I'm It

Pen tagged me because she doesn't know enough weird stuff about me, so she needs to know seven new things. Here goes:

1. I have a nearly photographic memory. In a recent meeting, I was able to recall (and name out loud to the group) the first and last names of 20 people I had just met. I used to be able to remember answers on tests by visualizing the location of the answer on the page in my notes.

2. I almost always pick a good wine from the wine list. I know almost nothing about wines, but I can usually look at the list and know which one will be good.

3. Sometimes, I find reading a book jacket as satisfying as reading the book. I love book jacket copy. I like to get on amazon.com and troll around, reading the book descriptions. It's like speed-reading.

4. For the longest time, I refused to eat olives. I swore did not like olives. Recently, I rediscovered olives. The other day, I was eating kalamatas out of a jar with a spoon.

5. When I was little, I had an imaginary friend. He looked like Johann from the Smurfs. And I'm afraid that his name was Gaddy. I have no idea why. Also, I had Holly Hobby wallpaper that I talked to - and grew so attached to, that I would not let my parents remove it, even when the glue failed and the paper would fall down on me in the night. I kept it held up with thumbtacks.

6. We have a feral cat that lives in our house. Inside our house. No one can touch her. We see her; we talk to her; we feed and water her; we love her. But, for all intents and purposes, she is like a wild animal. We never, ever pet her. (Except for occasions like the other day when we trapped her in the bathroom to cut matted hair off her back.) And her name, appropriately, is Shadow.

7. I abhor Pepsi. And Diet Pepsi. If I order Diet Coke in a restaurant and the server asks, "Is Diet Pepsi okay?", I will say no and order water. Diet Pepsi is like getting Patrick Duffy when you ordered Patrick Dempsey.

Passing on the weirdness...I'm not feelings so tag-a-licious about this. If you're jonesing to share seven oddities - you kids over there on the right, I'm talking to you - go for it.

Frugal

I was assisting Mom with the finishing touches on the quilt she's been making for Dillon. By assisting, I mean offering opinions and not actually sewing. I watched her run something through the sewing machine - a fixture in our house for as long as I can remember. "So that was a pretty good purchase, huh?" I asked.

After saying she thought she had gotten her money's worth out of it, she confessed that she spent $900 on the top-of-the-line Elna in 1978. And so strong was her buyer's remorse every time she made the $50 monthly payment, that she kept a list of everything she made on the machine. She pulled out a little green memo pad and showed me where she had kept a meticulous list of the garment, how much she paid for materials and the estimated retail value of what she had made. The list started in 1978 - and continued through summer of 1991. Catalogued in its pages were dresses, skirts and pants she had made for Anna and me, a suit vest and coat she made for my dad, all the way down to a belt she made for herself. She had estimated somewhere along in the 80s that she had saved about $1,200.

I never thought much of the sewing machine growing up. I thought everyone had one and that everyone's mother was as handy as mine with needle and thread. All my life, I've thought of her at the machine, the gentle hum of its motor, the clickety-clack of the foot moving up and down, the thick sweet smell of the machine oil.I took for granted that she made our Easter dresses every year, outfitted us for Sundays year-round and even made ensembles for Cabbage Patch Kids and Barbies. I recall a very swanky strapless fitted kelly green dress with accompanying shrug jacket she constructed for my Barbie.

At that moment, I felt in awe of her talent and her foresight and her own way of saving money and providing for us all. And I felt terribly sad that I can barely sew a button on.