Who am I?

[pat]

griffen and I were talking , and I said I didn't know who I was. He suggested I might want to find out. And so, I decided to figure out who I am. (While a little bit of this overlaps my "Ten Things I Like About Me" list, there is a lot more.)


Whenever I'm alone, in the car or with my kids, I sing. As much as possible. I'm too shy to inflict this upon non-related adults and children, but I have to sing.

If forced to choose to live without music or without sex, I'd opt for celibacy: sex is wonderful and life-affirming, but music is necessary to my survival. Fortunately, this choice has not been presented to me.

I love to drive -- anywhere, for any reason. Except I change channels on the radio incessantly (until I can find a song I like to sing along with.)

I love to travel, and am generally a good travelling companion.

If I could live anywhere in the world, I'd live in New Zealand.

I am a good listener. I am compassionate.

I am a smart person. I am also a complete incompetent with money. Tipping is a complete mystery. And don't get me started on exchange rates.

I'm a very reserved person with adults I don't know, but I can keep a group of kindergartners spellbound with my reading of "Miles and the Swamp Band".

I suffer from recurrent major depression (runs in my family) which is currently more or less in remission. I try to work with my illness so it can inform my life, not destroy it.

I am a reformed attorney. If I go to hell when I die, I'll be forced to sit and write memos on Security and Exchange Commission regs.

Aesthetically attractive or very sexy people make me nervous. I tend to be even more reserved than usual around them, even when I think they are terrific people.

I love the ocean, I need the ocean. I think the answer to the question of life can be heard in the pounding of the waves.

I am a spiritual person who is not afraid of organized religion but who also thinks that it doesn't have all the answers. I am not threatened by people who have differing religious views -- or none at all, and I still think they have much to teach me.

I am a liberal Christian, and Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson give me hives.

I love movies -- especially old ones, especially the works of Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Donan. I love musicals.

I love (and own) both "Citizen Kane" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

I love poetry and art.

I also love football. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a defensive end for the Bears, until I was convinced that might not be feasible.

I am pro-choice and against the death penalty. I was a participant in the 2001 Million Mom March for gun control.

I am, sadly, a terrible housekeeper.

I am a mother, a wife, and a daughter, but that is not all that I am.

On the surface I am a mousy soccer-mom (well, actually, skating and baseball mom), but I have a deep streak of flamboyance that can come out when I feel safe enough. Sort of a mouse with electric blue fur.

I am creative. I am thoughtful. I can be playful. I can be erotic. I am an unabashed romantic, which sometimes gets me into trouble.

And as I said earlier in my journal, I play a mean game of Trivial Pursuit.

And now I want to know.... Who are you?