Trivia You Can Live Without

No one has ever tagged me to share unimportant snippets of information about myself so I'm doing it on my own. Here, in no particular order of relevance, are some basic truths about me.

I was born in Texas. I only went to school there until 2nd grade. I remember that the class had to sing "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You" right after we recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Texans are very big on Texas.

Then my family moved to North Dakota. Trust me on this: it is America's counterpart to Siberia. The kids made fun of me because of my funny accent and my new teacher informed me that the word aunt was pronounced awnt. She told me that an ant crawls on the ground. I'm terribly conflicted to this day about how to pronounce that word. Especially since my mother always called her aunts aint so and so.

I have lived in 9 different states in my life. California was the best. By far.

I lived in Kosovo for almost two years.

I used to be really, really afraid of spiders. I would kill them with oven cleaner (which works really well, by the way) or a Dallas telephone directory. I got over it when one crawled into my shoe. When I put it on I was sure I felt something wiggle. I was sure it had to be a spider. I threw off the shoe, took several deep breaths, retrieved the shoe and tried to shake it out. I wouldn't look because I was positive that if there was a spider in there, it would jump out on my face. So I put the shoe back on and felt the same thing. This time the spider came out when I shook the shoe. After that I realized that feeling a spider on me wasn't the absolute worst thing that could ever happen in life. I almost reversed myself on that, however, years later when I saw something out of the corner of my eye in my long hair and sure enough, it was a spider....a black widow!!!
I still hate tarantulas. They are in a class by themselves.

I am not afraid of snakes. I don't like them, mind you, but I don't jump out of my skin at the sight of one. I have even picked up little ones and let them slither around on my arm.

I also used to be wildly afraid of flying. I would hardly sleep for days before I had to take a trip on a plane. Then I discovered the great benefit of Valium. Ah, better living with modern pharmaceuticals! I have flown so much over the past 10 years that I can sometimes forego the Valium. I still get nervous when there is a lot of turbulence, but I'm not gripping the arm of the seat. Or calling out, "Mommy!"

I was a librarian once for about three years.

I was a deputy sheriff for about six years.

I was a 911 dispatcher for 14 years. A little unsolicited advice here on this one, just in case you, the reader, might be contemplating going to work as a 911 dispatcher...this job is terribly unhealthy. I went into this job kinda skinny and naive, I came out on the other end with enormously high blood pressure, I was overweight, and had a bona fide sleep disorder. My sleeping was so out of whack I figured it would take two years to sleep normally after I finally resigned. The good news is, it only took about a month.

My favorite place to eat in the US is Aqui in Willow Glen, a wonderful neighborhood in San Jose, California. I have eaten in restaurants from The Four Seasons in San Francisco to some little cafe in Joseph, Oregon where the waitress made a case for Elvis being alive. So I think I am qualified to make a good assessment of where to eat. Aqui is it.
As for my favorite place to eat in the world....that one is a lot more difficult. It probably has to be this great restaurant in Nis, Serbia that is so out of the way you can walk by it and not realize it is there. And I don't remember the name of it. But I know how to find it again. Runners up would be Marshall Tito's in Skopje, Macedonia, Ciao in Caglavica, Kosovo, and....oh, the list is too long.

I have a thing about paper. The way it feels, the way it smells and I have this other whole thing about pens and pencils. When there is just the right drag of ink or graphite over the right kind of paper....oh, it's just so...what's the word? Heaven, I guess.