10 unusual things about me

[pjthompson]

I was tagged by mnfaure and was so very, very tempted just to update this entry from a few years back and pretend it was new. That wouldn't be sporting, would it? But that list is much more interesting. I've been squeezing my brain to come up with some more things. I'm really quite a boring individual and if I'm ever asked to do this again, I'm definitely using a previous post.

1. Although I'm right-handed, I'm quasi-ambidextrous in that I'm always doing things left-handedly. I wear my watch like a lefty on my right wrist, for instance, and, weirdest of all, I taught myself to use the mouse upside down. It seemed natural to me to go UP when I wanted the cursor to go DOWN.

2. I am related by marriage to the Old West desperadoes, the Dalton Gang. One of the siblings of one of my ancestors married one of the Dalton boys.

3. I once asked Danny Elfman if his mother was named Rosemary. We were at Madame Wongs, he was in Oingo Boingo at the time and between shows, I was drunk, someone dared me. I've been humiliated in retrospect ever since, but at the time I knew no shame. Hussy! (Hmm. Maybe I should have posted this to postsecret instead of here.)

4. There are three degrees of separation between me and Marilyn Monroe. 1) My friend, Stephan, had a writing partner I knew as 2) Bobby Miller. I later found out his real name was Arthur Miller, Jr., and 3) Marilyn Monroe was once married to Arthur Miller, Sr., therefore Bobby's stepmother.

5. I've been to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It has an open-air ramp winding all the way around the outside, always going up (naturally). When I got to the top, an Italian film crew was filming a commercial.

6. I've had my purse snatched three times, and my old apartment which I shared with roommates, was robbed four times. I am hypervigilant and distrustful as a result.

7. I have roughly 400 books in my To Be Read pile (really, three small bookshelves), and that's not even counting most of my nonfiction and the one or two boxes still packed in the garage. Can you say "sickness"?

8. My biological father was a lot older than my mother. Added to that, I was a late in life baby for my mom. As a consequence, the timeframe on my father goes back much further than most people my age. Dad was born in the year 1900, lied about his age (by one year) in order to join the Army, and fought in World War I. This also means my half-brother (now deceased), fathered by Dad in his mid-twenties, was two years younger than my mother. It also means that all but one of my nieces and nephews are older than me.

9. On another genealogical note: two creeps from history share a common ancestor with me—the genocidal maniac and incompetent general George Armstrong Custer, and the obscure, crazy, Nazi-sympathizing poet, Ezra Pound. I sure hope it doesn't run in the family. Why couldn't it have been somebody cool???

10. The house I grew up in was in the middle of the city (Venice, part of Los Angeles), but had open fields on both sides, which was quite lovely. However, this house no longer exists. Developers bought the entire block and turned it into a public storage facility. This makes me very sad.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

We've got a lot of early and lates in our family, too.

The biggest spread was that of an editor I know, who is exactly my age--we were both born in 51. My mom was 17 when she got pregnant with me; her mom was 55.

[pjthompson]

Oh my! That's quite a difference. When I was a kid, people used to get a lot more worked up about it. A sign of the times, I think, since late pregnancy is far, far more common now.

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

Those are all fascinating things!

[pjthompson]

You're too kind. You would not believe how hard I had to think to come up with ten.

[purdypiedad.livejournal.com]

My mother's maiden name is Dalton. No idea if there is any connection, though.

I also wear a watch on my right, and when I did gymnastics, I started cartwheels, round offs, flips, etc. on my left foot, which is opposite of what right-handed people usually did. However, I am right-hand-dominant, and I do kick with my right foot.

[pjthompson]

It's funny how the brain sometimes rewires the left-right thing, isn't it?

[purdypiedad.livejournal.com]

My mother once told me that when I was little, she couldn't determine which hand was dominant, so she put the crayon in my right hand and taught me to color/write with my right hand, thus making that hand become dominant. When I attempt to kick with my left foot, it feels more awkward, but I generally don't do a worse job (I suck at both.). The same goes for throwing. I naturally throw right-handed, but my left, though it feels awkward, seems to affect the same results. I wonder if you and I were both ambidextrous as kids. My siblings tell me that I was a real right-brainer in my thinking as a kid; I was super touchy-feely. But as I've matured, I have become excessively left-brain-dominant... probably to a fault. I do find it curious.

I've always thought that the best writers were equally strong in both hemispheres of their brain because language and plot sequencing is left-brained, but the creativity required to use picturesque words and generate story is completely right-brained.

[pjthompson]

That's a good question. I don't think I'm truly ambidextrous, just sort of...if that's possible. The wiring is a little hazy. As to right brain/left brain, I think I've always been strong in both. I'm hyper-analytical, yet there's that other airy fairy right brain thing going on. When I write, the left brain goes ape with the planning and research, then the right brain has to distract it and get it out of the way so it can play for the actual writing or I won't get anything done. That's one of the reasons, I think, why a lot of planning and research up front, but no detailed outline work best for me. I had to do a detailed outline for the end of my current WIP to get all the complications right, and writing it has been like trying to paddle a canoe upstream in a river of molasses. *sigh*

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I never knew number 8 -- that's really, really interesting. I mean, you've touched on the edges of that story, but never really got into it. That's kind of cool.

[pjthompson]

It was definitely something different when I was growing up. My playmates and their parents were kind of gobsmacked.

[geniusofevil.livejournal.com]

I would have totally caught you if you'd done a repost!

#7 400! Suddenly, my shelf doesn't look so crazy.

#8 Wow, that's cool. Your dad was born in 1900. There's a story in there.

#9 We all have creeps in our family tree.

[pjthompson]

I would have totally caught you if you'd done a repost!

I'll just have to bribe you to silence next time.

#7 400! Suddenly, my shelf doesn't look so crazy.

I was only surprised there were so few.

#8 Wow, that's cool. Your dad was born in 1900. There's a story in there.

Indeed there is. Now, if I only had the energy to write it.

#9 We all have creeps in our family tree.

That is my one consolation.