Today I...January 23rd

Today I...

...am sharing this picture from when I went to see the butterflies at the botanical gardens last winter with you.

...had a lovely day of treating myself. I went to the spa, then to the mall and sat at the Second Cup there savoring a dark chocolate and raspberry latte while reading my book. I then went shopping at RW&Co. and bought myself a lovely pale blue cardigan and four t-shirts with a gift card that my grandparents gave me for Christmas. There is still money on it, so I will be able to go shopping again!

...am going to share seven things that you may not know about me with you. I am doing this because my blogging friend Kim from Life at Golden Pines won the Stylish Blogger Award and one of the things that she had to do if she won was share seven things that we might not know about her and then pass it on. So, I'm going to share seven things you may not know about me with you guys tonight and then you can do the same on your blogs if you wish :o)

1- I suffer from a mild form of the learning disability dyspraxia. It made life difficult for me, especially in elementary school. I was tortured to no end by most of the other kids because I was slower than them in school, especially in grade six when my learning disability was compounded with an absolutely atrocious teacher. Before I ended up in her class the only subject I really had trouble with was math, but thanks to her, I ended up with my grades dropping in everything. Thank God for my special needs teacher in my first year of high school, thanks to her my only soft spot by the end of my year in her class was math and I gave that up after high school and never looked back!!! I was an ace of a student in everything else thereafter and annoyed people by getting stellar grades with very little effort (except in math). Most of the time it doesn't show that I have a learning disability, it only really shows when I'm in a group and we have to read together or write together and then it ends up showing because I read and write more slowly than most people. It also shows when I am given a sequence of instructions to follow because I have trouble remembering sequences of things, whether they be lists, steps to a dance or steps to follow to get something to work. The best thing for me to do is to write them down and then I'm good to go since I have a photographic memory. Once I have something written down, I never forget it.

2- I did gymnastics at a recreational lever for 10 years and coached it for two, it was my first job. I credit my gymnastic induced flexibility for my never having sprained anything badly enough for me to need crutches.

3- Although my favorite animals have always been cats and horses, my first pets were fish. Four little striped Danios in a cube that I got from a kiosk at the mall when I was a teenager, then I moved on to goldfish in a bowl and then a fish tank. I had three tanks at one point, two big ones and one little one. I'm now back down to one tank though with tropical fish and I've had some of those fish for at least four years now.

4- I took six years of dressage horseback riding lessons and was amazing at it and loved it. Although I kept up with the gymnastics the longest, horseback riding is the sporting activity that I loved the most out of all the ones I got into. I would still be going at it if I had a way to get out to where I could take lessons, but that would require a car and I do not have the financial means for one of those at the moment. I still dream that I'm riding quite regularly though and miss it a great deal.

5- I have bunions and arthrosis in both of my feet and it can be quite a bother since I can't wear half the shoes that are made nowadays. Having to shop for shoes is a terrible pain in the butt for me and I hate having to do it because I see all kinds of gorgeous shoes that I would love to buy but can't. I guess, therefore, that the bunions are a blessing, otherwise I would have more shoes than I could possibly store.

6- I have always wanted to play the violin, but never had a chance to learn how. I may give it a try yet, if I can find a very patient and understanding teacher who would adapt to the learning disability mentioned in point number 1.

7- I went through a phase when I was a teenager where I would write stories that were pages and pages long, mostly sappy love stories where I would fantasize about the type of boyfriend that I would like to have. I went through most of high school being single because I was picky. I had two boyfriends through the whole six year, one by whom I was dumped and the other that I dumped because he was too clingy. I do not do the clingy thing well. My Sweetheart is the first (and hopefully shall be the only) very serious boyfriend that I have ever had and I am not at all sorry that I waited for him to come along before I got serious. I am happy to report that he far surpasses any figment of my romantic teenage imagination :o)