Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know

Geesh, I don't really know.
I guess I will start off with living in Iceland for 2 years with XH when he was in the Air Force.

Right now we are in the process of remodeling our bathroom, the only bathroom with a shower, so we have to go to SO's mom's to shower. That's been fun...it has been a month now.  Ask me in December where we are with this...

Maybe I will think of something else as I read other people's posts. 

I used to work in the art department for low budget horror films, film shorts, and commercials in Ohio. If I could do my life over again I'd go to California and try to make a living being a set decorator, art director, prop master, or anything arty like that. I love movie/tv art design. So interesting how they do that stuff.

But I do have a page on IMDB. So that is cool. I always use that as my fun fact.

I’m left handed and it is weird answering questions about it a lot - let’s say someone is showing you something sports related or assumes your handedness correlates to you dominate hand/side… they will say are you left or right handed and I will say left but then whatever it is I almost always would use my right hand. I basically write with my left but everything else with right (use scissors, can opener, other tools, play sports, etc).

I’ll also add that I am related to Laura Ingalls Wilder on my Grandma’s side (last name Ingalls) and I did NOT like the TV show. lol I didn’t even read the books until I was an adult and knew we were related. I remember meeting my great uncle who was 102 and he had played with Mary and Laura as a child. 

Like kitbop - I think of myself as blandly 50s-ish (I'm 53)

I'm not sure what would be interesting that people wouldn't know...

maybe that despite all my kids having the same father, I was a single mum for nearly 7 years...dh and I broke up when I was pregnant with my oldest and didn't reconcile until he was almost 7 - we married a year a year later.

Lately I have taken to calling myself "a woman of a certain age" because I think it sounds funny, but like others have mentioned...the 50's are here lol.

I read very fast. I have lied to others, telling them I was only on page 100 or whatever because I was already done with the book and I could tell they would not believe me. In school, when we were assigned a book to read for class I generally would have it done that night. (if I had not read it already) When I was in 4th/5th/6th grade, I was sent to the high school and sat in on the 9th grade English classes. For whatever reason, I don't read word for word, or sentences, I read a chunk of text. I've been accused of skimming, (by a mean teacher) but that isn't the case. I very much retain what I read and read all the words. I don't join book clubs because I cannot stand the pace lol.

My mom let me read whatever I wanted because she really didn't understand what was happening lol and I read "Are you there God it's me Margaret" in first grade because my friend's older sister had it. I could read it fine, but I did not understand it at all and was very confused hahahha. So sometime there was discrepancy between the ability to read well and actually understanding the material. I was reading bodice ripper romances that my aunt had at the age of 8 and remember being like, "Ewwwwww....why would she let him do THAT?"

However-I am horrible in Math and essentially have a 10th grade math ability despite having a Master's degree.

That’s cool! Have you read Pioneer Girl, the autobiography that was drawn from to create the Little House books? I enjoyed it a lot. It’s got details that were simplified or omitted from the kids books.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/22212838-pioneer-girl

My ex-dh and I divorced when I was 30 years old, and I spent five years dating. It was a miserable five years... online dating is awful, and I had so many bad first dates or short-term relationships with men who had huge red flags. I stopped online dating (or dating in general) for a while until one of the teachers I was working with mentioned that he met his wife on eHarmony. I was extremely apprehensive about trying to date online but signed up for a free trial and within a few days, my now DH messaged me. We met a week after we started texting, and we've been together since. We were married in December 2023, and he is my best friend.

My dad and mother-in-law worked together in the early 70s. He died when I was four, and at his funeral my MIL met my mom for the first time. They became very good friends, but for whatever reason never got their kids together to play or anything, although I did meet her two kids once. 25 years later, I was single, and my MIL's son was single, and now we've been married 25 years.

I like to say that my dad is the reason we're together.

I was obsessed with Little House when I was a kid. I read the books over and over, loved the TV show, found a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder and devoured that, sewed myself a sunbonnet when I was only 10 or 11, and even wrote letters to the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum with questions (they didn't reply). 

My son had struggles in school (and just in life in general), and was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 7 and then again when he was 12 (I wanted further paperwork for high school because fighting the school to get him accommodations was a nightmare). Throughout the diagnosis process, especially the latter one, I realized that I have ADHD, too (it's hereditary, and I'm positive my father has it, as well). Suddenly my entire life made sense. So much of my childhood that confused me - why I felt different, had trouble fitting in, my obsessions (hyper focus) with things like Laura Ingalls Wilder, my jumping from hobby to hobby, my acting out scenarios through my barbie dolls and playing with them until I was way too old to play with them - it all made sense. I felt so relieved, but also so sad for that little kid and teenager me who struggled, and for how things could have turned out differently in a lot of ways (except for my husband and son who I am grateful for every day). 

Watching my son struggle with ADHD has not been easy, though. It seems like every day is hard for him, even at 24 years old, and I wish I could fix it but he has to learn on his own. He learns everything the hard way, unfortunately. 

My 15-year-old DS has ADHD (formerly just ADD), and getting accommodations, trying to get his teachers at his IEP meetings, the communications with his teachers (or lack of) Ugh.  How did you find out you had it?  I'm 99% my dad has it.  One of my sisters has it.  My other sister claims to have it...  I wonder if I have it sometimes but don't check off enough boxes.  

I LOVE Little House on the Prairie, and used to watch the show on TV and get ticked off at my mom when we'd miss it... Now I prefer the books and find the analysis about what was actually true fascinating.  

My Sister-in-law is a Psychologist and the head of one of the Psychological organizations in Canada, so after my son was diagnosed i discussed it with her, and brought up my Dad (she agreed he had signs of it), and myself. She sent me a bunch of tests to fill out, the same ones my son had to do, and the ones we as parents had to do for him - so I had lots of discussions with my parents, as well. She didn't write up the formal report like my son has (since it was free/she was just being helpful, and I don't need it for work or anything), but it was definitive. If I wanted medication she'd write something up for me, but I don't.

She did say it's possible to have ADHD tendencies/traits but it not quite reach the level for a diagnosis - so it's possible you have that. There is a 50/50 chance of having it if one of your parents has it.

I tried to rewatch Little House a few years ago and only got halfway through the first season. I much prefer the books and analysis, too. I got obsessed a year or two ago, again, and reread all the books, biographies, watched a bunch of videos about their true life, etc. I'm onto my next obsession now, though, lol. 

I have ADHD (and bipolar and anxiety) and I have all of those traits. I was definitely an outsider, I definitely hyper focus, I jump from one thing to another, and I am incredibly messy because I never finish one thing before going to another. I didn't know acting out scenarios was part of it- I definitely did that- not with Barbies but with Lego, and on paper. I found a boyfriend that liked to do it too and we had really complex worlds we were building.



When I was going to a psychiatrist they decided to test me. I think it took 2 hours? It was a long time. There were all kinds of intellectual tests and all kinds of different kinds of tests and it turned out I did have it, like I thought. There were all kinds of puzzles and activities, not just paper and pencil stuff. It was really fun.

I really enjoyed it. I found out I have a high IQ, my left hand/side is really useless, and I'm pretty face blind. And I'm ADHD.

The face blindness was pretty interesting. They would show you photos of people. And then 10 minutes later they would flip through a bunch of photos of people and I had to say if they were in the first batch. I was terrible at it- everyone looked familiar. I think part of that is from being a teacher, though. I have taught literally thousands of kids and they all kind of blend together after awhile.

I have a scar from where I attempted to have a belly button ring not once, but twice, because I'm stubborn or stupid, take your pick.

I wanted a hoop earring instead of a barbell and the piercing guy told me it wouldn't work well. But I wanted to try anyway, and it took forever to heal properly, and eventually pulled through.

So in my brilliance, I went to another place, told them my story, and they backed up the first person, saying it wouldn't work, especially not the 2nd time, but I pleaded and they shook their head and did it again, and the same exact thing happened.

The sad/funny thing is, that despite the complete failure the entire thing was, I really did love it for the short amount of time that I had it both times, LOL!

I imagine now, some 30+ years later, less places would have been willing to do something they knew darn well would fail, because gosh knows they'd probably expect me to trash them on every form of social media even thought it was entirely my fault.

Only the guys at the piercing places and DH knew about the belly button ring---until now!

I had cancer and went through chemo 13 years ago. Before that, I never forgot a face. Post-chemo, is a different story. I transferred to a different department at work 6 months after my recovery, and every morning I had to have an 8 am meeting with the department director and all the managers (all men in suits) to provide updates on my project. It was a nightmare, because I couldn't place a face to the names for about a month. It even took a few weeks to realize which of them was the big boss. Fast forward to the present, and the problem continues to persist. It can be very embarrassing when someone comes up to my husband and I and calls me by name (so I know I must know them), but I have no idea who they are. Sometimes I feel they think I'm super stuck up. Of course, once I've seen or met someone several times, I remember them.

artbabe , is there a name for this condition?

Edit:  Ugh, somehow when I quoted artbabe's last sentence, I lost it in this post. Tried to edit and add it back in, but no dice.