I was tagged for the first time in my blogging life by Gayle Miller to write about five things you (most likely) don’t know about me.

1. One of my favorite movies is Far From the Madding Crowd, starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Terrence Stamp and Peter Finch. I first saw the fabulous movie when I was a sophomore in high school and it introduced me to one of my favorite writers, Thomas Hardy.

2. I sing in the shower, in the car, at school, downstairs, upstairs, in the kitchen and sometimes in my sleep. Although I am an alto, I love to sing cat opera which usually entertains my cats.

3. I’ve worked in my grandparents’ drycleaning shop, in my uncle’s drycleaners, in a factory one summer during college, in a grocery store, in a ladies dress shop, as a substitute teacher, as a fashion illustrator, as a church secretary, as a first grade, fifth grade, and sixth grade teacher and as an elementary art teacher. If I had to do it all over again I would have gone to lawschool.

4. I’m currently reading Augustus by Anthony Everett and it is fantastic. I love to read biographies and history. Before I started this book I read Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.

5. My dream in high school was to be an actor. I played Peaches Carter (a dumb blonde) in the stage play, Girl Shy when I was a sophomore but worked backstage thereafter. We only had one play a year at our high school and in my junior year I was chairman of the Props Committee. For my senior year I was the student director of the great play, Harvey.

One reason why I’ve always stressed good grades with my own children is the bad experience I had when I was elected President of our Drama Club my senior year. I didn’t even choose to run but was nominated by my fellow drama students. The guy I beat, a straight A student, went to the principal complaining. The principal checked my grades and discovered I didn’t even have a B average so they took the office away from me and gave it to him. I guess you can say I was impeached.

When I went to college I had made the firm decision that my drama days were behind me but it kept pulling me back. In my freshman year the director of the fall college play, The Rainmaker, wasn’t satisfied with the females who read for the female lead, Lizzie, the old maid. One of my friends from high school told the director about me and convinced me to try out. I got the lead and met my future husband the first night of play practice. He played the part of my father, H.D.

Now I will be tagging Kim at Musing Minds, Anne at Just Muttering, Mom at Sensible Mom, and Right Girl at Girl on the Right.

UPDATE:

Check out Kim at Musing Minds. She’s posted five things about her that we didn’t know until now. The Anchoress was also tagged and revealed some funny things about her.