Day 2: 20 Facts About Me (Day 2 of 30 Day Blogging Challenge)

1. I’ve had 4 weddings, but only 2 husbands. I married husband #1 at the age of 20, but that ended in a nullity, which is when the state legally dissolves a marriage instead of simply ending it; it’s as if the marriage legally never existed. That’s not to be confused with an annulment, which is when the Catholic Church dissolves a marriage. I married  husband #2 at 29, and we divorced. I married husband # 3 at 33 and we divorced. I remarried husband #2 at age 36. I’ve had 1 church wedding, 1 outdoor wedding, 1 wedding in a park, and 1 elopement. I personally believe in love, I’m just not sure I believe in marriage. I know I don’t believe in “for better or for worse.” When abused, I’m leaving. Some things just aren’t worth trying to fix.   
2. I’m a certified Hypnotist. No, I can’t make you quack like a duck, not unless you really want to! Hypnosis helps one rewrite their inner dialogue, and that inner dialogue can help reshape their thoughts, motivation, and priorities. I’ve enjoyed using hypnosis to help people lose weight, quit smoking, break other bad habits like nail biting, and I’ve facilitated past life regressions. Hypnosis fascinates me, and I love that I can use it to help others.
3. I’m an advocate for equality. I believe if one belongs to a majority group (white, straight, male, able-bodied, Christian, middle class, etc.) then one should strive to understand the privileges they live with. Even if one doesn’t consider themselves a prejudice person, they still benefit from privilege. One primary way to understand why prejudice exists and try to close the gap between the privileged and the oppressed is to try to understand what privilege is. It baffles me how many people I come across who insist they don’t benefit from privilege and have no interest learning about it. 
4. I have a World of Warcraft account. I don’t get to play too often, and I’m not that good at it, but it can be a lot of fun. I have both Horde and Alliance toons, but most are low level and I have a preference for Horde Tauren Druids. 
5. My daughters belong to a biker gang. Bikers Against Child Abuse, aka BACA, became involved in our lives after my second divorce. They intervene when a case of child abuse is going to criminal court. They bond with the kids, give them a road name, give them a phone number they can call 24/7 if scared. BACA will go to court with the kids if they have to testify. These bikers want these kids to know that they’re safe again, that no one will hurt them again now that the bikers are their friends. (It should be noted that I am not a member of BACA or their PR team, and I do not officially speak for them in any way. I’m simply a mother who is happy BACA came into her children’s lives in a very dark period. If you’d like to know more about BACA, please visit their website at http://bacaworld.org.)   
6. I’ve loved dachshunds since I was three years old. We grew up with mixed breed dogs, dogs that were half German Shepherd and half something else. I saw my first dachshund at the age of 3 at the veterinarian’s office, and it was love at first sight. This dog looked like it stepped right out of a cartoon! I moved into my own place at age 20 and got my own dog for the first time, and I had to have a dachshund. I’ve had two now that I’ve been an adult. My first dachshund, Frankie, will always have a very special place in my heart.  
7. I’ve also loved Superman since I was three years old. Most people my age were introduced to the Man of Steel by the Superman movies in the 70’s and 80’s, but my first Superman was George Reeves from the 50’s TV show. My father would watch the black and white show, and I was fascinated with this man who would crash through walls. One huge thing I love about Superman is he’s positive and not full of angst like a lot of other comic book characters are. 
8. Tom Hanks became my favorite actor when I was four years old. I remember the first time I saw him on Bosom Buddies; his curly hair made an impression on me that still affects my preferences to this day. I was too young to understand the cross dressing plot line, but he stood out as my favorite back then and remains my favorite actor. My favorite Tom Hanks movie is the one he wrote, directed, and starred in: That Thing You Do.  
9. Drew Barrymore became my favorite actress when I was five years old. I first saw her in ET, and she seemed like the coolest big kid ever. (Hey, she was a big kid to me.) My two favorite all time movies both star Drew; 50 First Dates and Ever After.  
10. My oldest daughter is my hero. She is 9 years old, and is living with Autism, ADHD, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She decided – on her own – to become a vegetarian at the age of 5, and she’s stuck with it. (It should be noted that none of our family members or close friends were vegetarians when she was 5.) She wants to save the rain forest. And as this photo demonstrates, she’s been a “tree hugger” since the age of 2. She is the most passionate person I have ever met.
11. My mom wrote an article about my family’s struggle with Lyme Disease, and it was published in a magazine, The Ladies’ Home Journal. If you’re interested in learning more about my journey with Lyme Disease, check out this blog post. If you’d like to read my mom’s article, it’s archived online here. 
12. I’m a paranormal investigator. I’m with a local team, Squankum Paranormal Research Team aka SPRT. When SPRT goes on an investigation, we try to rule out anything that could be a non-paranormal reason for perceived paranormal activity. If that doesn’t answer all questions, then we’ll consider looking at things from a paranormal / occult approach. For now, SPRT only covers suspected hauntings.  I’m also with a national paranormal group, The National Paranormal Society aka NPS. I serve on 3 NPS teams: Demonology, Occult, and Cryptids. One of NPS’s big projects right now is The Endeavor Project, and the goal is to collect paranormal evidence and create a baseline for researchers and teams on the global level to use for comparative purposes.  
13. I was a vegetarian before, and I’m *this close* to becoming one again. My daughter became a vegetarian at age 5, and she asked me to be one with her. I tried, but after a few months I reverted back. I agree with all the reasons not to eat meat, and I’m not even sure the human body was designed to digest meat beyond insects, but old habits die hard with me. And eating meat has definitely been a habit I want to break.  
14. I belong to The Religious Society of Friends. They’re also referred to as the Quakers. A couple summers back, my daughters and I went into Woodbury to see the fireworks, but I wanted to avoid the crowds. I decided to go sit on the lawn at the Quaker Meeting House. There were Quakers there already, they had had a picnic that day, so they came and sat with us for the fireworks. My oldest daughter gets to talking with them, and she learned that some Quakers are also vegetarians, and some Quakers are also pacifists, etc. She was so excited, she finally felt she belonged somewhere, that she had found her people. I started taking both girls to the Meeting on Sundays, and we joined a year later. I hadn’t known it at the time, but I had found my people that day, too.  
15. I’m also what some might call a witch. In addition to being a Quaker, I’m also a Roman Pagan / Strega. There are those in the Pagan community who wish to reclaim the word “witch” to mean wise person again the person who knows herbs and possesses esoteric education, instead of it meaning the wrinkly old hag who casts harmful spells and rides a broom. I support the movement to reclaim the word, but I don’t like to run around and call myself a witch To me, there’s too much of a disconnect between what the words means today and who I am.  
16. At age 17, I wasn’t ready to become an aunt. When my older sister had her first baby, my nephew Dylan, I felt that being an aunt made me sound old, and I wasn’t ready to be old. For the first 2 years of my nephew’s life, I was referred to and called “Tia,” which is the Italian word for aunt. After 2 years, I accepted being an aunt and we switched from Tia to Aunt Kelly.  
17. I go to the gym. I don’t have a beautiful gym body, and I don’t think perfection is what I’m going for. I just want to feel good in my skin and have a healthy and more tone physique. On nights I don’t feel motivated to go through with it, I can count on my gym buddy and one of my BFFs, Darlene, to kick my butt. And Darlene said to make sure I share that I used to hit the tootsie roll bucket on the way out of the gym every night, but I’ve gotten much self control now and I barely even look at the tootsie rolls. That’s improvement, right? 🙂 
18. I want to travel, but as of now, I haven’t made it off the east coast. The farthest north I’ve made it is Boston, the farthest east would be the Jersey shore, the farthest west would be Lancaster PA, and the farthest south would be Orlando, but if Disney doesn’t count that the furthest south would be South Carolina. When I eventually get to travel abroad, I want to see Sicily and Greece, London, Ireland, and the Australia Zoo. I also want to go on an African Safari. Inside the USA, I want to get to Salem Massachusetts, the Grand Canyon, and Hollywood.  
19. My two biggest career aspirations are to get a book published via a book publisher (not self publishing) and to create a blog that grows to 1,000,000+ followers. I have a few book ideas I want to work on, but my current book project is about a counseling social worker named Frank who starts to notice some strange coincidences between several of his patients, and then his patients start disappearing. I also have several blog ideas I want to create and expand, but I’ll be doing the blogs one at a time, starting with this one. 
20. I’ve worked a variety of off the beaten path jobs. I’ve held jobs as a 900# psychic card reader, pet sitter, a hypnotist, and a YAP Worker. I wouldn’t trade any of the experiences or people I’ve met along the way!