Seven Random Things…

1.  When I was twenty-one I was gainfully employed as an armed security guard for a synagogue. I was terrible.  I would stay up late partying and have to be in at 5:30AM for morning service.  Once I took off my belt and used it as a pillow and slept on the floor of the handicapped bathroom thinking this was the safest place to catch a nap.  The father of the president of the board was confined to a wheel chair.  He needed to use the bathroom on this particular morning.  I never heard them knocking. The door flies open and I am staring at six or seven members and the handyman who broke in.  I convinced them I was hypoglycemic and passed out from dizziness. I know. Terrible.I did however gain a love for latkes, lox and Manishevitz while I was employed there.  Oy!

2.  I love road trips. There’s a sense of peace in driving that I don’t get from flying. I have made a lot of hard life decisions on the road.  Last year I drove the family to Deep Creek, Maryland from Saint Louis.  This year I’ll be heading out to Kansas City, MO and Colorado Springs, CO.

3.  I’ve never been fully connected to a cell phone. I’ve always considered my cell phone to be like a homing device. I enjoy the convenience but I don’t enjoy the pressure to have to talk.   Just because you call does not mean I am obligated to answer.  I am a complicated woman and sometimes I just want to appreciate uninterrupted silence.  I do however return phone calls to friends or ones that require my attention.

4.  I had to have a psychologist tell me I was a good mother before I believed it. I took my older son to three psychologists to get 2nd and 3rd opinions about putting him on Ritalin for ADHD.  The last psychologist worked out a non-stimulant method and he has since developed behavioral coping skills medicine free.  He said your son is lucky to have a good mom like you. I looked down at my feet. I didn’t believe him.  I said, “I just want him to be okay.” He wouldn’t let me leave the room until I understood why I was a good mom.  He also convinced me I was underachieving and should seek counselling for my own issues so I could lead a full life. I did that.

5.  I almost died in a car accident in 2003.  I was on my way home from Pensacola Florida, when the driver of the vehicle I was travelling in lost control of the vehicle and plowed 90MPH into a guard rail.  He never hit the brakes.  The force of the impact popped the lift-gate open and  all of the contents of the vehicle were ejected including me.  I was life-flighted to a trauma center five miles from the scene. I recovered pretty quickly from internal injuries and broken bones. I do not live with any pain from it today. Let’s just say this accident made me a better person and I no longer make poor decisions as to who drives me anywhere.

6.  I dated one of  Louis Farrakhan’s sons.   His mother lived in the neighborhood that I did and I met him at a grocery store while he was ordering a salami sandwich at the deli counter. He said he was a Neo-Muslim and could eat pork.  Right.  He was very into the Atlanta music scene.  I’m sure he thought he was the next great rapper, surely to the disgust of his father.  He would come to my house, bodyguards in tow and talk about himself the whole time.  I’ll also go so far as to tell you he was likely to arrive pre-maturely. <wink>  He was a total jerk.

7.  I have a 3.95 GPA and I will graduate with honors in May.  I usually don’t boast but I feel like it this is an appropriate time to bring it up. I know people say it doesn’t matter what your college GPA was. Those people were C average jerks and can suck it!  Seriously, I work hard and although it may not matter in the future work world, it means something to me.

~ by aprilstl on January 14, 2009.