FMM: When I Was a Kid

I had a lovely weekend.  I wasn't as lonely as I thought I would be.  Hard to believe I haven't seen my husband in over a week already.  I went to a concert and dinner with friends on Friday night (they brought their son, who is a grown-up 12 year old, but it still made for a kind of funny "double date").  I walked 7 miles (with a stop for breakfast around mile 5) with two friends to give them my official marathon recap.  And I spent lots of time sitting around the house, baking cookies, reading and napping.  I also got in a 10 mile group run and one yoga class.  I also saw a chiro after the group run about the nagging pain in my left calf.  He said it's my gastroc -- again.  I wasn't blogging then, but I had major pain in my right gastrocnemius (that's one of the calf muscles) right before the Chicago marathon in 2007 -- I was lucky that I did intense therapy for about 2 weeks and it was under control by race day.  But now, no need for therapy.  Instead, given that the marathon is over (race recap to follow), I'm just going to cut my miles a lot, ice it, and try to take it easy.  Conveniently, that was kind of my plan anyway!  

So now, since it's Monday (and I'm bummed that I missed last weeks' topic), it's Friend Making Monday time.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/2011/11/friend-makin-mondays-dating/www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links there too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

When I was a kid…

1. My parents told me…that my face would stay that way if the wind changed and I was making an ugly face at one of my brothers.  For some reason, I never questioned this and believed it for way too many years.  Why I didn't think critically that I never saw a single person with a permanent tongue sticking out never entered my little mind.  Why I didn't ask exactly how much wind change would cause this, given the wind does change directions with some regularity, again, is not even something I thought to ask.  
2. I wanted to grow up to be a… teacher I think, but by the time I was in high school, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer.  I used to play school with my little brothers, mostly because I was bossy and as the teacher, I got to tell them what to do.   
3. I refused to eat… raw tomatoes.  Still hate them.  I also developed my aversion to plain eggs (like scrambled) as a kid, and I still won't eat plain eggs.  I also refused to eat venison, though my dad always chuckled that I'd enjoyed eating it until I knew what it was -- I guess my vegetarian proclivity started quite early.  My brothers used to laugh and call it Bambi.  Among foods that I used to refuse to eat but have now grown to love:  avocados and "real" cheese (I used to like only Velveeta or American, unless it was on pizza). 
4. My favorite thing to do outside was…  lay out, starting when I was about 12.  I wasn't allowed to dye my hair, but I'd heard lemon juice and sun would lighten it.  I used to always put a big peace symbol earring on my leg in an attempt to create a sun tattoo (since I wasn't allowed to get a real tattoo, given that I was about 12, that probably counts as good parenting).  And funny enough, I still have never colored my hair.  I'm finding gray hairs at an alarming rate now, but I think I'm gradually accepting it and hope to refrain from coloring my whole life.  
5. I broke my…brother's jaw indirectly.  I never broke any of my own bones, but one time he tried to bike home really fast to watch me eat a miserable dinner that he'd hated (split pea soup!) and I had gotten to skip before softball, and he hit a rock and fell, breaking his jaw and losing about 4 teeth in the process.  The upside -- I stayed home to babysit my younger brothers while my folks were at the hospital so I got to pick my own dinner -- lemon yogurt, pickles, and 7-Up (and soda was a major treat in our house).  I think my brother hated me for at least 5 years after that.  
6. I liked to wear…the color purple.  One of my favorite outfits was purple corduroy pants and a lavender polo shirt.  
7. My parents always… ate dinner with us, unless my dad was travelling, and then he'd always call my mom at night.  He used to hate it when we had call-waiting and I was on the phone with friends and I either wouldn't click over or I'd put him on hold for half an hour while I finished my conversation.  I used to get in big trouble for that!  But eventually we got a "kids'" phone line, which was a MAJOR score.
8. I thought that Santa was…real until about 3rd or 4th grade.  I still remember the color of the car I was in when I asked Mom (again) and she finally told me the truth.  And I remember then following up with questions about the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy, and, as she'd feared (the reason she didn't want to tell me about Santa, but my dad won and they did), Jesus.  
9. My favorite cartoon was...Smurfs.
10. I was the…most argumentative but the best student.
11. I got in trouble when…I would fight with my brothers.  We used to argue like crazy, particularly me and the next youngest (like I said, he hated me for getting to skip that awful split pea soup dinner). We'd fight about who got to control the tv channel, and everything else.
12. My bedroom was…generally a mess and I hated cleaning it.  I remember putting down tape and dividing it into about 16 sections and saying I'd clean one at a time.  It also had one stripe of uneven carpet where I'd "trimmed" it after I tried to shake an open bottle of nail polish and it had left a huge streak of stain.  
13. My favorite food was…steak, peas, macaroni and cheese, and baked potatoes.  I went back and forth between those last two, but steak and peas were ALWAYS my choice for my birthday dinner.  So maybe the dislike of venison was a clue to the fact I'd go veggie, but I guess somehow I wasn't quite enlightened enough to realize that there was no reason to love cows less than Bambi, or Fido for that matter.  But I did love steak...
14. My parents always made me…clean my plate at dinner.  Or at breakfast if I'd been allowed to go to bed without cleaning it the night before.  
15. My first crush was…probably Johnny Depp, Randy Travis or Jordan Knight (NKOTB).  Hard to remember who was first.
16. My favorite toy was…my Cabbage Patch Doll, Claire Carlie, or my Barbie collection.
17. I thought school was…generally okay, but wow, I loved summer vacation.  
18. My biggest fear was…no idea.  I don't remember being particularly afraid of anything other than bugs, especially roaches, but also spiders.
19. My favorite story was…either the Narnia books, the Nancy Drew series, or an obscure English book series we all read as children, the Noddy books.  
20. My favorite memories…are hard to say.  I was thinking family vacations, but we also had so much fun at home.  And then I was thinking just family time all together, but wow, I loved it when my parents did things with me individually.  I guess I would go with big family monopoly games -- sometimes we'd get soda, and we'd always get to stay up past our bedtimes.  

Now it’s your turn!  Don’t forget to answer the questions on your blog and go back to alltheweigh.com to link up in the comments!  Happy Monday!