Who me?

My friend IRL, Emily, tagged me for this bit of random funness! Her sister, Anna, was a grade school friend of mine. I don’t know why that is important other than that Anna tagged Emily who tagged me. Anyhoo, the point of this "award" is to list 5 random things about you. Since they are random, they are also in random order.

1. I am cheap. Super, uber, unbelievably cheap. I come from a low income household where my dad was frequently laid off when I was a kid. We took a calculator to the grocery store and made a game of who could guess the total to the closest penny. For this reason I don’t buy anything at full price. Standard mark-up on retail items is somewhere between 100% and 500%. I am a clearance buyer. I don’t even look at full priced items. All of my clothes are from thrift stores or handed down from friends who enjoy spending too much on fine fashion. Even when I am gifted money or gift certificates, I am cheap. I always get the most for my money. I hate it when people buy me extravagant things because I won’t buy them myself. I will admit, I return them. I once got a $300 cashmere cardigan from Banana Republic. I couldn’t buy groceries at the time and could not justify keeping something like that. This past Christmas my dad spent $65 at New York and Co. on a velour track suit. I returned it but they would only give me store credit. I spent the store credit but had so much anxiety about spending that much on clothes that I returned them for store credit again. Then I took my highfalutin (not really) attorney sister with me so she could spend it and give me cash. See, I AM CHEAP!

2. I am fiercely independent. I was a strong willed child and pre-teen. I left my parent’s house at 16 years old. By my senior year of high school I was working full time, going to high school and dual enrolled in college. I supported myself and my ex fiancé (he wasn’t great at that thing we call WORK). When I left him at 21 I got my first apartment on my own and loved it. I have had roommates, lived with CL and I still cannot depend on another person. I CANNOT. My mom raised me to always be able to take care of myself. I have never let my guard down and let someone take care of me. My independence is a huge part of who I am. It sometimes makes me judge others who weren’t raised with that sense of self worth. It makes dependent or co-dependent people seem weak and insufficient to me. Although I sometimes feel like my independence is a weakness as well. Let’s face it, most men need to be needed and I was raised to never need anyone. For all of these reasons, I also have a really hard time asking for help when I need it. You see my problem, I am sure.

3. I was born and raised in the Midwest. I currently live less than 20 minutes from the house that I grew up in. While the town I live in is very large and has many different areas or pockets, I know someone in all of them. I have many friendships that span more than ½ of my life. I don’t know what it is to be the odd man out or walk into a room not knowing anyone. I know someone almost everywhere I go. I frequently run into friends of friends or circles of people who know many of the same people that I do. There is not much anonymity in my life but I also don’t have to explain the players or the history to most of my friends because they already know. I feel very lucky to have so many great people in my life for so long.

4. I have ZERO patience. This is something that I have worked on for years with little progress. I hate waiting. I cannot stand being ignored. Most children will strip me of what little patience I possess within moments of entering a room. Old, slow and confused people also annoy me. I know they shouldn’t and I should be nicer but I can’t and most times I don’t even care. I hate traffic, people who get in my way and inconsiderate people that also cause me to lose what precious little patience I do have.

5. I am looking forward from here on out. I have experienced so much in my life. I have done a lot of self evaluation in the past few months. I have looked back at situations where I could have done better and identified my wrongs. I have made amends. I have forgiven. I have asked forgiveness. I have started anew. I have no interest in looking back. I will still reflect on the past in my blog more as a way to catalog events than to dwell on what was, is or should have been. My life is about making new opportunities, meeting new challenges, finding new and interesting people to explore and continuing to love and appreciate the people who have always been there.

My job now is to tag 2 other bloggers. I choose 2 bloggers that I don’t know IRL in hopes that I will learn something new about them:

Symphonic Discord- any or all of you:-) I always learn so much from your blog.

Real Live Lesbian- because you funny and your bloggy group is super cool. Translation: Most of the blogs I follow I found through you!