In honor of Gustavia’s favorite day, here are 13 things in random order and of no particular importance whatsoever.
1. I just (not even five minutes ago) finished reading Lauren Graham’s new memoir, I’m talking as Fast as I Can. Loved it and found out some interesting parallels…no, I’m not an actor and I’ve never been to Hollywood, but it turns out we both learned to read before starting Kindergarten. And, apparently, by the same method. Our mothers read to us nightly and we just sort of absorbed the ability. I, however, did not skip forward a grade, even though it was an option, because I went to a one-room schoolhouse until third grade. My teacher just let me do whatever assignments I wanted from any of the grades he was teaching at the time. Messed me up when we changed schools, but it was a great experience.
2. As a mom, I turned around and passed the tradition along to my daughter and co-author Erin Lynn. She was reading at three and I maintain that the gift of reading was the single most important thing I ever gave her. Sometimes I wish I’d given her my weird feet, too.
3. I have weird feet. Do you care? Probably not. Moving on.
4. The weirdest job I’ve ever had involved sitting in front of a pool in a mall waiting for someone to ask me questions about it. In and of itself, there’s nothing strange about the job but, you haven’t heard the whole story. First, I never met my employer. NEVER. And they never met me. I could have been the love child of Bozo the clown and Professor McGonagall with one tooth and a penchant for wearing tutus over my clothes. They would have never known. Second, the mall they sent me to was deserted. Not just by people, but half the stores were already closed. The only people I ever saw were a group of elderly mall walkers. I called in to work from a pay phone and called out when I left. I never saw anyone checking to see if I was there or not. Thankfully, there was still a Waldenbooks left and they had a lovely cart of bargain books for me to spend my pool tending money on. I worked there for three months and never gave out a single pamphlet.
5. I was a Navy wife for five years.
6. Estelle in the Psychic Seasons books is a combination of my two grandmothers with a hint of my husband’s mother thrown in for good measure. All my favorite grandmotherly ladies rolled into one.
7. I once bought a scratch ticket on Friday the 13th and my change at the grocery store came back $6.66. I thought it might be a sign I was going to hell, but I won $50. I think I’ll go to the store today and try my luck again. Maybe I’ll trip over a black cat on the way.
8. The town I grew up in was smaller than Ponderosa Pines. It had a population of under 300 and for one reason or another, I’d visited every house that existed in the entire town by the time I graduated high school. It’s hard to explain to my grandsons that I could knock on any door and ask for help or a drink of water because I would know the person who lived there.
9. I’ve lived in five different states and visited twenty-six altogether. I’m half Canadian.
10. Now we live 3/4 of a mile down a back road in the country and have mutant tractor mice in our yard. That’s what my husband calls them because they keep building nests in the engine of our lawn tractor. Costly nests if you forget to check for them and run the tractor.
11. My dad is psychic. Not like Kat, but he has his moments.
12. My husband has had a few psychic flashes, too. His mom was up the ladder to their attic and he had a vision of her falling. Without questioning it, he dashed to her rescue and caught her as she fell.
13. This was fun.