Loose Leaf Notes

Here is the last of the series that I’ve posted in 4 parts. 100 things about me part I, II, and III can be found here.

75. I collect cobalt blue mugs from places I’ve been to.
76. I like to people watch.
77. I like to thrift shop.
78. I come from a blue collar working class background, and I’m proud of it.
79. I’m a registered Independent, fiscally conservative, who votes Democrat because they represent my interests in Labor Rights, Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, and Environmental Protections better than their counterparts.
80. I’m a night shift stenographer hired by the muse to take down the moon’s business.
81. I once had a job as a night watchman.
82. I frequently write poetry about homegrown produce.
83. I’m a 5 on the Enneagram system of personality types. Now you really know everything about me.
84. I like toys – tops, small gadgets that wind-up and glow, and kaleidoscopes. I still play in the sand. Adults call this “sand tray therapy.”
85. When I was 4 years old, my older cousin carried me around Paragon Park. I pretended I was asleep so she would keep carrying me.
86. My father was in the CCCs (Civilian Conservation Corps) during the Depression. He was artillery solider in Patton’s army and his regiment helped to liberate Buchenwald Concentration Camp. He never got over seeing what went on there. My siblings and I (9 of us!) were educated early about the horrors of the holocaust.
87. My mother has a lake in Nova Scotia named for her family who were from there.
88. I like blogging because it helps me break down my life and my writing into bite size digestible pieces.
89. My favorite writing assignment was an interview I did for a Blacksburg art magazine. I interviewed 92-year-old Ruby Altizer Roberts, the first woman Poet Laureate of Virginia. After it was published and she read it, she sent me a card that said: “You are better than the best. You read between the lines!”
90. My energy is like a ball I’m trying to keep up. If it falls it stays down for a while.
91. Sometimes when I hug people, I see colors with my eyes closed. I call this my “vision.”
92. I once spent so many hours in China Town in San Francisco that I got confused and thought for a split second that I was in China.
93. I once bought a Kachina doll on the Hopi Mesa.
94. I have Andrew Wyeth, Gustav Klimt, RC Gorham, and Susan Seddon Boulet framed prints in my house.
95. I saw Phil Donahue in an airport, Phoebe from “Friends” in Sedona, Arizona, Stephen Tyler shopping in Hingham, Massachusetts, and Jessica Lange at the 2003 Washington DC Peace March. I only spoke with Jessica and just stared at the others.
96. I saw Led Zepplin at the Boston Tea Party before anyone knew who they were. I also saw Joe Cocker around this same time with my sister Sherry. We thought he had Cerebral Palsy because of the way he contorted himself when he sang.
97. I like to make up bumper stickers. My favorite is “If we all got more erotic, we wouldn’t be so neurotic.”
98. “Recess instead of Ritalin” is another one
99. I have a reputation for peeking at my Christmas presents before it's Christmas.
100. I don’t like knick-knacks. I just see them as more things to dust.

PS. I like lists and resist structure and authority (like sticking to the 100 things rule). I think there’s a sequel coming.

Posted by Colleen at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

Here’s number III in the series. Part I and Part II can be found here.

51. I jump on a big trampoline for exercise.
52. As a girl, I was co-captain of the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) drill team, The Bellettes. When I got older I joined The Bells. Over the course of my drill team days, I carried a saber, a rifle, and a flag. We wore white boots and helmets with feathers on them. For years when trying on clothes, I would march in front of the mirror to see how the clothes looked on me.
53. I tried out for cheerleading but didn’t make the team.
54. Sometimes I feel like I’m more at home in water. Being in the ocean makes me giddy.
55. Sometimes I use a tarot deck. It’s like taking my psychic blood pressure.
56. I frequently think things are going to be harder than they really are, and my husband thinks they’re going to be easier than they really are.
57. My current bumper sticker says: When Jesus said love your enemy, I think he probably meant don’t kill them.
58. When it comes to sociability, I’m only a few degrees away from being as reclusive as Emily Dickinson. If I go out one day, I have to stay home for the next two days, in order to recover.
59. I once got paid for being a live mannequin in a boutique window in Boston.
60. One of my proudest accomplishments has been growing my own food. I smile a lot in the garden.
61. I don’t do algebra or the metric system.
62. While growing up, we had to go to church, but when we got older and my brother Jimmy could drive, we only pretended to go. We went out for breakfast and then to the beach so that my brothers could “girl watch.” The church we went to, St. Mary’s of the Bay, is now a residence with plastic lawn chairs out front.
63. People sometimes call me up just to hear my answering machine message
64. My favorite answering machine message was one that my dad made. He, who avoids using a phone, simply said (in his best Irish gangster-like voice): “State Your Business.”
65. The first published writing I got paid for was for an article I wrote for Mothering Magazine in the early 1980s.
66. I recently won an honorarium award for my writing contributions to the Wemoon journal over the years.
67. My favorite dream is the one where my boys are little again. They talk in the dream, and their sweet voices make me melt. It’s better than a hot romance dream.
68. I can type looseleafnotes.com as fast as I can type my own name.
69. I once got interviewed on a radio talk show program, after my commentary “Voting Machine Voodoo," which was about how easy it is to steal elections with electronic voting machines, got published.
70. I only buy cars that allow the seats to go down into a bed, in case I’m ever homeless and have to live in my car.
71. I’ve never gotten a scrabble, using all my letters in one turn.
72. I found my first 4 leaf clover at a library book sale in a book for 25 cents.
73. I got my second 4 leaf clover from my brother Danny’s wallet after he died.
74. A flag was erected and a yearly memorial picnic was started in my brother Jimmy’s name at The Blue Hills Observatory in Milton, Massachusetts. Jimmy, who died in 2001, was a weather enthusiast who gave tours at the observatory.
75. My older sister once told me I was adopted. She typed up a paper saying that I was. I didn’t believe her.

Posted by Colleen at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)

Here is the second installment of my “100 Things About Me List.” One of the things that isn’t on the list but should be is that I love lists. Number 1 – 25 can be found here.

26. I live in a log cabin.
27. I once said I would have nothing to do with a computer.
28. My husband and I have the same IQ number but for different reasons.
29. My older brother, Jimmy, dubbed me with the nickname “Colly Dog” when we were kids. My younger brother, Joey, couldn’t say my name and called my “Lo Lo.” My dad calls me “Colly Wolly Wolf” (building on the dog-like theme?)
30. Dyslexia and dyscalculia run in my family.
31. I am one of nine siblings. "God bless mommy, daddy, Jimmy, Kathy, Colleen, Danny, Sherry, Johnny, Joey, Bobby and Tricia" was my nightly prayer as a child. My husband is also one of 9 siblings.
32. I didn’t know the word for “spatula” until I was 20. We just called it “the spanking stick” in my house.
33. If I was a bird, my call would be: A Loud Yawn.
34. I was once a delegate for presidential candidate Jerry Brown.
35. Donavan and Bob Dylan inspired me to write more than anything in school did.
35. If I hear Aretha Franklin sing “Respect,” I will get up and dance no matter where I am.
36. I read all the Hobbit books, all of the Narnia series, all of The Borrowers, and most of The Mossflower books out loud to my sons when they were young.
37. My husband and I hiked down the Grand Canyon and camped at the Havasupi Indian Reservation. We left a week later via helicopter.
38. I’ve seen the Eiffel Tower and regretted not going into the Louvre.
39. I recently saw a Black bear less than a quarter mile from my house.
40. I’d rather be stuck in traffic than drive on the Autobahn in Germany
41. I speak pig latin and gibberish.
42. Good artwork can make me twitch. Sometimes it makes my eyes water.
43. When I was young I wanted to be like Annie Oakley or Peter Pan.
44. I write because I hate to lose anything and writing something down is a way of keeping it.
45. I have a blue willow platter that my grandmother carried when she was a girl and sailed to this country from Ireland.
46. I’m not a leader, but I’m not a follower either. I’m a party of one.
47. I used to meditate on the subway on the way to work at a boutique on Tremont Street in Boston.
48. Now I live in a one traffic light county in rural Virginia with no street lights or speed limits on the back roads.
49. I recently won first prize, a $100 gift certificate from a bookstore, at a local poetry slam.
50. I’ve been working through a life long phobia of public speaking.

Posted by Colleen at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

When I first got interested in blogs, I noticed that many bloggers had "100 Things About Me" on their sites. I look for the 100 Things when I'm exploring a new blog because it's a condensed and entertaining way to get to know someone. In that spirit, I'm offereing my 100 Things, which I'll do in 4 parts over the next couple of weeks.

1. I grew up in an amusement park town but never rode on the roller coaster.
2. I’m allergic to PABA in sunscreen.
3. I manifested my second husband (love of my life) by playing and dancing to Steve Winwood’s “Bring Me a Higher Love” over and over.
4. My sister, Trish, manifested her husband this way too.
5. I don’t like blue ink pens. Pen ink should be black.
6. My license plate says: L3T IT B
7. When I was a little girl, I thought reporters on TV could see me. I hid behind the couch when they were doing the news because I didn’t want to be seen.
8. My earliest memory was putting a rock in my mouth and wondering if my mother was omnipresent enough to see me do it.
9. When I was 13 my hair went white in a streak on the left side of my head.
10. I had a clinical major depression when I was 19 that lasted 1 -2 years. There were no anti-depressants drugs back then.
11. I used to sneak into the drive-inn theatre by hiding in the trunk of a car.
12. Summer squash used to make me gag, but I like it now.
13. I wore a black crow feather in my hair for one whole summer.
14. I jumped in a hole in an ice covered pond, naked after a sauna.
15. I bought my house with a down payment made from vending my own jewelry at Grateful Dead Concerts.
16. The most life changing event in my life was being with my brother Danny when he took his last breath.
17. I contracted Chronic Fatigue when I was in my mid 20’s. There was no name for it then. I once filled a notebook page with all the therapies I have tried for it. Everything has helped, nothing has cured. I’m in ongoing recovery. Most people don't notice.
18. The most unusual therapy on my above list is: Phsycic Surgery by a healer from the Philippines.
19. Being mother to my sons, Josh and Dylan, has been the highlight of my life.
20. Marrying my husband, Joe, has been the reward of my life.
21. Secret pleasure: popping bubble wrap.
22. Song title that best describes my life: What’s it all about Alfie?
23. Chairs that don’t move are useless to me. I was a rocker as a child, and I'm still in constant movement (usually my foot shakes back and forth).
24. I meditate everyday. I practiced TM (transcendental meditation) in the 1970s. Now I do passage meditation as taught by Sri Eknath Eswaran. (Must sit still for this.)
25. I wrote a book about losing my brothers a month apart. The booked spurred a reunion in the small town my siblings and I grew up in and is being used in a grief and loss class at Radford University.

Posted by Colleen at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)