Ten Random Things . . .

I was very flattered by Alma to have been nominated for a Liebster award.  I know the deal is that you tell some facts about yourself, and then pass it on by asking some other little known blogger questions about themselves.  My trouble is, the blogs I follow are already very popular ones! Perhaps the smallest blogs I follow are  city garden country garden which inspires me in my own minuscule city garden and Goats and Hounds where I can vicariously experience a country sort of life. Also, House of Hodgepodge.  Really, most of my blog reading is about seeing other parts of the world and other types of life very different from mine and discovering how actually, we are all very alike!  I know many of you follow these blogs already.  In fact, I learned about them because of you.

So anyway, here are my ten random facts:

1. This is a picture of me when I was five years old before my dance recital.  I was a ballet dancer on and off until I was about twenty-three.
2. If given the choice to give up dessert or reading for life, I would easily choose dessert.
3. I first heard the song Wonderwall when I was buying two-tone wingtip shoes in Istanbul.  I danced around in the shoes and asked the salesman who was singing.  I immediately went to buy the record and I still cannot part with those shoes.
4. I was the youngest kids allowed in the dog training program--at age nine--and my dog won first place in the dog obedience show.
5. I still love dogs.
6. I used to work at a school for the hearing impaired.  We taught children to speak and lip read.
7. I love the ocean and beach but prefer the mountains.
8. The first time I drank beer was in a poolroom in Montana.  It was Miller beer, horrible, and I did not get more than two swallows down before I gave up.  I was wearing my boyfriend's clothes at the time--even his shoes.  We played pool.
9. I once waded in a fountain in the midnight moonlight on the outskirts of Versailles with a bunch of French friends.
10. When I was a kid in New Mexico, we used to help the hot air balloon people launch and take down their balloons.  I never did ride in one though.

So, there you go.  
And I pass this on--tell 10 random things about yourself--

Thanks again Alma!