I have a number of blogging friends who do 13 on the 13th- a list of 13 things within a theme. A cute list... and I do love a good list... plus I've been doing this for 30 days and as much as I really want to document who I am right now and what things are like in my life, let's face it, there's only so much to talk about. I'm not usually so self-centered and I'm not exactly comfortable being that way... so today's not the 13th, which means I get off the hook a little easier.
SIX Things I Never Thought I'd be
An early riser// when I was a teenager I could sleep until noon any day my parents would let me. Even as a kid, Mom would have to drag me out of bed to go to the hockey rink on Saturday morning for Jeff's early games. I would dream of going to Suffolk Downs with Jeff and my Uncle Michael on a random Saturday morning to see the horses and take in all the madness that is the track-- and yet more often than not, I'd opt to sleep in and Jeff would go alone. I had the hardest time getting up for school in the morning and wasn't very pleasant when I did get up (right Mom??)
And now, while I'll be the first to tell you that 5am doesn't always agree with me, I am an early-riser. I'm much happier getting to bed around 10p, even on the weekends, and get up around 7 or 8am. Sometimes I lie in bed on the weekend and just hope I can go back to sleep until 9am which feels a little more reasonable in my head...it doesn't usually work. My internal clock has shifted. I must say I think I like it better this way. Weekends feel much more productive. I can walk and clean and get a bunch done and still have social-time or relaxation-time.
A domestic "diva"// Ok this is not the perfect word for it, but you get my gist. My room used to be cluttered with clothes (clean and dirty), Mom would have to remind me to clean my bathroom over and over before it got done and I hate helping w/ the chores around the house.
Now I LIVE for a clean house! I actually look forward to cleaning all the dishes and the counters and then polishing the granite on Saturday mornings. Its almost a sickness. I don't always have time to do as much as I'd like, but that inner clean-freak has grown inside me since we've moved to Scituate. We have few knick-knacks and things because I like to keep the cleaning process simple and easy so that its actually achievable in a 3 hour span.
Not only do I like it clean- I like it done my way. I read books about making my own cleaners and look forward to trying new "recipes." I have a system of cloths in different colors so that we rarely use paper towels for anything. I like the way I make the bed...
Stuff I never dreamed in a million years I'd care about. But I do.
A career-woman // I hated nearly every job I ever had. American Eagle (I liked it sometimes), babysitting, Spirit of Boston, Katharine Gibbs, Staples (not terrible but not exciting)... I did like working at the craft store, but I worked for my Mom and it was very much up my creative alley. Still, for most jobs I'd get a stomach ache just thinking about going in... I hated knowing that I had to be there for a set number of hours... I just hated it... and not because I don't have it in me to work hard, I just couldn't find my niche.
Here at MGH its a totally different ballgame. I came here just to get a paycheck and its turned into a lot more. I really enjoy my work (most days), and I like knowing that my projects can and do have at least some small impact on the patients and families who come here.
I'm still not a career woman in the typical sense of the word. I don't have huge ambitions. I don't live to get every detail done right away and put off time with family and friends. I NEED balance and this job provides that (most of the time). I don't have aspirations of being a director or VP. That's not me. But my work is important to me and I'm happy that my path lead me here.
At ease in the kitchen // I dabbled in baking when I was kid but that was about the extent of it. While my mom is a good cook, she doesn't go all out unless there's a party or special event... our normal week day meals were spaghetti, tacos, hamburger helper (Dad's contribution), chicken pot pie or some other chicken variation. Nothing extravagant or time-consuming.
I don't tend towards the extravagant or time-consuming either- especially not on weeknights, but I thoroughly enjoy the following about cooking:
--Searching out local, organic, healthy food
--New recipes to make healthier food easy and delicious enough to trick myself into eating on a more regular basis
--Making it myself- not relying on "packaged" version of things we forget actually can be made ourselves- like applesauce and ice cream.
Techie // Ok ok, the real techies out there would whole-hearted disagree with this one... but I do like my gadgets and I can hold my own at figuring things out. Blackberry, ipod, macbook, software.... I don't need the absolute latest and greatest- I try to balance my wanting of cool new things with "Do I really need this? Is my old one broken yet?" But I enjoy learning about what's new on the market and why its better than things that came before. At work two of my favorite projects are hardware and software based and I know more about servers and interfaces and HL7 than I ever dreamed of, but I like that I can at least understand most basic/intermediate IS conversations...
An Adult // I have been in the same full-time job for nearly 8 years. I pay my bills early and I pay extra. I have checks and credit cards. I have lived on my own. I own a car and maintain it. I do stuff even when I don't want to... because that's what you do when you're an adult. I make good decisions. I make bad decisions sometimes; I learn from them. I learn new things all the time. I try to make myself a better, smarter, more caring person.
In some ways I don't know that I'm all that different than the child and teenager I remember being. The core of "me" is still in there, but I'm a little more polished and a lot more confident. I still like to play with my craft stuff and watch girly television that does not require any braincells to process. I love hanging out with my friends and the fact that I don't have as many responsibilities as other people my age. Yes, I still feel very much in between, but I think as I approach 30 its hard to argue that I'm not an adult!
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