because she was having me.  Needless to say we had a very special connection and I loved him very much.  He has been gone 15 years and I miss him very much.
2. My first dozen red roses was from my grandpa, on my first birthday.
3. I gave birth to my first child when I was just 16 years old, on 12/26/79.  I placed her for adoption and never imagined one day  having the opportunity to meet her.  Our contact is sporadic, but I have had closure and it’s okay if we don’t ever meet again.  I gave her life but I am not her mom, she has parents that she dearly loves and I couldn’t have hand picked anyone better for her.
4. I  think my favorite snack is popcorn.  Not into a lot of butter or flavored, just normal microwave popcorn will do.  I eat it pretty much daily, usually in the evening with a beer while reading or watching TV.  Though I did just have it for lunch, healthy I know.
5. I am one of those people that get laughed at in the drive-thru at McDonald’s or Burger King because I order a value meal, then chose DIET coke to have with all that fat.  No, I know it doesn’t balance it in some way.  I happen to prefer diet over regular, because I find regular just too syrupy for my taste.  Yes I know that it is bad for me, but I like it so I drink it.  Life is too short to deprive myself of the things I enjoy.

5 Things I Am Knowledgeable About

1. Crocheting things – I love to work with a hook and yarn, it is like therapy for me.  I learned the very basics in 6th grade, making up my own patterns until, while 16 and in the maternity home, I actually started learning to read patterns.   I enjoy making blankets in the Fall and Winter because whatever my project is keeps me warm while I work on it.
2. I am fairly knowledgable about Facebook and Twitter.  I can navigate and teach someone else quite  a bit.  Until they make changes, but it  doesn’t take me long to figure it out.
3. Ulcerative Colitis – I have it and have read anything and everything I can find on it.  I know what is likely to trigger mine out of remission and what medication works best to get it back into remission quickly.  I manage to go many years without issues because of this knowledge.
4. Deaf culture as I was in college to get my interpreting degree and got to within one class to finish and then didn’t.  I learned a lot about the Deaf and have a great love of sign language.
5. The dangers of drinking shots of Jagermeister.  I swear it is poison and no two bottles are the same.  I’ve had duplicate days of eating and drinking that included shots of Jag, and some ended well and others were a disaster.  Nothing changed except the bottle from which the shots were poured, leading me to believe no two are the same.

5 Things I Know Nothing About

1. Calculus – I hate math,  I suck at numbers in general and anything above the basics is an abstract mystery to me that has yet to and never will be solved.
2. Music.  I either like it or I do not, but that about sums up the total of what I know about it.
3. Golf – other than it is incredibly BORING to watch on TV.  And one of the sport’s most famous had a real problem keeping his pants on around beautiful women when married.
4. Working on cars.  I can put gas in them, check the level and add oil, brake fluid, power steering fluid and windshield wiper fluid.  Outside of that the damn things are complex and mechanical and I haven’t a clue.
5. Horticulture – I have a black thumb and may be guilty of the death of even fake plants.

5 Things I Believe

1. I believe in God, that He is very much there, very real, and that nothing happens apart from His will or allowing it to happen.
2. That everything happens for a reason, there are no accidents or coincidences, and it isn’t for us to understand how that all works.
3. That the Bible is in fact God’s word, given through mortal man, and that when we started removing God from every day life, every day life went to hell in handbasket.
4. I  believe no one is responsible for my bad or good behavior in life.  It isn’t about my upbringing, being spanked, etc. but rather it is about choices I make, good or bad.
5. I believe happiness in life is a choice.  Not about what happens to us but how we respond.  We chose to find the silver lining or just see the storm clouds.