Who's that girl?

I share my thoughts often but this week I opted for 20 random, oddball facts about me.

1. I am super introverted and was extremely shy as a kid/teenager/young adult and still am quiet to say the least. If I ever hear ‘we were in the same class?’. Till well into my twenties I would pinch myself to keep from going into a tizzy when doing a presentation or something else requiring focus on myself. I still do get kind of lost in my head during presentations as I focus so hard I end up in the twilight zone.
2. I meditate daily on my quest for zen and often it goes really well.. at home in my element. I’m pretty sure I fell asleep on the floor a couple times during the closing bit of my power yoga class. But only as long as you don’t disturb me during my meditation. When the doorbell rang halfway through I let out a string of expletives to make a hardened sailor blush.
3. I time everything, no matter how mundane like the brushing of my teeth. Obsessed with time. S**t, how long did it take me to write this post?
4. I only recently got over my fear  of the dark. Yes, seriously a thirty year old with kids, who is still afraid of the dark can exist. And to be honest I like being as close to the middle of the bed as possible, for being farthest away from anything under the bed. Say nothing. 
5. I love singing about the mundane and bopping about like I'm Mary Poppins, despite my kids asking, practically begging me, to stop..no nightingale I'm afraid. 
6. I often say ‘there is no school like the old-school’. Social media messages and digital cards. Send real cards, they make it fun to collect the post as finally there is something besides bills and ads but most important they show care and thought. If you want to warm the cockles of the heart, hand write something in said card. Guaranteed melt move and things I treasure (hidden between my things and photo frames.. secret romantic). Same with pre-made meals, pancake batter you just add water to, no-knead bread. Are you kidding me, what’s better than having your kids turn up their cute noses at a bought cupcake? And what’s is more fulfilling than taking ingredients, adding effort and making something wonderfully homemade, plus kneading is totally therapeutic.
7. I love handwritten anything but my handwriting sucks. No one can read it, not even me more often than not. I remember clearly in second grade racing through those letter tracing exercises because I thought them dopey and a big waste of time and this was before computers. Call me a visionary. And yet I have multiple notebooks and loving writing stuff down, whether I can decipher them later or not. I also write really tiny. Also from school days long past as I studied for me, so I could pass the test and not you. If I ever hear 'next time points will be deducted'..
8. I love writing but truly despised it as a kid. I wanted to weep when my mom made sit and write to family members (hey, it was before internet). So much work all that writing..
9. I was born and raised on a Caribbean island. Tropical and warm and yet I don’t eat fish or (most) tropical fruit. While others get excited about fresh tropical fruit and see it as a treat, all I think is mangoes..blech.
10. I love a few foods, salted caramel, dried cherries are favourites but I live for sugary American breakfast cereal. Often gifted as it's priced like truffles on this side of the pond.
11. I love coffee, all types of coffee and often drink a relaxing double espresso before bedtime.. I also love tea but there goes my uber-particular self again, only wildberry zinger from Celestial seasonings, nothing else compares and are so not worth the time to heat the water.
12. I have little, read no middle, ground. I really like something or can’t stand it. But that can change 180 degrees in an instant. I go from 100 to 0 and 100 to 0 better than any car. I can love a certain type of food to death and then snap the next day cannot bare to see it again much less eat it. I had a salad and dressing period as a teenager and 15 years later I can’t and won’t look at the salad section of a menu. I loved curryketchup like I love cake and then it happened..I can’t stand the smell of it and the sight of that red bottle makes me tear up.
13. I have a few phobias but one that might seem a bit weird, especially with a love of limes and lemon; oranges. Any round, pebbled-skin, orange fruit sends me running literally (or subtly leaning away of hopefully subtly placing a hand by my nose). Oranges, mandarins and clementines, no matter which, just stay away. The colour is obnoxious and then the scent, so sharp and pungent. A have a colleague that eats a fruit basket each morning in the break room and discards the skins in what I see as a paper bin..no lid. Three words; nose, thoughts, punch.
14. Oranges are followed closely by.. bananas. Why do people think it OK to munch on these during informal meetings and throw the skins everywhere when outdoors. I cannot talk to someone with baby food mouth and banana breath. And maybe it’s too many cartoons as a kid but I fear stepping on one of these.
15. Despite having orchids in almost every space of my home, my favourite flower is the calla lily. My favourite colour is deep, rich eggplant. I repeat eggplant, deep and rich, not purple, not lilac, not violet. A calla with a eggplant colour on the inside..love.
16. Not the nicest thing to admit.. but alas I’m pretty sure I suffer from ‘resting bitch face’. But you know what they say..it keeps you pretty.
17. My favourite body part..my wrists. They are the same size as my four year old daughter and pretty tiny. Much like cropped, cuffs and ankles, sleeves get pushed up to expose the bits that make me feel delicate even on an uncoordinated bull in a china shop bloat day.
18. Because OCD controls so many aspects, I am not only a neat freak, I’m super particular. Those cushions have an order, an angle, a fluff level and are not haphazardly and casually thrown on the couch. Don’t even dare. All clothes hangers are wood, all face the same direction and are grouped and ordered down to the individual item. I follow my kids around tidying away any and every excess toy the moment they have moved on or not.
19. I love getting dressed and lay out my entire outfit the night before (hello, neat freak). But my greatest joy is peeling those layers off at the end of the day. If my neatfreakness would allow they would be a trail of clothes from door, along two flights of stairs, to wardrobe. I’m sure the postman thinks I’m a lazy housewife because no matter the time I answer the door uncombed in a fuzzy 13 year old bathrobe..it’s the quickest thing to grab as I try and rake comb my hair with my fingers.
20. I don’t get ugly, sexless (both m/v and appeal) fashion! I posted back in 2012 my hate of the bum bag and even my love of Alexander Wang cannot make me stop thinking of how fugly that was the first time around. Then there are slides. I have duck flat feet and any shoe that makes your feet look flatter and is inspired by the average middle-aged man on vacation is not for me. A saw a few with interesting details and materials and yet I still won’t even try a pair on. Not hip nor haute but I like it to be distinguishable that there are lady bits over here. Oversized everything, bum bags and slides. I just can’t.

And now you know me, wink..,

Lisa