25 Things About Me

I did this for Facebook, but I know some of my readers don't have access to that.

So it is supposed to be 25 Random Things, Facts, or Goals about you. Here they are!

1. I am caught between the ultimate procrastinator and the overachiever. When I procrastinate, I do it to the exact last second. If I choose not to procrastinate, I over work and obsess about it till it is perfect. There is no happy medium.

2. I was considered strange when I was a Junior High Tweeny. I never had a crush on a movie star, boy band, or other unattainable celebrity. I was against any notion of a boyfriend and even gave a few people hard times for going steady even if they weren't "dating" before they were sixteen.

3. I think I was considered strange for more reasons than that, but I don't know the actual reasons why. I thought I was pretty likable, yet I never really fit in. I finally decided that is because of the next reason.

4. I can relate to anyone, pretty much anywhere. I never had a certain clique in high school because I wanted to do it all, and be involved with everything. I hung out with the cowboys/girls in Safford, the business geeks at FBLA, the 4-H group, the band and music geeks, the athletes during track and I loved to be a loner and read for hours at a time. Talk about a walking contradiction.

5. I used to get very upset and ticked off if someone couldn't remember my name. I made it a priority to retain names and faces (business sense kicking in) and was thoroughly ticked off if someone couldn't remember my name later the same day they met me. It's not like there are hundreds of LEXA's running around! (I have let this go, realizing that because it is unusual it is easy to mix it up with more common names).

6. I learned to speed read in 5th grade and would zoom through 2 or 3 books a day through junior high and high school. I am not so happy I have this skill now because I can't stop, and books that have high contextual information such as Lord of the Rings or Twilight I miss a lot of details.

7. I can read at a high vocabulary level, but I almost never can pronounce them right because I haven't heard the words out loud. I have embarrassed myself trying to say them out loud with words such as superfluous, faux pas, and other "high-falutin" language found in Stephenie Meyer books.

8. I make friends easier most times with men than women. Most likely because I was raised with four brothers, each being very unique and having a different personality than the other. Thankfully my husband understands this part of me and knows when I chat on the phone or online with one of my guy friends it is just that. FRIENDS.

9. My husband and I are about as close as someone could be to the term "Soul Mates" My great-grandfather baptized his great-grandfather and talked him into moving to Arizona from Alabama. Our mother's families were neighbors and great friends for three generations. We both went to the same dances, activities, parties, etc. for years (from the time I was 12). We all knew the same people, and I was his Uncle's student in school. We now remember smiling at each other at the Conoco in Duncan and Jerry's at Safford, but never met until the time was perfect in both our lives. Yes, It was meant to be :)

10. I have always had this fear of some tragic ending to either my life or someone I am close to. Perhaps it is a little bit of Anne Shirley coming through, but I just knew I was going to die a strange and crazy death in my teens. Now that I am older, I feel the same way that something crazy is going to take me, my husband or other family. It is irrational, but I still can't shake the feeling.

11. People laugh at me when I say my favorite food is Cucumbers.

12. I love to garden, plant trees, design landscapes, and work in the dirt. I loved our new home in Sahuarita because it was an open slate, nothing there but the canvas ready to plant all sorts of trees and flowers with. I had a dream the other night I went back and they let everything die, and I cried.

13. I get overly ambitious. Really overly ambitious. This one got me in trouble. We bought the home in Saint David, and not only had to take over a dying orchard, I decided we needed a remodel too. Now neither one is doing great, and I have learned my lesson to stop shoving a whole elephant in my mouth at once.

14. My husband's career has changed my outlook. I used to be very naive and trusting to anyone, now I am a little more cautious with where I go, what information I share, and who I trust.

15. Music is still my therapy, but I let my skill level go for to many years, and I hate feeling like I can't sing as well as I used to, or play my violin or piano like I could. I have been working on changing that and singing along and out loud as often as I could the past year and it has encouraged my kids to start singing. I am still not going to be singing in public for a very long time, but it helps me out.

16. I long to travel the world, and wanted to live outside the country and help people in third world countries. This one is not really going to happen (see 14) but I realize we have a lot of the same problems here in America and would be happy to travel and live outside of the Southwest at some point in my life.

17. I live vicariously through my friends.

18. I am known as a meddler. I feel I can fix anyone and everyone's problems if they would follow my advice. Most of my friends understand I only do this because I love them and try to help. Others think it is my arrogance.

19. I loved and still love to visit with senior citizens. I would visit all the grandma's around Duncan, help them out with work they had to do, and listen to their stories. My best friend for many years was Ruth Bagnall (75 to my 10) who lived across the street in Duncan, who never married but loved animals. We shared a birthday and a name.

20. I love to read encyclopedias, especially old ones where the facts are wrong now because of new discoveries.

21. I only like a chick flick if the story is well built, and there is a little bit of action to it.

22. One of the things that caught my attention about my husband was that he had watched "The Music Man" and loved old movies and musicals without having to be a music or theater geek. A cowboy who loved old musicals. Yea, you can be jealous girls.

23. I still think of myself as Country and a Cowgirl, though I don't wear boots or ride horses. I think it's the pioneer state of mind.

24. It sort of shocks me when I find women who can't pick up items over 25 pounds. It also shocks me when I find people who don't know how to sew on buttons. I guess I am a snob like that, but I don't mean to be rude.

25. I am an eternal optimistic. I get discouraged easy, but even in the "depths of despair" I feel like there is still hope for sometimes a hopeless situation.