A Pimple, A Hop and Three Things About Me

I thought I'd participate in the blog hop one more time before I become consumed with my "real" job and travel out of town. After all, I discovered some great new sites on last week's hop extravaganza.

This week's challenge - tell three things about yourself that nobody (or almost no one) knows. Awhile back I wrote a post, 25 random things about me, so I will just steal and elaborate more from that list. Here are three interesting things about me:

1. I performed syncronized swimming for four years as a young girl - in Houma, Louisiana. My swim team was named the "Houma Dolphinettes." We even had a dolphin mascott, matching jackets, earrings and more. We were the Jem and the Holograms of the pool world. I could hold my breath for over a minute underwater and stay afloat by doing eggbeater motions with my legs. We swam to music of TV show theme songs like the Twilight Zone and the A-Team. The experience was a lot of fun and we traveled to compete against teams in Texas and D.C.

2. I lived in the suburbs of New Orleans from 2001 until the end of 2005 and didn't leave for Hurricane Katrina. My husband and I lived at his employer's building in Slidell, Louisiana for five days. For four days, we were unable to speak to our families to know if they were safe and vice versa. We witnessed a lot of devastation and saw people come into our military facility who had been rescued from their home roofs, washed away, etc. Those experiences changed my life but I don't talk about it much since many, many people had it WAY WORSE than what we had. Oh, I could tell you some stories, but a made-for-TV Lifetime movie would probably portray it better, LOL!

3. I really enjoy writing poetry and I even contacted Hallmark years ago for an application to be a greeting card writer. Often I'll write serious, meaningful things. But mostly I write the random, quirky stuff that comes suddenly to my head. Most of my poems are silly and written in less than fifteen minutes, like this one I wrote yesterday:

Pimple At Thirty?

Monday I gained a pimple
A big one on the side of my mouth
Instead of making usual eye contact
The stares slowly drifted south.

Why must I have blemishes?
I thought I moved past this stage.
I don't wish to relive middle school.
At my thirty years of age.

My body is quite a strange place
Veins on legs, gray hairs on head
Boobs are sagging, arms are flapping
Wrinkles are appearing, enough said!

But I will fight back against this enemy
Who seems quite comfy on my unwaxed lip
I'm about to pop him with mighty force.
He better pack his bags for the trip!