Sonnystone Acres

my birthdays are like a scheduled breakdown….my life flashes before my eyes and i think thoughts that are profoundly deep deep down.  it used to take a week or so before i could break through the funk, but these days i’ve pared down the drama.  however, my self-obsession took up most of last night and i didn’t have a chance to prepare an interview.  i have a couple in the works, but they’re not ready. 

so to keep you occupied i have decided to interview myself…..this is real time, kids.  i’m going to answer the questionaire even as we speak.  but first, let me introduce myself:

I was born yesterday 57 years ago in Fairfield, IL, the third child of Bob and Ruby Mayne.  I was welcomed by my brother, Rick (who I always called Brother), 5 years old, and my sister, Donna (who I always called Donna) , 17 months.  We lived in Albion, IL till I was 3, then we moved to Gary, IN.  We moved to Evansville, IN when I was 7 and it’s my hometown; there was a brief sojourn to Santa Maria, CA when I was 14, but let’s not talk about that.  I graduated from Harrison High School in 1971 and started nursing school at Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing.  We wore blue-checked below-the-knee pinafores with white stockings, clinic shoes,  and caps bobby-pinned precariously atop hair that had to be above the neck and not in our face. I didn’t last long in that environment given I was more prone to hot pants and no bra–and the farrah fawcett layers were not conducive to an upsweep; I left in 1973.  Due to a long run of bad decisions, I married Bill (Beaver) Bass in May, 1974; we had a daughter, Melissa Beth, in December that same year.  We divorced (the last time) in April, 1977.  I worked as a waitress at a club here in Evansville and the late 70’s were a disco daze.  I married Mike Casey on August 15, 1980 and finally settled down.   We bought our first house just before our son, Michael, was born in September 1981.  We moved over to Harmon Court in 1986 and lived there for 18 years.  During those years, I went to USI and earned an Associate of Nursing degree (1991) and started working as a nurse.  My kids grew up, went off to college and never came back.  People started dying.  Dad died in 1997; Mom died in 2002.  We bought a falling-down house on 4 acres in 2003 and named it Sonnystone Acres, after our cat, Sonny, and the giant “S” on the chimney.  I have been faithfully blogging since 2004, making my life an open book–but there’s so much more… I am currently working 20 hours/week as a school nurse, but I really want to be a writer when I grow up.  Could you tell?  

Age:  57

Bed size:  full — with a fan nearby

Chore you hate:  cleaning the toilet, followed by dusting

Essential “start your day” item:  coffee

Favorite color:  red

Gold or Silver?  gold

Height:  5′1″

Instrument you play:  piano, guitar, autoharp, dulcimer, percussion of any type, kazoo

Job Title:  Registered Nurse, PH Middle School

Kids:  Melissa and Michael  (can I mention Emma and Olivia?)

Living arrangements:  husband, cat, big yellow house

Mom’s name:  Ruby

Nicknames:  Bug, Elf, Tina, Doe Tina,

Overnight hospital stay (other than childbirth):  kidney infection, sometime in the 80’s; hysterectomy, 1988. 

Pet Peeves:   people who invade my personal space–and sometimes my personal space is an acre or so. 

Quote from a movie: Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.  Rhett Butler, Gone with the Wind

Right handed or left handed:  right

Siblings:  Rick and Donna

Time you wake up:  6am.  I get out of bed about 6:30.

Underwear:  yes

Veggie you like and dislike:  I have never met a vegetable I didn’t like. 

Ways you cope with stress:  You don’t want to know…

X-ray vision (have you ever predicted the future correctly?):  not very Far into the future, but yes.

Zoo you like best:  I’ll go with Mesker Park Zoo, but I haven’t seen any others lately.