Jeanne tagged me for this game. I am supposed to tag 5 others but I’m not going to do that. Here is what I was going to title ‘5 Things I Like About Me’ but then I wrote them and decided they are just ‘5 Things about Me’.

1). I was born in Ohio and although I moved from there when I was 10 I still consider myself to be a Buckeye. Don’t ask me why.

2). I took some time off after I graduated from High School to go to France and perfect my French. The only problem was that I didn’t know the first thing about traveling abroad, had no plans and didn’t bother reading any books or anything smart like that. I had no student ID and no Eurail pass. My mother, worried sick about my lack of plans found another person in town who had a daughter who was living in France and needed a roomate for a while so I went and stayed with her. We had nothing in common. I knew no one. I had no program, no traveling partner – nothing. I spent an entire month walking all over Paris in my Earth shoes and ended up with these horrible ulcerated blisters on my feet. Then I went to Germany to stay on the houseboat of a guy I met on the plane. He kept trying to get me to go to a doctor but I didn’t speak German and I didn’t have much money and I was too afraid. I never did get those ulcerated blisters treated but they eventually healed up and I lived to tell the tale.

3). While I was over there I ended up going to London (by myself) and getting a job as a chambermaid in a seedy Bed and Breakfast hotel in Bayswater. I lived in one Indian owned seedy B&B with a bunch of Egyptian kids and worked in a different one owned by the same people. I was propositioned by a drunk Irishman one day while making his bed. I just stared at him and muttered something with the word “NO” in it and he left. I was also courted by a Nigerian who gave me a very cool necklace. He was very polite and easily deflected I escaped London without assault.

4). After I graduated from college I drove from the East Coast to the West Coast all by myself (are we seeing a pattern here?) I visited family on the way and saw a couple of friends including the first love of my life. When I saw that he was still exactly the same guy he was when we broke up (albeit a father by then) I got over him instaneously. This was a huge relief as I had been pining and ‘what iffing’ over him for over 6 years.

5). I held my mother’s hand while she died. I’m planning on writing about it soon.