Does Versatile= Eclectic?

Derailing my usual, organized blog stream (oh, who am I kidding?  Do any two posts on this thing have anything in common?) to ascend to the virtual podium and graciously receive a Versatile blogger award from Colin D. Smith .

Oh, make a speech?  Sure!

I'd like to thank Colin, for mistakenly reading my complete and total scatterbrainness as versatility.  I'd like to thank the voices in my head...

*Gives a look of annoyance at the whispering coming from the side of the stage* Not that kind of speech?  What do you mean, tell people seven things about myself?  What kind of acceptance speech is THAT?  *heaves a huge sigh* Fine.  Buzzkill.

So, seven things about me.  Hmm.

1.  I'm a first generation Portuguese-American.  My parents immigrated to the US when they were young-- my dad when he was twelve and my mom when she was sixteen.  I'm the first generation of my family born in the US, though we've had family members coming and going from here since the eighteen hundreds.

2. My first language wasn't English.  And I wasn't accepted at a preschool because I stubbornly decided that green= "blue"  Most of my English was learned through osmosis in preschool and Sesame Street.  Now, I can speak both languages but am much, much better in English

2a. I talk in my sleep.  And, apparently, I sometimes talk in my sleep in Portuguese. (learned that in college)

3.  I'm always cold, but I love snow and figure skating.  Go Figure.

4.  Speaking of cold, I love Canada.  I have yet to meet a province or territory that I haven't loved (uh, don't send me to Nunavut in the winter to prove me wrong, okay?)  I've volunteered at two Canada Games (PEI and Nova Scotia) and am seriously contemplating a third (Sherbrooke, Quebec.)  When visiting Parliament in 2010, I actually knew who the first PM of Canada was (Sir John A. MacDonald, who LM Montgomery had met when she was young,) and got teary-eyed when NDP leader Jack Layton died this past summer.

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world."-- From Jack Layton's last letter to Canadians

5.  I once did a clog dance for a character part in "La Fille Mal Gardee".  I even went on my toes in my wooden clogs.  Because that's how I roll (in ballet.)

6.  I always get hungry whenever I read the first chapter or so of Dracula.  But that's because the main character describes so many wonderful meals! Chicken Paprikash--- mmm!

7.  Most people ease into the cadaver part of my job with one body, usually in a small lab situation.  My first cadaver lab had about twelve bodies, all in a bit of a mess because they had already been in use for about a week.  And I had to cross through the lab to get to the changing room while they were pulling the bodies out of the body bags.  When I reached the locker room, I sat down on a bench and dropped my head on my knees, groaning, "I can't do this.  I just can't do this."  But I pulled myself together and I haven't had a breakdown since.  I'm always surprised at how strong we are.

And now it's time for me to pass the torch onto other (much more) deserving bloggers.

J'aime (and it's not just because she's Canadian)
Wait.. What? - who kept me from talking to plants at the SCBWI conference
Madeline Martin -- you will never look at history in quite the same way again

And... though I'm supposed to give out 15, it's 11:53pm, I have a pulled/torn something in my leg, and I'm kind of falling asleep at the keyboard....so you all get three.  And you'll be happy about it.

*Grabs award and runs off with a wave, yelling "You love me, you really love me!"*