Eleven Things About Me You Probably Don't Know

Hi guys! Yes, I'm still alive. Life got crazy and I got into kind of a funk...and not the good kind with a lot of bass and horns.  I got all sad and grouchy and nothing I wrote, not even the simplest little post on dinner, seemed to be enough to pass my good-enough-for-the-internet test. What do you guys do when you really want to write but everything just seems blah?

Anyways, I've got an ulterior motive for writing random little tidbits about myself at this particular time.  You see, I've  decided to take that one step every health blogger takes eventually and start posting stats and progress photos of myself.  Meaning, if you check this blog on Monday, you will be seeing pictures.  Of me.  Mostly nude.  Hide the kiddies.

But, since I'm gonna be putting my external self out there (so very, very out there) for all the internet to see, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the internal stuff as well; a few of the things, bad and good, that make me me. 

1.  I'm named after a character in Lord of the Rings.  No, really.  Sam's daughter Elanor the Fair, although my parents used the more normal spelling of "Eleanor" and then just  called me "Nelly" all the time.  I kind of love how nerdy that is.  And if you haven't read far enough to know where she comes into the story, get cracking or we can't be friends.*

2.  I'm pagan.  Solitary (my friends and I had a circle when I lived in Ohio, but I haven't joined one down here) and ecclectic (although I favor the Celtic pantheon, Brigid in particular).  I don't pretend to know everything (or even anything) about the way the universe works, but I do feel like there are more things in heaven and on earth that are dreamt of in any philosophy.  And this particular method helps me feel closer to the earth, my fellow man and that un-nameable force that ties everything together.  Also, yes I plan on jumping over a bonfire tomorrow night (probably not naked though) and no I don't do love spells.

3.  I have trichotillomania.  Generally speaking, it's the compulsion to pull your hair out.  Some people bite their nails down to the quick; I've pulled bare patches on my scalp before.  For me, it also manifests as picking at any imperfection on my skin - if I have a scab or a zit or an ingrown hair, I will literally tear the skin from my face and body to get it out.  It really sucks.  If I didn't have it, I'd have about a tenth of the scars that I do and my hair would actually be long (about a year ago, things got so bad that I just buzzed it and started over).  So if you ever see me in the gym with my hand up to my head, I give you free rein to come up and body check me.  Totally serious.  Or just a hug.  Whatever.

4.  I have an amazing ability to memorize and retain songs.  At my current job, taking care of an adorbz little monster who loves to be sung to, I've found that I can sing most if not all of the songs my parents used to play and sing for me when I was a wee one, even the ones I haven't heard in years.  I used to be able to do the same thing with playing the piano, just because I could never really read music so I just memorized everything right off the bat.

5.  I save all my bacon grease and chicken fat and use it later to cook with.  It's AMAZING.  Do it.

6.  If I could have any superpower, it would be the ability to insert myself into people's dreams.  Mostly just to talk.  Sometimes to mess with them.  Now I'm giggling to myself.

7.  I own very little furniture, but I have 7 bookshelves, all full.  I think people without books in their house, or even without books in view as soon as you walk in the door, are kind of weird.

8.  There was a brief period the summer after I left college that I was homeless.  The friend I was staying with at the time had personal dramas unrelated to me that got her really, really depressed and she went all hermit for a while, which involved closing her door to me.  I had a job, but no place to stay in that town, so I ended up sleeping under a bridge for a couple nights until I bought a cheap tent, camping just outside of town during the week and then hiking the 20 or so miles to another friend's house on the weekends to shower and eat.  The main thing I noticed?  You really do become invisible.  People don't want to see you, so their eyes just skip you.  You know that bit in Harry Potter (think it's the first book) when Hagrid explains why the Muggles can't see that one building because they don't expect or want it to be there, and Harry sees their eyes just sliding past it without actual recognition?  That's what it's like.

9.  As part of the progress stats, I'll be weighing myself for the first time in 4 months, and I'm a little scared.  I've never been really seriously tied to the scale, but like pretty much every other non-third-world adult woman, I've definitely had some level of a disordered relationship with it in the past, and I really don't want to go back to that.  I'm also getting stats like body fat and other more medically sound ones taken, though, and I'm hoping I can focus on those more.

10.  I still sleep with my two favorite toys from childhood.  One is a teddy bear named "Teddy."  She wears a blue-and-green tartan nightgown; I used to have a matching one that I wore until it started choking me when I tried to button it.  The other is "Baby Eleanor," a baby doll with only one foot, because when I was about 7 I left her in the yard and the neighbor's dog got ahold of her and chewed the other foot off.  She's also a black baby doll.  Yes, she's named after me.  Is this why it seemed perfectly natural to date a black man? Perhaps :D

11.  If I could live off only 5 food for the rest of my life, they would be 1. steak, 2. bacon, 3. cherries, 4. brussel sprouts and 5. decaf coffee. 

-Nelly

*Ha ha!  Just kidding!**

**Not really kidding.