An Incomplete List of Influences

Well, we are still under the weather here. Violet has fallen prey to a stomach virus on top of her cold, which she has shared with me (the cold, not the stomach virus-- thank goodness). Our quarantine kept me from doing things I really wanted to this week; I missed a La Leche League meeting (which is always fun and refreshing for me) and had to cancel plans with a visiting-from-out-of-town friend who I miss a ton. SIGH... To distract myself from the yuckiness I shall steal a page from Jason Boyett; I have compiled a not-comprehensive list of things that played a role in shaping who I have come to be as an adult. They are not in any particular order, and not explained, and not divided up into good or bad impact on who I am today.

• Growing up in Texas
• Being involved in church, and the American evangelical community specifically, from birth
• The music of Lyle Lovett
• Being tall for my age all through my childhood
• Being more bookish and into school than anybody else I knew
• The 6 years I was homeschooled
• The writings of L. M. Montgomery
• The writings of Jane Austen
• Hmmmm, and C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Beatrix Potter
• Reading books like Anna Karenina before I probably should have
• The X-Files and Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Wars, Casablanca, and Rogers & Hammerstein musicals
• Being the oldest daughter of an oldest daughter
• Two parents who chose to forgo opportunities for greater career success to be able to spend more time with my sister and me
• Not dating until I got to college
• Not having friendships with people who were different from me in a meaningful way until I got to college
• Memorizing a whole heck of a lot of the Bible in AWANA clubs
• Having no brothers (and a dad who was more interested in music and science than sports or cars)
• Studying piano seriously from age 8 through my high school graduation, and then dabbling in it after that
• The Sunday matinee season tickets to the orchestra that we had for many years during my childhood
• The tradition of sewing, knitting, needlework, etc. among the women in my family

Hmmmm, I think that's all for now. So there you go-- bits and pieces of who I grew up to be.