Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Paging Miss Peanut

The lovely and talented Bill Cameron has, in a fit of playfulness, "tagged" me to play a blog game in which I must tell my readers six random things about myself and then tag six other people. How nice that he is including me, a staid English teacher, in his shenanigans. First of all, I don't know six other people, but I'll do my best.

I present you with my random things, if you are still reading this. :)

ONE: At the tender age of six, I was presented with the crown of Kiwanis Peanut Day's MISS PEANUT. As I recall, the competition was stringent, but as you can see above, in a photo where I am receiving my vast cash award, I was a strikingly beautiful child with a penchant for micro-minis. This was before the craziness of child pageants, and I felt no pressure to be anything but my plain little self, with a minimal hairdo and mother-cut bangs. The day itself was a whirlwind which included me and my two runners-up (one of whom was my sister), sitting on a float and tossing peanuts to the proles who lined the roadway. We may even have processed down more than one street. It was chaos, my friend. And I even got a tiara to wear, and a sash that said "Little Miss Peanut." It was a moment for the ages.

TWO: Since you may not know it from my photo, I am short. I used to soar to a majestic 5 foot 2, but a recent trip to the doctor has revealed the horror of shrinkage--I am now 5 foot 1. Now I can't even sing that song anymore "Oh what those five foot could do, has anybody seen my girl?" No one has written a song about 5 foot one.

THREE: I love music, and I love to sing. Where are you going? No, stay. We can sing some Broadway tunes together.

The love of music came to me from my German (and very musical) mother, as well as from my Hungarian grandmother, who liked to sing and dance the Czardas in her kitchen, accompanying herself with pans she banged together. She used to sing a song about a wooden spoon in Hungarian: it was called Fa Kanal, but when you said it out loud it sounded too much like some vague swear, so we discouraged her. Translated, it meant: "Oh, wooden spoon, wooden fork, wooden knife--my lover has left me, and now I am filled with sorrow." But it had a catchy tune.

FOUR: My husband and I met on a blind date--at a FORMAL DANCE. I have photos of our awkward meeting. Jeff attempted to lessen the awkwardness by showing up half-inebriated.

FIVE
: My worst teacher moment: when I was twenty-something, the janitor threw all of my carefully-graded research papers AWAY before I could return them to the students. I ended up wading through a dumpster IN THE RAIN, hunting for the papers, and while I was in there, the garbage truck pulled up and I started crying.

SIX: I do an amazing iguana impression, and when I make it at lizards in a pet store, they respond to me.

Oh, and now I'm supposed to post the rules of this blog tag game, for those three people who made it to the bottom of this post:

Now I have to tag six people, and then post the Rules. Because them's the rules.

So I hearby tag:
Julie
Cindy
Peter
Keith
Eric and Mary
Lonnie

The rules are as follows:

Link to the person that tagged you - ie me.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself in a blog post.
Tag six people.
Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their post.
Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

Good Luck!

14 comments:

Peter Rozovsky said...

What a cutie!

==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

Bill Cameron said...

Brilliant! You and Ms. Glubber should get together! She's very friendly, like you.

Julia Buckley said...

ALl these compliments! Don't go and encourage me to post all my baby pictures. :)

Clair D. said...

Oh man, losing those papers must have been rough. Hopefully nothing else has rivaled that experience. Did you ever get them back, or what did you do?

You sound like one of those spunky folk with lots stuffed in a short package. Amusing post.

Julia Buckley said...

Clair, I did get them! They were covered with horrible stains from the lunch garbage, but the kids could still read my comments, and I think they actually felt quite sorry for me.

Dana Fredsti said...

I love the Miss Peanut photo...

Julia Buckley said...

Thanks! If you look very carefully you can see some sort of glue or coffee stain; still, the photo has lasted since 1970.

Peter Rozovsky said...

Dear Miss Peanut:

I have dutifully complied (it was kind of fun, actually) and passed the joy onto six fellow bloggers.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

Cindy Fey said...

I love love your funny stories. I'm going to ignore the possibility that there is a mystery writer named Cindy out there and assume you are tagging me! Let me think on it - or does that negate the idea of randomness?

Cindy Fey said...

Here's my post: http://cindy-weallfalldown.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-post.html

Susan Bearman said...

Cindy Fey tagged me because you tagged her. I wanted to let you know that we own a pet store in Lincolnwood, IL called The Animal Store. I think it's imperative that you visit the store soon and do your iguana imitation. Ask for Kenn. We'll be waiting.

Julia Buckley said...

Okay, but if your iguana falls in love with me, let it be on your head. :)

Susan Bearman said...

We'll risk it. Maybe you need an iguana of your very own.

Julie Hyzy said...

Hey Julia, thanks for the tag. My six random things are up and now I just have to find six other willing participants....
;-)