XXV

This is a "reprint" of the note I posted on Facebook, just twenty five things about me that you may or may not have known.

1.My name is spelled A-S-H-L-E-A and is pronounced like Ashley. However, I have been known to answer to Alicia, Ashalee, Ashleuh, Ashlay, Abigail, Dave, RC, etc, etc, etc.

2.Since I moved to Louisville in 2004, I have lived in seven different places.

3.In high school, I was a soccer referee.

4.My favorite clothing stores are Banana Republic, Bass Pro, and the Tractor Supply Co.

5.When I was a child in early elementary school, I would wonder if I (or anything else for that matter) existed, or if everything was the figment of someone's imagination.

6.I am a contortionist. Rather unusual though, is that I am both a back-bender and forward-bender.

7.Blood and I get along just fine, as long as it stays where it is supposed to – in my body. There have been two times when I fainted at the sight of my own blood.

8.One of my favorite pastimes when I was little was to play farm or pioneer. I still have secret wish to travel out west in a covered wagon.

9.I despise air conditioning, even when it is over 100 degrees outside.

10.On more than one occasion (ok, lots of occasions) I have been caught dancing in random places (in an elevator, while cleaning, going down a sidewalk, etc).

11.My face betrays all of my thoughts and emotions. But beware, it is entirely likely that what I am thinking has absolutely no correspondence to the conversation at hand.

12.I absolutely love climbing – trees, rocks, machinery. Speaking of climbing, I used to freak my mother out when I would climb to the tops of the trees in our yard and perform circus like antics freestyle thirty or forty feet in the air.

13.Reading is one of my deep and abiding passions – anything and everything from ancient literature to the modern Russians to English literature to poetry to philosophy to history to biography to literary theory to theology to dictionaries. And I usually have multiple books going at one time (I like synthesizing the ideas that I am reading into a big picture). But, what might surprise some people is the fact that I did not learn how to read until I was seven years old.

14.My imagination is incredibly vivid, and I see faeries and elves everywhere I go.

15.The little toe on my right foot has independent muscle control.

16.Blame my parents, I am what I call an “extreme morning person.” It is nearly impossible for me to sleep past 5:00am, even on weekends, even when I stay up until midnight.

17.I love thunderstorms and wind and rain; it is on those occasion that the earth feels very alive and impish, and it always invites me to come out and play.

18.I love taking naps on Saturday mornings during a warm spring or autumn rain with my windows open.

19.Sometimes for kicks, I will come up with new philosophical theories.

20.I have worked first, second and third shift. Second shift is definitely my least favorite of the three, and I don't mind my quasi-third shift because of #15.

21.When I am in a sappy, emotional movie mood, my movie selection will usually run toward “Gettysburg,” Black Hawk Down,” the Bourne movies or something else along those lines.

22.On one occasion, when I still attended Patrick Henry College, I took my room's orange inflatable couch out and re-enacted the “Lady of Shalott” on Lake Bob, our drainage pond.

23.Speaking of poetry, my two favorite poems are “Mythopoeia” by J.R.R. Tolkien and the “Lady of Shalott” by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

24. I like food. . . a lot. But I particularly like beef and everything dairy.

25. I love my current role as a Protestant mother superior, discipling the women in my house; I could not imagine a better gift or more challenging task.