Five (Odd) Facts

My cyber friend Alice G of Whatsoever Is Lovely blog recently tagged me and some of her other blogger friends to give five facts about ourselves. So here goes and I hope I don't bore anyone:

1) I am a high school dropout. This one I'm not proud of. After my parents divorced when I was eleven, my school work took a back seat to other things, like goofing off and playing hooky from school. I swiftly fell from the top of my class to passing on a D average. I failed the ninth grade for excessive absenteeism, but was later passed into high school via social promotion, where I promptly developed an uneasy and unpleasant relationship with school guidance counselor. I had improved my attendance and my grades, but any time I did miss a day he was right there at the front door to hassle me. I was out sick on my seventeenth birthday (which in my state was the legal age to drop out of school), and even though I had not given thought to dropping out, promptly did so when my social worker snidely told me over the phone that he assumed I was going to quite now that I had turned 17. "Yes, you're right," I told him and slammed down the phone. (Maybe fact number one should have been that I was an impulsive smart aleck when I was a teenager; really I think I was just hurting really bad inside.)

Addendum: In my twenties I obtained a GED and enrolled in business college, graduating with honors.

2) I have memories of being a child and occasionally seeing otherworldly creatures, quite vividly. Up until my late teens I often (but not always or even usually) would be overcome when alone with a feeling there was another presence with me. I haven't experienced that so much in recent years, but do still have occasional auditory and, less frequently, visual hallucinations. I now tend to think of this as my personal muses.

3) My mother always related the story of how when she was pregnant with me she felt God had a hand on me in a special way. Although she was prone to miscarriages and had a dozen or so, even having to take to bed at some points in the pregnancies of my two brothers, she came through her pregnancy with me in fine fashion, actually having to be careful about her weight gain. When I was born she chose Nathan for my middle name, after the biblical prophet, and all my life that is what she mostly has called me. And she is the only one who calls me that. It is a special name between us and doesn't sound right coming at me from anyone else. (Now I don't think I'm any kind of prophet, but do confess to having had more than a few premonitions or examples of clairvoyance throughout my life.)  Really.

4) I am a habitual and vivid dreamer. My dreams are often intricate. My dreams have often served as guides in my life. I view them as a window into my soul. My waking filter, I'm convinced, hinders me from seeing more of what lies deeply hidden in my psyche. Consequently, I'm a big believer in the value of dream analyses.

5) My mother began buying toy guitars for me when I was five years old. Seems I always had one around when I was kid. When I was twelve, she took down her old Gibson acoustic and began teaching me guitar chords for real. At the time I took to it like a duck to water. Right away I wanted to use the guitar as a solo instrument. We were poor and couldn't afford lessons, so I wasn't sure how to accomplish that. But after a while I began to, as it where, pull the music out of the wood. I have always heard what is in there but often had to search to find it. Later I benefited from books on music theory and guitar. I can read music, but prefer to close my eyes and listen with my inner ear. Playing solo guitar has been symbolic of my loner lifestyle and individualistic way of doing things. I have never been comfortable following recipes for anything, but prefer to follow my instincts, to make changes and create variations.