Phyllis Martinelli:  

I did one of these "25 random things about me" on Facebook and just decided to copy it here, with a few updates. It touches on a lot of things that I've done over the last 40 years! 1. I grew up in southern New Jersey and used to play kissing tag with the neighborhood boys - not by choice, they just chased us down to kiss us. 2. My first job was working in a bank the summer after I graduated from high school. I had sent in an application, but was told there were no openings. My mother made me go talk to the mayor of our town (who owned the bank) and he took me to personnel and made them give me a job. I worked there for four summers! 3. I got the travel bug after going on a cruise to the Caribbean with my parents my freshman year in college. My mother took me because she was afraid my father was going to cancel out and she didn't want to go alone. 4. I was so bad at writing letters when I was in college (yes, we actually had to write them by hand on stationery) that I almost blew it with my boyfriend when I didn't answer his letters during the summer. Thank goodness I finally came around - we've been married for 36 years now! But also thank goodness for email, or I would have no friends..... 5. In college I majored in physical therapy, then changed to biology.....couldn't find a job.....got married.....had kids......went back to school to get my M.Ed. in early childhood education.....then FINALLY had a career. 6. During the marriage and kids thing in #5, but before going back to school, I worked part time for a YMCA as: an aerobic dance instructor, pre/post natal exercise instructor, water fitness instructor, preschool swim instructor, life guard, and aquatic director. Oh, and I also taught Lamaze prepared childbirth classes. 7. I named my daughter after a Barbara Streisand song - "Jenny Rebecca" (four days old....how do you like the world so far?). 8. When our kids were little, we wanted to travel, but the only way we could afford it was to go camping...in a tent. There's just nothing like drying a sleeping bag in a restroom with a hair dryer after the rain leaks into your tent..... 9. I've always wanted to sing like Karen Carpenter. I'm sad that she died so young. I do love to sing, though! Although I'm not sure how much I sound like her..... 10. I LOVE Christmas music. I usually start playing it in November, but then my kids make me stop the day after Christmas. This year, being in Italy without the kids, I played it all through January, too! 11. I've been a late bloomer all my life - first date at 17, first time for.....well, never mind that! Or maybe I just have an on-going middle age crisis. It seems I've tried so many new things during middle age than when I was young - even some things that would have been better to do when I was young, like sea kayaking, dog sledding, white water rafting, etc.! I often find myself saying, "Why didn't I try that years ago? I could have been doing it all this time!" 12. I had a complete hysterectomy in 2002 because of a huge mass of ovarian cysts. I will never skip another appointment with my gynecologist...... 13. In 1993 I drove to Alaska with my three kids (yes, I really did). We spent 6 weeks in a minivan and a tent, and all of us came back alive! Only on the way back home, we had to get out the map, leave the toll highway and find some back roads because I didn't have enough money left to pay the tolls! 14. One of my more embarrassing moments.....while in Alaska, we took a sightseeing flight over the glaciers. The plane was about the size of our minivan. Every time the pilot spotted some wildlife, he would say something like, "I think I see some bighorn sheep over there" and would promptly bank the plane and zoom toward some mountain. When we landed and the plane finally came to a stop, I scrambled to the door, opened it, and promptly puked all over the tarmac. 15. I LOVE horseback riding! I even got to chase cows one ti...Expand for more