Five Things About Me

A few days ago, my friend Monica at Small Meadow Farm tagged me to respond to the "Five Things About Me" challenge, where I write 5 things about myself and then tag 5 other bloggers to do the same about themselves.

It took me a few days to get around to it, but I've tried to come up with some unusual and interesting bits of Nancy-trivia. Here goes:

1. My nose is a little bit crooked because my horse ran into me and broke it when I was a teenager. Lesson learned: Never let a horse get between you and something it's afraid of, because when he bolts, you'll be directly in his path and his head is a lot harder than yours!

2. I'm a direct descendant of both Mary Towne Estey who was one of the women executed during the Salem Witch Trials, and of Henry Herrick, Jr. who served as a juror at the trials.

3. I used to be an art model. Among other things, in my 20s, I modeled for Ed Materson's life-size sculpture, Legend of the Silkie. On a slightly related topic: Several years ago, I was the first person ever body-painted by the extremely talented artist (and my good friend) Scott Fray, who now holds the Guiness record for the most bodies painted.

4. I once did a Native American vision quest: 4 days and 5 nights of silence and fasting (only water to drink... no food) alone on a mountainside in the Sierra Nevadas. It was very peaceful and very profound. Deer, eagles, and even a bear visited me during my quest.

5. Famous horror writer Stephen King used to spend a lot of time in and around my home town of Waterford, ME. My brother went to college with him. One of my first jobs as a teenager was working at a stable where his daughter's horses were boarded. And although King always distorts the real-world geography in his books, to fit his fictional towns in where no real towns are, I may actually know where the "real" Castle Rock is.

In his book, "Bag of Bones," King writes that you follow Route 2 from Newport to Bethel and Route 5 from Bethel to Waterford. "Then you take Route 68, the old County Road, across Castle View..."

Now, there's no Route 68 in Waterford, but the "old County Road" is a dirt road---overgrown until it was little more than a trail---that ran through the woods directly behind my house. I used to play there all the time. Up the small mountain a ways, just a short walk up from the old County Road, there is a small set of stone cliffs in the middle of the woods where no one ever goes. I used to climb up there to daydream, and pretend that it was my castle.

Perhaps Stephen King also discovered the cliff, found it conducive to sitting and thinking up story ideas, and decided to name his town after the place. Or perhaps it's just an interesting coincidence. Either way, I find it fun to imagine that I grew up playing on the REAL Castle Rock!


But enough about me. Now I have to tag 5 other bloggers to tell us 5 things about themselves:

My dear friend Vanessa, in hopes that it will inspire her to write more in her blog. She's a wonderful writer, and I want to read more of what she has to say!

My friend River, whom I've known for several years but whom I'm now getting to know on an entirely new level by reading his blog.

My friend Nataraj, dancer, photographer, and all-around awesome guy. His blog is primarily photography oriented, so maybe he'll choose 5 PHOTOS that reveal 5 aspects of himself!

Fellow Virginia farmers, Carol and Andrew at Loafkeeper Farm

Another fellow Icelandic sheep breeder, Elaine at Frelsi Farm.

Hmm... What do you think? Shall I notify them that they've been tagged, or just wait and see if they discover it for themselves? :-)

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You

Whatever you do, don't play this game:

The Impossible Quiz

It will have you laughing, groaning, and tearing out your hair in frustration. You will waste hours (days!) of your life trying to get to the next answer, and the next, and the next. Inane jokes will start to make sense. You'll develop a fondness for dancing elephants and a fear of ticking time bombs!

You will become addicted and your life will not feel complete until you finally manage to complete the last question. (I haven't gotten that far yet, by the way!)

Don't say I didn't warn you!

My Secret Obsession

I do it when I'm stressed. I do it when I'm working and need to take a break to clear my mind. Sometimes I do it before I go to bed at night. Sometimes I do it several times in a row.

It sooths me. I helps me put my tangled thoughts in order.

I'm talking, of course, about that simple yet insidious game that steals large chunks of my life in tiny, 5-minute increments:

Spider Solitaire.

When I first found it pre-installed on my computer, I tried it because I was bored with regular solitaire. I didn't know the rules, and I found it really frustrating. But for some reason, I kept trying until I figured out the rules. Then I kept trying until I figured out the strategies to help you win. Then I got pretty good at it.

Why, oh why, when I have such a busy life right now, do I waste my precious minutes on a silly computer solitaire game?

I think it's because the skills required to be good at Spider Solitaire are a simpler, purer form of the very same skills required to succeed at my task of trying to keep this farm afloat.

You start out with a random selection of opportunities, which you must combine and recombine to make the most orderly and successful arrangement possible. You are arbitrarily limited in what moves you can make, even when you can see other opportunities that are just out of reach. And you have to make some of your decisions based on incomplete data, because you can't see all the cards that are hidden and you don't know what new cards you'll be dealt.

And, as in life, sometimes things just don't work out so that you can win the game, and other times everything just falls into place.

A Recipe for Me

My friend River occasionally posts links to entertaining quizzes on his blog, and sometimes if I have a minute, I take the quiz. This one, "What is your personality recipe?" from Quiz Galaxy came out particularly appropriate for my personality, so I thought I'd post it here, just for fun.

Nancy - 1/4 cup of crazy - a heaping teaspoon of intelligence - 1/4 cup of honesty Mix on high, and serve immediately.

'What is your personality recipe?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Silly, I know, but it's refreshing not to be serious all the time.

What's YOUR personality recipe?