So to make it up to all the students over the years, here's 25 things about me, basically more than you ever wanted to know about Melissa.
1. As an adult I think pizza is the perfect food. I love every kind of pizza and flatbread you can imagine. I will say the more crust the better; deep dish and pan are my favorite. Breakfast pizza, Hawaiian pizza, tomato and basil flatbread, you name it - all good. I've even had a seafood pizza that was delicious. I'm not even picky about "good" pizza. Give me a $2 frozen Roma pizza or some gourmet pizza, I don't care. All good. But as a child, I was that annoying kid who didn't like pizza and always ordered something else when the family went out for pizza.
2. I will pretty much sing along or listen to any kind of music, EXCEPT jazz. I just don't like jazz or blues. It all sounds the same to me and it all sounds just weird to me. But yes, I have been known to pull up a Barbie soundtrack and sing along and I'm not ashamed to say I recently downloaded the karaoke version of the Mary Poppins soundtrack.
3. I have a brother and a sister but I'm the youngest by 7 years. This led to my entire high school years being almost like an only child. I'm not complaining, I loved it.
4. I have been in love with horses forever. Literally as long as I can remember. My very first horse was a paint pony named Teddy that did everything in his power to buck me off every time I rode. So I like to skip him and go to my second horse, a 19 year old old Arabian gelding named... Ole. That horse taught me to ride and I would go out in the pasture and hop on him bareback. If I wanted to turn I reached down and pulled his halter one way. If I wanted to stop, I grabbed between the ears and pulled back. Did I mention he was a saint?
5. I'm blind as a bat. Yep, I wear contacts. I hate how I look in glasses so I have to be having a really bad contacts day if you see me in my glasses. (Or you stopped by the house after I got ready for bed or haven't gotten up yet.)
6. I hate running, but do it almost every day. Okay, maybe hate is a strong word. However, the whole time I am running I am thinking about how this hurts and just 5 more minutes. Lately my mantra while running has been, "strong legs, strong heart, breathe strong" because my legs hurt and I've been short on breath. It isn't just running - I hate exercise in general WHILE I'm doing it. It's after that it feels great.
7. I have taught 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grades as a regular ed and social studies teacher. I've done long term subs that covered all the other grades. I can honestly say that I can't pick a favorite grade but I would rather not teach anything below 4th. There were positives and negatives about every level.
8. I love to read and I've read some of the adult favorites. My all time favorite book ever is Gone With the Wind. I could read it over and over. However, I have more young adult books that I love than any other genre. Harry Potter and the Percy Jackson books being personal favorites. Truly anything fantasy. though makes the list of faves.
9. I'm a lover of all things Disney, especially the older movies like Aladdin, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, etc... I even had one of my senior portraits taken with all of my Mickey Mouse stuff and it was a lot. I also love Disney World and want to go back again someday. It's supposed to be a family vacation, but people really underestimate the appeal to adults. I loved it there when I was 19 and appreciated it way more than I did at 8.
10. I love memes. I love sending memes, I love getting memes, I love reading memes and I love finding the perfect meme. Gifs rank right up there too. I can be having a bad day but the right meme or gif can usually bring me out of my funk.
11. I love clothes. I love clothes shopping. I love looking at clothes. I love planning outfits. I'm not good at it, mind you, but I have a Pinterest board called "My Style" that is overflowing with my dream outfits. I can't afford to buy the outfits I would love to put together and I definitely already spend too much on clothes, but Goodwill and thrift stores are my go to for shopping fun.
12. I used to scrapbook a ton and now I still try to find time to get to it every now and then. Keeping memories is so important to me, especially being the history buff that I am. I want all of my future grandchildren and great grandchildren to be able to look back and have a family history to enjoy.
13. I love to bake. It started late in high school and after when I was the pie baker for the Harmony House. I was trained by the best, my Grandma Kiehne. She was a harsh teacher, one time telling me that my apple pie was "better than she thought it would be", and that was a huge compliment. She would yell if the dough was too thick, yell if it was too thin, but I learned one thing. You can fix almost any mistake and you don't give up. My only regret is that I never got my butt out of bed at 4:30 to learn how to make her cinnamon rolls.
14. I am a fabric hoarder. I hate totes of fabric left over from the days that I used to quilt. So many half and unfinished projects! I'm pretty sure that it has been more than 10 years since I quilted last, but once upon a time it was one of my favorite pastimes. I hope to someday get back to it, hence my fabric collection. Hopefully it doesn't go out of style.
15. Friends is the best show ever and I have watched the entire series multiple times, from Episode 1 - 236. I'm currently about 2/3 of the way through the series again. Even though I have virtually every episode memorized, it never ceases to get me to laugh and smile. I may be able to give a Friends reference for nearly every trial or struggle that comes up in my life. It is quite difficult not to quote Friends or share Friends clips in school.
16. I've watched enough Gray's Anatomy that I'm pretty sure I could save your life. I mean, I've seen it done like a thousand times. I'm pretty sure I could perform a periocardiocentesis with a ball point pen and a straw. I mean, I saw it on TV....
17. I'm a little bit of a neat freak. I hate mess and clutter and absolutely love "a place for everything and everything in its place". Hence my love of binders, tabs, folders, totes and all things meant to sort and organize. I have Pinterest boards devoted to organization. It's kind of my happy place.
18. While I love things clean, neat and organized (seriously love the smell of bleach and "clean linen" is my go to scent), I hate dusting. Hate is a strong word and I hate dusting. The temptation to have zero things set out to dust around is strong. The fact that on any given day you could write your name in the dust in a given room in my house is true. I need to be better about dusting, but I don't wanna.
19. I have generalized anxiety disorder, the kind that makes you see a therapist. Approximately 2 years ago I learned enough skills to be able to manage my anxiety on my own and feel fairly confident that I have a handle on it these days. But it is always there and I'm always thankful for those that help me cope instead of judging.
20. I used to be a cheerleading coach and loved it. It is seriously one of my happiest memories from the last 20 years. We had a blast and I will never forget how proud I was of them when we went to our state competition and brought home a 3rd place trophy. I still have cheers that run through my head. I cannot spell aggressive or determination without getting the rhythm firmly implanted in my brain.
21. My idea of a perfect weekend day is sleeping in, making a big breakfast, reading my book or watching a movie, taking a long nap, making dinner and then going back to bed. Naps should be what people do for dates. Sounds like a dream date to me. To make a reference to another favorite Friends episode, "What's not to like? Sleep good, cuddling good, waking up rested and not in a bad mood...."
22. My idea of the perfect date, (if nap dates don’t count as real dates), is dinner and a movie. Or even just a movie. I LOVE action, especially anything Avengers, and will usually pass on anything comedy. I’ve seen a lot of comedies and some are okay, but I hate how the theme of so many is that things just constantly go wrong after wrong after wrong for the main character. To me that’s not funny, it’s depressing. No movie is complete without popcorn, and yes with butter. Not a little bag either, the big jumbo tub. Even better is a jumbo box of milk duds. If you eat the milk duds and popcorn at the same time you get caramel popcorn. Amazing!!
23. I’ve been a waitress for the last 27 years except for a 7 year break in the middle. While there are definitely days that are harder than others, I do really love serving and I love my current job at the Village Square. I love the food we serve, the people I work with and my boss. Can’t wait for us to open again this spring.
24. I struggle with confidence issues about a lot of things; singing, horseback riding, teaching, serving, cooking, people skills, looks, athletic ability, pretty much everything. I’m very thankful for every little success in my life and I can’t thank those people who consistently lift me up enough.
25. I haven't always attended church faithfully and still struggle to get there some weeks. However, I have always been religious and there was a pastor who actually recommended seminary school. Looking back, I feel like I would have loved getting to share God's word with the world, but I'm grateful for the career path I did choose. However, I will continue to practice my faith and share here when appropriate. I never want to force religion on any of my friends, for me it has helped me through some struggles in my life. I will forever be thankful for God's guiding hand.
Okay. Whew. 25 was really hard! I started this blog over TWO WEEKS ago! But I'm done. Finally! You now know more than you ever wanted to know about me. Feel free to share a couple things about yourself either here or on Facebook. I'd love to hear more about all of you!
No comments:
Post a Comment