Five Fun Facts

About me!

1)  I have lived in nine different states and one foreign country.  It went like this: TX--NC--AL--VA--NC--PA--Korea--IL--MD--NJ--NC--SC--NC--SC.  I seem to be stuck in a bit of an NC/SC vicious cycle!  I grew up as an Air Force kid, in case you were wondering why all the moving.

2)  I could probably live on only cereal.  Who am I kidding.  I mostly do already.  Lucky Charms, Oatmeal Squares, BiLo brand Crispix, Honeycombs, Life….how do I love thee…

3)  I was born to take regular trips to the beach.  I love it there.  One day, I will own a beach house.  Mark my word.  One of my favorites:  Bald Head Island, NC

4)  Having a double name (Betty Anne) is NOT the most awesome thing ever.  I would not recommend you ever burdening a child with such.  People always leave off the second name, or forget it and make up a replacement (ex: Betty Sue, Betty Jean)  If you do this to me on purpose, you are just being hateful.

5)  I'm a "clean car" person.  In this case clean means clutter free, not necessarily dirt free.  Every time I go into the house from my car, I take stuff with me.  I don't let mail, random papers and receipts, kid* toys/shoes/snacks/sippy cups/diaper bags accumulate.  Sadly, this is the only junk free zone I maintain well.  My house, my room, my desk…they suffer much worse fates.  Where do you think I put all the crap from my car??

*Nor do I allow kids to accumulate in my car.

There ya have it.  Five random facts about ME.  Your turn!

Regret

Do you have regret?

 I do.  I am in possession of the regrets. :)

I wish I had listened to my dad (you hear me, dad?! you were RIGHT!) all those many years ago when he recommended I pursue medical school instead of vet school.  At that time, I had no interest in working with humans.  I loved animals and wanted to be a vet!  Well, I thought I loved animals…  After getting a degree in Animal Science and working in the vet world for a few years, I realized I don't actually love animals.  I love cats.  Only cats.  And in case you've never taken a cat to the vet, it is AWFUL.  No bueno. 

Ironically, now I'm a nurse working with hoomans.   I've pondered several times going back to school to pursue a medical degree.  Each time I consider it I determine that maybe if I was in a different stage of life, I would possibly go for it.  But at this stage of the game, with young kids, I don't want to start pursuing something so all life-consuming for so.many.years.  And after all the years and years of MCAT'ing and applying and getting accepted and going through intensive schooling, residences and fellowships, the job itself is intensive as well.  Not too many 9-5 doctor jobs available for new doctors.

So that is what I regret.  Not chasing after medical school as an 18 year old.

What do you regret?

Where Are You From?

As a military kid, I always found this question difficult to answer.  We moved every 1-4 years.  I was born in Texas.  I graduated from high school in Maryland.  I went to college in North Carolina.   I had grandparents in Charlotte, NC and Williamsburg, VA.  My name, Betty Anne, sounds as deep south as one possibly can, but my accent doesn't match.  However, when people asked me where I was from, they were usually looking for a location--a city and/or state.

I came across this recently, and it made me ponder some things.

Where Are You From? (*language warning*)

One part that stood out to me was:

"If you spill your coffee on me once, it's no big deal.  But when I get coffee spilled on me every damn day, can you blame me for being pissed off when you spill your coffee on me too?"

That is a really, really great analogy.  To me it means that I need to be more aware of what I say to people.

1)  I need to keep in mind that I may be genuinely interested in getting to know someone better and learning more about them, but perhaps they have fielded the "where are you from" question one too many times.

2)  Genuinely getting to know someone better and learning more about them may be appropriate motivation for a question about where someone is from.  It may be okay in the context of a developing friendship with an individual.  The stranger behind me in the Target line is probably not a developing friend.  Neither is the coffee shop barista.

3)  Thinking before I speak is a struggle for me day to day.  In this case in particular, I need to think about why I am asking such a question.  Am I just nosey/curious/wanna know and therefore it's all about me?  Because that's probably the answer 90% of the time.

4)  I think pregnant women could identify strongly with the "coffee spilling" analogy above.  Visibly pregnant women get bombarded with all kinds of inappropriate, personal questions daily.  As do multiracial families.  Or really large families.  Or... or... or...  the list could go on and on of people fielding repetitive questions from strangers.

I feel like I'm not expressing myself very well right now, but hopefully I'm making some inkling of a point.  Let's think more about what we say before we say it and have a little bit of mercy for one another.

Maybe that person has had one too many coffee spills...