I prefer to type.  But I don’t really write in cursive or print, I scrawl.  Except in my classroom.  I have to print slowly and well in my primary grade classroom.

I prefer to shop online, but sometimes it is nice to go to the stores.  I hate trying on clothes in a store, but I am terrible about returning things I get online (case in point: 6 bras and a pair of capris in a box in my living room right now).

Motel-schmotel, I need an all-inclusive resort.  My idea of “roughing it” is a motel.  But I do keep thinking it would be fun to have an RV or pop-up camper.

My husband and I love to go to the drive-in.  It has been especially good that we love drive-ins now that we have a kid.

I would love to take a bath, but I don’t fit in the tub.  I don’t really care as long as I have the opportunity to be clean.

2.  Do you have a nickname you go by now or growing up?
My mommy called me Big D.  Some of my high school friends called me Dawnothan and some of my college friends called me Dawnald.

3. Do you speak another language?
I studied French for 3 and a half years in high school and 2 years in college, so no.  I can fake it in Montreal, reading not speaking though.  Right now I wish I spoke Baby.

4. Where is you favorite vacation spot?
Star Island.  In 4 days I will be sitting in a rocking chair smelling ocean breezes, drinking lime rickeys, thinking of nothing.

5. What do you cook the most for dinner?
I don’t cook much of anything for dinner.  The thing I cook the most part is homemade macaroni and cheese.

When I was in my twenties, I had a terrible cough for weeks.  One day I was playing with my daughter’s 4 year old, picking her up and swinging her around.  The next day I could barely get out of bed.  I coughed, my chest hurt and I could barely roll over.  I suffered for about three weeks before I finally went to the doctor.  The cough had subsided, but the pain was still there.  As she pressed on my chest she confirmed what I feared: broken rib.  And of course there is nothing you can do about broken ribs.  All told I think I lived with it for over 2 months.

Drink-drink?  amaretto sour, light on the ice
Soda? root beer and ginger ale
Juice? fresh squeezed orange juice

I was born on May 16.  I turned 34 this year.  My 33rd birthday present was my son, born nearly 10 hours after the moment of my birthday.

I learned a few years ago that I am allergic to amoxicillin.  I had a sinus infection and the doctor gave me a scrip.  After 24 hours I was covered with hives.  They were worse than the sinus infection.  I also think I have seasonal allergies, but I have no medical confirmation.

As a little kid I would have said The Muppet Movie.
As a preteen I would have said Girls Just Want to Have Fun.
As a teen I would have said Say Anything.
In college I would have said Jerry Maguire.
As an adult I could watch just about anything with Reece Witherspoon over and over.

It really depends on my mood, but mostly sweet. I love French Fries, but I would rather have cake or cookies.  In fact right now I am eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for breakfast.

I am a patient with others.  I am persistent, I will keep trying something until I get it.

I am a terrible procrastinator.  I would rather put things off and be stressed at the last minute than do them now.  I am always running late.  About the only thing I am not late for is theater.  I hate late-comers at performances.  I am a hoarder.  I hate getting rid of things.  I am a “what if I need it later” kind of person.  Looking at all those things together, I suspect they are all related.

Yarn.  I have so much cotton dishcloth yarn I could make a dishcloth for every day of the month.  I also have a large collection of postcards of my town, college, and vacation spot.  I try to get a squashed penny whenever I have the chance.

Spring, no question.  My birthday is in May.  The grass is green.  Flowers are blooming.  It smells nice.  It means the end of school is coming.  Second best is fall.

Now you:

Nearly every Thursday my husband and I take Tumblebug for Family Night at The Chelsea Royal Diner. The Chelsea (as it is known) has traditional diner fare and some slightly more exotic things, but we get the same thing every time.  I get a foot long hot dog and macaroni and cheese with a side of fries and he gets spaghetti marinara with no meatball.  We know all the evening waitresses and they love our little one.  From April to October we go outside for dessert because they have the best ice cream.

I listen to a lot of different music.  Mostly I like the Barenaked Ladies, They Might Be Giants, Kasey Chambers, and Broadway musicals.

A lot.  I watch way too much TV.  I like reality like Survivor, The Amazing Race, and Big Brother.  I also like scripted television like How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, Parenthood, CSI, Criminal Minds, and Lie to Me.

I love to read.  I have been reading for as long as I can remember.  I don’t actually remember learning how to read.  I haven’t finished a book since my son was born last year though.  I am about 2/3 of the way through The Time Traveler’s Wife.  I also like to read The Outlander series, Harry Potter, and anything by Anne Rivers Siddons or Jodi Picoult,.

Green

Only 3 things?  Wow!

1. Sweet Briar is a great college and you will have a terrific four years if you go there…but…look around New England a little more.  Can you get into Mt. Holyoke?  Is there a small college nearby that has a great teacher’s program?  And take some classes at Keene State over summers.  And if you do go to SBC?  Room with Candice in Manson your sophomore year.
2. You have a condition called vulvodynia.  As soon as you graduate from college and Brattleboro Ob/Gyn opens in Brattleboro go see Dr. McBean and get her to fix you.  You will be so glad that you did in 2000.
3. And that guy, that one that has the funny hair, he is going to have the part of the dad in Bye, Bye Birdie.  And in the future?  You will love him.  No seriously, stop laughing.  Really, you will.  Stop laughing!  You will love him. You will even want to have babies with him.  And they will be soooo cute.  But only if you remember the second thing I told you.

No one I know personally…hmmm…that’s hard.  I would have to give the money to someone I know, but for them to pass it on to a stranger.

I would love to give a bunch of money to my college to help a girl from New England go to college there.  I had such a great time at college, but I think college would be so much better if you didn’t have to worry about money.

I would give money to my Star Island conference to help pay for kids to come out to the youth conference.  I would specify it would be for kids who had never been out to the Island before.  That was another amazing experience of my youth and it costs 3 times as much now, 20 years later.

Lastly, I would give some to the NVA so they can find a cure.  I hate that other women have to go through the pain and stress I went through.   I would love to have had 2 children by now and have a normal marriage, but such was not my luck.  I was so lucky to be diagnosed at my third doctor (the average is 7) and find a man that is understanding and supportive.  I still hope for a pain-free life, but for now I am happy with the life I have.

How about, “I am sorry your pettiness and immaturity caused me to choose others to be my friends”?

Or maybe, “I am sorry you blame me for your mistakes.”

Nope.  Those probably aren’t good apologies.

I do owe apologies -and thank you notes- to nearly everyone who got me or my baby something last spring and summer when he was born.  I was just so overwhelmed by life I didn’t write most of them and now it feels like it is too late.  I am going to get started on Christmas and birthday and then maybe work my way backwards.

I owe an apology to some of my former students for not doing a good enough job as their teacher to help them improve.  For not knowing enough to teach them better.  For being too embarrassed to ask for help.

I owe an apology to my son for being a crappy housekeeper and limiting the space he can crawl in.  For not moving him into his own bedroom until he was 11 months old.  For still not cleaning out that room.  For the pink rose wallpaper that is still on the walls.

To my friend who has passed away for not being a better friend.

To my friends I have lost touch with for not being better at keeping in touch.

To my body for not taking better care of it.

To my blog readers for being a poor blogger.

• Gallery Walk tonight
• dinner out
• no bath for baby!

Saturday

• Strolling of the Heifers!!!!
• Dairy Fest and Green Expo
• early to bed after a long day

Sunday

• Sunday School (last day, after 3 years of teaching the same girls)
• Church
• long drive to Bradford
• lunch with Bee
• long drive home
• early to bed

When I was a senior in high school (1994) I went on a trip to London with my school.  I was in awe pretty much the whole time.  Not that I hadn’t traveled, I was just so in love with London I could hardly believe I was really there.  If I had had a digital camera I would have run out of space on my memory card the first day.  I especially loved riding the Underground.  After all I grew up in a town with a handful of elevators, a crappy bus system, and no escalators.

On the Underground I started to notice poetry in some of the ad spaces.  I didn’t know until way later (enter the advent of the internet) that this was a culture thing.

Poems on the Underground was launched in 1986. The programme was the brainchild of American writer Judith Chernaik, whose aim was to bring poetry to the wide ranging audience of passengers on the Underground.

All I knew was, I was seeing poems I hadn’t read before.  There was one that caught my eye and I wrote it in my journal.  I don’t know what it was that spoke to me in Auden’s words.  Maybe it was the repetition, maybe the odd rhyme scheme, maybe the message, but whatever it was I came home wanting to know more poetry by W.H. Auden.  It was a librarian friend who explained villanelle style poetry to me.  I tried to write poems in the same style, but I am a hopeless writer.  I got a book of his poetry and devoured it.  Four Weddings and a Funeral came out that same summer and featured another Auden poem that just about broke my heart.

continued

The connections just keep coming.  The college I went to, Sweet Briar College, actually has an Auden collection in the library.  I don’t actually know what that means, because I was never brave enough to ask about it.

Looking back I wish my senior quote in my high school yearbook had been from another Auden poem, Leap Before You Look.

I would have just quoted the last line, but I put the whole final stanza here to give context.  I was so afraid to leave the safety of my hometown, my friends, the only house I ever really remembered (there had been an apartment until I was 3), my parents and my sister.  Virginia is a long way from Vermont in so many different ways.  And I really had to leap before I looked, or I might not have gone.  I am so glad I did.

I had no idea what I was going to experience in college or how it would shape my life.  I wanted all the answers up front, but they weren’t there for me.  To be trite, I had to let time be the one to tell me so.