My Desktop - Revealing, Sort Of

My friend Francis at Caught in the Stream tagged me with a Meme. It's called What's the Personality of Your Computer? At first I thought, like Francis did, that my desktop doesn't say very much about the real me.

But when I took some time to think about it:

When I bought my laptop I sorted through the Windows options and found 'stream'. I love to look at it but it's not the desktop I really love. It's the screen saver of a gently running stream. The water rolls over the rocks. A leaf floats by on its way downstream. It's very calming.

First fact gleaned from my desktop - I desire and need calm in my life.

I've never attempted to customize my desktop with a personal photo. I'm not sure I know how. I used to say that I knew just enough about my computer to be dangerous. I'd say that's still true. In order to do this meme, I asked Francis to tell me how to get a screen shot. He was kind enough to send directions.

Second fact gleaned from my desktop - I only learn new technology when I'm pushed. Then I'm always so surprised at how easy the task was and I wonder why I avoided it in the first place.

I chose this desktop because I love water. I love to be near and around water, preferably a mountain river or lake. I love to sit on the edge, close my eyes and listen to the water rushing over the rocks or lapping against the shore.

Third fact gleaned from my desktop - Before I die I want to live in the mountains near a lake or a river. I want to walk out my backdoor, down a winding path to dip my fingers in the water and meditate to its song.

Looking at my icons, it's clear that I need to do some housecleaning. I don't use half of the shortcuts.

Fourth fact gleaned from my desktop - I tend to put things off lately and let the little things pile up. Got to change that.

Thanks Francis for giving me the opportunity to contemplate the ways my personality is exhibited through my computer. I don't know if anyone else will find this interesting but it was a fun exercises in self-discovery.

To pass on the fun, here are a few bloggers that I'd love to know what their desktop reveals about their personality. As always, my friends, no pressure to participate. Have fun and Happy Halloween!

Chrissy Jo at Rainbows and Butterflies.

Mr. Grudge, owner of what else?...Mr. Grudge.

And...JD at The Uneasy Supplicant.

Meme about me me - Just The Facts, Ma'am

My friends Charlotte and Heather tagged me with a revealing meme. I am now compelled to share eight random tidbits about myself. But first, I must follow the rules -

The rules:
Link to the person/people who tagged me.
Share eight facts about myself.
Tag eight more bloggers to participate.
Notify them of their tagged state..:)

*I'll add my rule - if I tag you and you don't want to participate, no worries, no pressure.

And away we go:

I was adopted at 2 ½ months old by incredible parents. They’d tried for over ten years to have a baby, enduring many miscarriages and the death of their infant daughter. Finally, they turned to adoption and found me. Thirty years later, I located my birth family. I have great relationships with my birth mother and father. Along with them, I found two half-brothers. When I was little I’d beg my parents for a little brother. I got my wish times two.


After having two children in my twenties, I divorced and married again. At the ripe old age of 38, I gave birth to another son…my little firecracker. He’s three and is constantly on the move. He leaves me little surprises (MESSES) all over the house. Yesterday I opened the coat closet to find green cake crumbs on the floor (from big sister’s birthday cake), the doorknob caked with dried frosting and a handful of ants having a feast. Let’s just say he keeps me on my toes.


In high school, my best friend was a cute, tall, quiet boy. He had the sweetest smile I’d ever seen and always listened intently to all I had to say, without the drama a best girl friend can produce. I loved having a guy friend. He had a not-so-secret crush on me. I had a boyfriend. When I married at the end of the summer after graduation, Todd dutifully came to my wedding and caught my garter when my new husband flung it into the crowd of young men. He kept it for many years and now I’m married to HIM and happier than I’ve ever been! Ladies, girls – listen up – don’t ignore the sweet, quiet boys in school and think twice before telling one you only want to be friends. Learn from my experience – you’re missing out on something good!

My first job as a laboratory technician/nurse was at a Women’s Clinic in Gulfport, Mississippi. It was during the time when clinics were picketed on a regular basis. I always braved the mob and walked in the front door with my head held high. I believed if they spent one day holding young women’s hands and mediating horrible family situations instead of chanting empty slogans, they might understand. Sometimes, because of my age (right out of college), the picketers would mistake me for a client instead of one of the staff. The horrible things they yelled in my face and the way they treated me (as a person they claimed to want to help) was much worse than the abuse I got when they realized I worked there.

Once I was a foster parent to a teenage girl. She was seventeen. I was twenty-five. It was the worst and best year of my life. She was very troubled and a constant challenge. We bonded quickly, as well as you can with a child who suffers from attachment disorder. I still think about her every day and wish I could hug her just one more time. While she was with me, I won tickets to a U2 concert and the two of us flew cross-country to see them on Saint Patrick’s Day in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the first time she’d been on a plane.

Ten years after deciding to follow my dream of being an author, I recently signed with a literary agent (my DREAM agent from one of the best boutique agencies in NYC). We are working together to polish a manuscript about my experience as a foster mother. Soon he will be shopping it to publishers. I have a good feeling that it will hit the shelves early in 2009 -That’s a little positive thinking on my part. Hey, if I’m going to give lip service to the law of attraction then I better believe in it for my own dreams.

I did print and runway modeling when I was a teenager. Nothing big, just in and around Atlanta – I wasn’t Brooke Shields or anything like that but it was a blast. The most memorable ad was a brochure for Chaparral Boats. I sped around a lake in a ski boat while crew from another boat took pictures of me in, yikes!, a bikini! I was only seventeen. I could pull it off, no problem, back then.

I sometimes let people believe their first impression about me. I get a kick out of perpetuating the pretty, dumb blond stereotype so I can turn it around and stupefy them later with my wit and intellect. It’s kind of like a hustle and it gives me great secret satisfaction to prove them wrong.

There it is, that's me, the woman behind this humble blog. I'm passing on this MeMe to bloggers I am curious about:

Ashley Cecil
LotusInTheHills
Peter McCartney
Mary K
Mr. BeSilly
Jerry E. Beuterbaugh
A. Blaine
David Elton