Monday, January 30, 2006

Tagged!

Well, the 10 Interesting Things meme finally caught up with me (thanks, Patricia!). I don't know about interesting, but here's 10 things about me:

1. I'm a compulsive alphabetizer. Every book, CD, and DVD in my house is in alphabetical order. Even my lit mags are alphabetized. I may have missed out on a stellar career as a librarian.

2. I got a dirt bike (as in motorcycle) for my 12th birthday. When I tried it out in the backyard, nobody bothered to make sure I knew what I was doing. I didn't. I had no clue about the clutch. I jumped on, hit the kickstart, and twisted the accelerator. It was a short ride in a vertical direction.

3. I met my husband at archaeological field school. It was love at first sight, though I thought he was much older and he thought I was much younger (we're the same age). We got married six months to the day after we met.

4. I once found a pornographic potshard while on survey in the Arizona desert. I didn't even see the explicit picture in the field because the piece was crusted over with caliche, but when the technician washed it in the lab, it was clear as day. I never heard the end of it.

5. My alternate career choice was concert pianist, but I couldn't take the stress of competition and got terribly nervous playing for people. My piano teacher was extremely disappointed when I wouldn't even try out for Julliard.

6. I once encountered a very malevolent spirit while in a half-asleep dreamlike state. It was a white female form that called me by name and tried to get me to come with her, but every ounce of my being said to fight it. It exuded evil. Much later, I found out that my father and my aunt had independently had the same experience in that house.

7. I've re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy every year for more than 20 years.

8. One summer during college I took the train from the West coast to the East coast and back again. I traveled with my mom in a small sleeper compartment with seats and a table that folded down into a bottom bunk, a top bunk that pulled down, and the thinnest closet in the history of the world. It was one of the best and most unique experiences of my life.

9. I wrote my dissertation on the taphonomic signature of cannibalism. If you need to know what people look like after they've been cut up, cooked, and eaten, I'm your gal.

10. I'm semi-ambidextrous. I'm left handed, but aside from writing, I do nearly everything else as well or better with my right hand.


And now for the really fun part - I get to do some tagging of my own. Let's hear 10 interesting things about Ginger Hamilton Caudill. Ginger, what do you think?

14 comments:

Katie said...

Great list! Your ghost story is SCARY!

Anne Bauer said...

We can speculate on how the pot got dropped and broken:

A. "I'm not putting up with your porno shit any more. (smash)."

B. "Come here, baby. (oops)."

Unknown said...

spirits...how wild, and a piano player, and the fact that you could actually apply at Juliard...wonderful list Sharon, we sooo have to meet one day, I want to surprise the family this summer and go to cannon beach for a few days...we can hook up!!!!

Your porn story is tooo funny...great list youx.x.xo

Unknown said...

and you married your hubby 6 months after meeting!!! talk about destiny, thanks for sharing these Sharon...xoxo

SarahJane said...

that IS a scary ghost. i got the goosebumps.

Sharon Hurlbut said...

Katie - It WAS a scary ghost. It really freaked me out when I discovered I wasn't the only one it happened to.

Anne - I can think of a couple other possibilities:
C. Uh-oh, you broke your dad's pot. Quick, hide it behind that basket of prickly pear fruit
D. Can I get a new one of these? Wore this one right out.

Patricia - oh yes, Cannon Beach is our favorite. Let me know when you're going, and we'll set it up. Thanks for tagging me - this was fun!

Sarah - It gives me goosebumps just thinking about that scary encounter. And the funny thing is, even after we all had the same experience, my mom still refuses to believe in ghosts or anything supernatural.

Ginger said...

I'm also semi-ambidextrous. Apparently as a child, I was strongly ambidextrous. Mom told me that I often switched hands when my right one was tired and continued writing left-handed. Did you ever put a pen in both hands and try writing? I remember a time when I wrote something in cursive with a pencil in each hand. The left hand wrote mirror writing. Perfectly. We held it up to a mirror and it was as neat as the right-handed writing. I guess my teachers broke me of left-handed writing. I still do nearly everything else left-handed.

I think it's fascinating that you're so musically gifted. I understand your shyness; most of the really talented musicians I've known have been very private individuals. Heck, most of the artists/creative folks in general are shy too. Believe it or not, I'm pretty shy in real life.

Thanks so much for sharing your VERY interesting self with us, Sharon.

Best,
Ginger

michi said...

oh i enjoyed reading this! says so much more than the average "did this, then went there" kind of bio. (which is why i did something like this on my website. *G*)

a few things i cannot explain at all have happened to me, and even in the presence of others. your spirit story is scary!

wow. the juilliard, no less.

love the pot shard story! *LMAO* was the dialog that went with it any good? ;)

getting married after 6 months ... not for me. we took our time, got married after more than 9 years together!

greetings, michi

Sharon Hurlbut said...

Ginger - yeah, it's tough growing up left-handed because teachers do tend to be less than helpful about it. When I was little, my school only had right-handed scissors, so I had no choice but to learn to cut that way. I can't use my left hand to cut with scissors to save myself.

I was painfully shy for a long time - all the way through college, really. People often thought I was arrogant, but really I was just too shy to talk to them. Since getting my PhD and especially since having kids, I've finally grown up enough to realize that being shy is just a huge waste of time. That doesn't mean I'm not still shy, but I CAN actually hold a conversation with a stranger now without feeling like I'm going to burst into flames or wanting to slide under a rock and cry.

Michi - It sounds like you might have some good ghost stories of your own! And wow, 9 years! Nothing wrong with taking your time, that's for sure. I'm so glad you stopped by!

Stephanie said...

I took the train from LA to Massachusetts with mom for college too! It was sort of all a dreamy-state. I just remember we went through Kansas after 2 a.m. because Kansas wouldn't allow Amtrak to serve alcohol. Imagine structuring an entire journey around that.

Your list is fascinating.

Patry Francis said...

I read each of these as the opening sentences to something longer--an essay or even a short story. There's so much here, Sharon.

Sharon Hurlbut said...

Stephanie - It is like being in a dream wen you're on the train for that long! It's like being separate from the world, observing it, but not really in it. I remember the Chicago train station - what an incredible piece of architecture.

Patry - Hmm, now there's an idea. When I get blocked, I can just pick something from my list to write about! Thanks for stopping and commenting!

Sharon Hurlbut said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
P. A. Moed said...

Sharon,

You are truly amazing. To be so talented in many areas--and in both the left and right hemispheres of the brain! I really admire that!