Several of my crochet blogging buddies have been publishing articles with a title similar to this one. I’ve enjoyed reading them so much that I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and write one of my own. Plus, I haven’t published anything since the end of March, and I figured this would be a nice change from what I typically write about.

1. I think 13 is a lucky number.

In fact, I was going to call this article, 13 Things You May Not Know About Me, but it was getting to be too long, so I cut back to 11.

The number 13 has gotten so much bad press for so long that I decided during the 90s to start viewing it as a lucky number. In this way, I would banish any triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13) that might be lurking in the recesses of my subconscious. And every time 13 falls on a Friday, I know it’s going to be a lucky day for me. After all, there are 13 lunar cycles and Friday is Venus’ day (vendredi in French), making it a day that celebrates women.

2. I majored in linguistics and minored in French in college.

I was one of those students who excelled in language arts in elementary and high school but loathed math and science, despite having a father who was both a mathematician and a scientist. Clearly, those genes skipped my generation.

3. I learned to knit before I learned to crochet.

And I’m pretty sure I was embroidering before that. I learned to crochet as a teenager but continued knitting well into my twenties. But I finally got frustrated with how long it took to knit up a piece, and by my thirties I was hooked on crochet. I still knit from time to time, but only small projects I can finish quickly.

4. I never left the North American continent until I was 57 years old.

The only time I was outside the US was when my parents and I traveled to Montreal, Canada in 1967 for the World’s Fair. Even my daughter went to Jamaica on her senior class trip. I could have chaperoned but I didn’t make it.

However, I made up for my lack of travel in 2007 when I moved 3,000+ miles away to the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the island of Oahu, Hawaii where I now live.

5. I suffered terribly from glossaphobia until my early 40s.

That’s fear of public speaking if you hadn’t already guessed. Yes, I know; it’s the number one fear people suffer from, but I had it bad. It wasn’t until I took a part time job as a basic writing instructor at a community college that I finally moved passed it. Funny thing is, I discovered that I LOVE teaching.

6. I read romance novels.

But I came to them late, in the 90s after learning to my shock and dismay that one of my good friends, who has a PhD in linguistics, read them. “What could this intelligent woman possibly see in that drivel?” I thought. I even convinced myself it would be easy to write one and bought a “futuristic” romance novel to read as a first step. I’ve been reading them ever since even though I’ve never gotten around to writing one (a lot harder than I thought).

7. I can read tarot cards and interpret astrological charts.

I have always been fascinated with alternate ways of viewing reality and the so-called new age. In fact, my father once told me he remembered me being interested in astrology when I was in high school.

My interest in the tarot emerged after getting a reading from a “psychic” who used tarot cards in the reading and saw me with a baby! Needless to say, I had no intention of having a baby any time soon, but three months later, I was pregnant and my curiosity in the cards was peaked.

And it was astrology that boosted my confidence in my math skills because I needed a lot of math to calculate the charts by hand (thank goodness software now does all the calculating).

8. I know how to accurately interpret my dreams.

Recalling my dreams has always been easy. In fact, I had lucid dreams as a kid, so I’ve always wanted to know what they mean. Thanks to Gayle Delaney’s interview method of dream interpretation (aff), I’ve gotten pretty good at understanding the information they contain. I kept a dream journal for many years and would really like to get back into the habit of recording my dreams.

9. I know how to cook but I don’t like to.

Maybe because I had such a temperamental, nit-picking eater to raise, I simply stopped when she finally went off to college. Or it could be that I’m just lazy. Whatever the reason, if I can’t prepare a meal in 15 minutes or less, I probably won’t eat it. But I really want to stop eating so much nuked food and am on the lookout for easy-to-prepare (of course!), healthy meals.

10. I love to walk and dance.

And I need to do a lot more of both the older I get. I used to walk all the time in my 40s and 50s and danced like a fool in my 30s. But I’ve slacked off since reaching “The Big Six Oh.” I keep promising myself I’m going to walk more, so I’ve slowly started walking a few times a week in my neighborhood.

I haven’t found a way to incorporate dancing into my routine yet since I’m pretty much a homebody (the 11th thing you may not know about me) but I haven’t given up looking. A line dancing class would be ideal!

So now you know a bit more about me other than the fact that I love to crochet. If you’d like to get to know more about some other crochet bloggers, check out these links:

Sedie of Yarn Obsession
Corina of Stitch11
Lorene of Cre8tion Crochet
Kim of Wips ‘N Chains
Rebeckah of Rebeckah’s Treasures
Cylinda of Crochet Memories
Celina of Simply Collectible