Thursday Thirteen #2

1. I really don't like assembling photo albums. I am trying to rephrase what I say in my mind... "This is better than delivering newspapers or this is better than working at Walmart."

2. When I lived in Hawaii my sister got to attend the private school in 6th grade and Japanese was one of her classes. I wanted to learn Japanese, too, but I went to the local public school where we were taught a little bit of the Hawaiian language along with Greek mythology and the usual subjects. I liked school and can still remember how to ask someone if they speak Japanese thanks to my sister.

3. When I lived in Iowa we lived in a very Dutch community... so Dutch that the Tulip Festival was celebrated there every year and traditional wooden shoe Dutch dances were taught as a part of the public school's PE class and each class performed for the public in the street in wooden shoes during the Tulip Festival. I liked learning the dances and wearing the traditonal dress, pointy hat (which name I can no longer remember) and wooden shoes. I liked performing in front of the crowds. One year a poem I wrote about the Tulip Festival was chosen to be posted in the City Hall during the Tulip Festival along with other student's poems.

4. I was only in third grade when I wrote that poem but I specifically wrote it about the Tulip Festival in order to increase my chances of having it chosen to be displayed.

5. In 6th grade, I experienced the awakening of the awareness that God really did exist and I felt incredibly guilty about all of my previous sins which included stealing.

6. I have no idea why I stole things but over the course of 3rd and 4th grade, I regularly stole candy from the Five and Dime in our town and I even stole a wooden shoe charm, I think, from a street vendor at the festival. I am thankful that I eventually felt guilt over my sticky fingers.

7. I am hungry and don't feel like thinking of six more things but I will plug on.

8. When I was in kindergarten, I can remember the 1st or 2nd grade girl next door reading stories to me. I can also remember waking up in the middle of the night regularly to find that my Mom wasn't in the house. I'd go outside and yell her name. One time I walked through the entier neighborhood. Inevitably, she'd be inside a neighbor's house chatting. It probably wasn't as late as thought at the time.

9. During that same year, my sister and I held a wedding for our younger brother, John and his love interest, Ray Ray. They married and left on John's big wheel. They were only 3 years old.

10. When I was little I hated getting shots to the point that the doctor and nurse and my Mom would have to chase me around the examining room until they caught me and held me still. Hehehe.

11. I had a cyst removed from my neck when I was 2 or 3 years old. I can remember riding a tricycle in the hallway of the hospital or somewhere on my way to my room.

12. When I lived in Hawaii, I used to walk down to what I guess was a local seamstress shop or something and trash pick fabric scraps out of the their trash to play with. I wonder now if it was a seamstress or if not, what kind of shop would have fabric scraps in their trash. I might have to call my Mom to find out.

13. Also while in Hawaii, my Mom allowed me to cross the highway to do some of the family grocery shopping at the grocery store across the street. I have a hard time envisioning letting any of my own children do what I was allowed to do at that age.

Oops: I had to edit number 3... I had said when I lived in Hawaii, but I was actually talking about Iowa in #3.