Covered Porches and Wooden Screen Doors

OK, Seven random things about myself—which you don’t already know. I’ve talked about the ‘dish thing’ and the several other things.

1. When it comes to Burgers, I want Mayonnaise only on mine. No cheese, no ketchup, no other stuff. If I wanted a salad, I’d order one—I want meat, bread, and mayo… that’s it.

2. I pretty much do plain—I think it’s a neatness thing. French fries – no ketchup, toast no jam (butter’s ok), bread sticks- no sauce. Thank Goodness, my kids have a father that mixes EVERYTHING up, because they would never learn it from me.

3. I’m not a jewelry person. Sure I have jewelry, but every piece has a soul-searched meaning. Every piece is a gift; I don’t go out and just buy. I could never ‘upgrade’ a diamond – the sentimentality of the smaller is too great. I’m not saying it’s wrong… I just couldn’t do it.

4. I was a dancer all through school. I’ve had about 15 years of dance training. Yeah I did the football field thing with white go-go boots (No, you’ll never see that picture).

5. Change is really hard for me. I thrive on constants. Why I got a Bachelor’s degree in computer science, a field that changes with the speed of sound, I’ll never know. I lacked one class getting my Bachelor’s degree in 2 ½ years. I’m not bragging by any means. I’m seeing now through my son, that I missed out on the total college experience. I’m half way through to my MBA. I don’t ever see me finishing it. I get nauseous thinking about it. Oh, I’ll go back to school one day but I want to learn a foreign language, take a photography class, or learn how to sketch. I have a passion for things that are constant—I think most things are disposable these days (computers, televisions, cameras, dishes, plastic anything), a quilt, an old key, a wooden table (complete with scratch marks) are not.

6. Best feature – well, it use to be my belly button…don’t laugh. I don’t have great legs, I’m pretty much average when it comes to chest or the “hind in” but until I had Chelsey I had a great belly button. Now it’s just kind of there between stretch marks and too much pasta…but I know in my heart that at one time “it rocked!”

7. When I was in high school, I had an after school job at Woolco department store. I was the fitting room girl. They wouldn’t let me have a stool or a chair; I had to stand the entire time. “Mrs. Fox”, my manager, made the Wicked Witch of the West look compassionate. I had to watch for shoplifters. I was amazed, more often than not, the shoplifters were little old ladies that would put their old clothes on hangars and come out wearing the ones they had not purchased. Kind of sad…

8. My first name is Melanie. My Mom is a big reader of romance novels and sends me every one that has a girl named ‘Melanie’ in them. I better read them because there will be a telephone quiz on them…. I read them and think—“My gosh, my mother is reading this.” But they say Women that read romance novels have sex 35 % more than women who don’t… I say good for her and Good for me too…..

Looking back over this, I don’t see anything intriguing. I was never a wild child, I’m pretty much an ‘open-book’. But I’m a team player…so here’s my seven—correction – eight.