Introductions Are in Order

Welcome to Shelley, my 100th follower! (Although networked blogs and other subcription services make that number a bit fuzzy.)

I'll tell you all a bit about myself since I didn't get around to that in January.

There are two gummy insects on my living room ceiling, one green, one red. They've been there since Thanksgiving, which was when we got out the ladder and got three gummy insects off the ceiling. The kids threw two back up after company left.)

My perfect day would go like this:

I would read a really amazing fantasy, something romantic and a little scary that would keep me guessing. Then I would take a walk around my beautiful garden in full bloom (someone in this perfect world would remember to water it since I won't!), maybe pick some raspberries with my kids or some mint to make into a tea. I'd have a brilliant idea, then go inside and write, and it would come out just as I'd imagined it. The kids- all four of them- would respect this time and not interrupt me except on the half hour (see how generous I am? lol) I'd make a few last edits (editing is so much more enjoyable than pounding out that first draft) and print it out (I love printing a completed book). Happy sigh.

Then my husband would make some grilled chicken, kids would help out with a salad full of good stuff- cranberries and cherry tomatoes and cucumbers and no celery- and we'd eat out on the porch. Friends would come over for games and we'd play for a few hours- I'd win, but just barely, everyone would be in the running until my last brilliant move, the one I'd been planning all along. The kids would play happily with their friends and no one would jump into each other on the trampoline and knock their teeth out with their knee or say anything mean, and I wouldn't have to remind anyone "that's not how we treat our friends."

Then we'd eat warm chocolate melting cake with chocolate brownie ice cream, and the kids would do dishes without any whining (ha!). Maybe we'd have a fire outside, make s'mores, then sing the best ballads of the 70's until today, accompanied by my husband on guitar. I would have finally figured out how to play something cool on harmonica, something better than "Oh my Darling Clementine." Fade to black.


A bit more: I dabble in a lot of artsy things, and because my mom is an amazing art teacher, I've learned how to do stained glass, silk screening, batik, ceramics, glass fusing and lampworking, upholstery, sewing. One of my earliest memories is "helping" my dad build a wooden seat to go over the extra gas tank in his fishing boat for me and my sisters to sit on. They taught me that you can make or  rebuild anything. We didn't have a lot of money for clothes and such, but we were experience rich-fishing on the Gulf, lobstering, scalloping, spear fishing, scuba diving, canoing, camping. I know what it is to be miles from shore, a tiny speck in the water. It's how I imagine astronauts feel looking out into space.

And lest I seem to have a big head...I procrastinate. I avoid unpleasant things, however necessary (paperwork of any kind).  I am not terribly organized, unless piling counts. I am reserved and self-conscious, to the point that when I was on the high school swim team and they passed out awards at the end of the year, I was "Mute 2." (My cousin was "Mute 1." I've since learned how to talk to people, but it's not my natural inclination) The bathing suit never bothered me, it was the feeling of being vulnerable to others, fear that people would think I'm boring or just not get what I was talking about. I am easily distracted, yet also easily sucked into books. My husband gets irritated with me regularly for not responding when I'm reading. Now that I have a son who does the same, I realize how annoying it is.

I love history and mythologies and mysteries and religions, kids and babies and my husband, who is my best friend and biggest supporter. I feel a deep gratitude to God for my life and for the experiences, both pleasant and difficult, that have made me who I am today.

I think that's quite enough, don't you?! If we don't know each other well, please tell me a bit about yourself or if you have done a recent bio post, post a link. Thanks and Happy Writing!