25 Things

1. I am an introverted extrovert. Or an extroverted introvert. I’m not sure which, but because I was an English major I believe in the difference.

2. It bothers me when I hear someone use the phrase, “kill some time.”

3. I played the ukulele in elementary school. My son started playing the guitar in kindergarten. One always wants more for one’s child than one had….

4. When I was a girl, I wanted to be a professional cross-country skier. I skied most every night, usually in my grandparents’ orchard. There was also a time I wanted to be a geologist. I readied myself for this by pulling all of the clothes out of my closet and moving in a chair, a small chest, my rock collection, a magnifying glass, and several field guides.

5. My inner life is a big part of my life.

6. I broke my collarbone when I was in fourth grade. I was riding my bike (fast) down our street and tried to pop a wheelie. My front tire hit a rock, my handlebars kicked out, and I landed next to the curb.

7. I have had two reconstructive knee surgeries. I tore the ACL in my left knee in 1989 when I was in Scotland. Five years later, I tore the ACL in my right knee.

8. I love the weird, looping logic created in sestinas.

9. I miss my grandma fiercely.

10. I grew up working and playing in my grandparents’ apple orchard. I ate apple-something (fried apples, cinnamon apples, baked apples…) every day of my life for a very long time.

11. I don’t have much use for Red Delicious apples.

12. I like shoveling snow.

13. When I was 21, I spent the night on a cliff in the Peloponnese above the Mediterranean Sea. I hiked there with my friend Lori because we could not find a place to stay in town (Koroni). We huddled on a rocky outcropping all night, listening to Greek men shout unknown things somewhere off down the hill, and hoping -- really really hoping --they did not climb up the hill to drink ouzo and kill us. They did not.

14. There was not a train that served that little village in the Peloponnese, so in the morning we found a ride with a man who needed to deliver some chickens to a friend. We rode in the back seat with the chickens.

15. I misplace keys frequently. Duke Ellington’s granddaughter once found a set I had been missing for more than a year.

16. I love children’s books. I love reading to children.

17. Galway Kinnell visited Albion College the semester I was in Scotland. I was so disappointed to miss him that, a year or so later, I took a train to St. Paul to hear him read at The Hungry Mind.

18. I like trains. I took one to Austin, Texas to see my sister. I could have flown for $2 less, but I had books to read, strangers to meet, poems to write….

19. I miss doing things with my sister.

20. I don’t like butterscotch.

21. I love cilantro.

22. I want a unicycle.

23. I don’t care about the Super Bowl (ever), but I watched Bruce Springsteen at half-time tonight.

24. I like climbing trees.

25. I am a tent camper, though I sometimes skip the tent. I have slept under the stars in many special places. Maybe the best was Isle Royale, where I woke in the night and heard wolves.