Friday, February 15, 2008

The Nitty Gritty

It was just a matter of time...but I've been caught. I was caught and tagged by Pandave over at Odi and Amo. Now it's up to me to carry on the game. Here are the rules:

The Rules:
- Link to the person that tagged you.
- Post the rules on your blog.
- Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
- Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
- Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

1. I am a perfectionist. I believe that we are born with our personality traits. I was certainly born with this one, although I've worked hard over the years to try to mellow it out...but essentially it is who I am. My mother tells me that when I was a baby and learning to talk, that I could talk long before I would utter a word in front of anyone. She had placed a mirror in my crib and I would sit there and practice as long as I thought no one was watching. As soon as anyone would enter the room, I would stop. When I began speaking I essentially had a very good command of the language. I had the same struggle in Quebec when I was first learning French many years later. I hated the thought of making an error or talking like a toddler. Eventually I had to ask myself what was the worst thing that could happen was and just get out there and do it. Still, I tend to over do things. It's a bit of a stress.

2. I am also just a bit obsessive compulsive...another trait from birth. I have always loved books and I am told that from about the age of one, I would gravitate to my parents' beautiful coffee table books, which, of course, were at just the perfect height for me to reach. I would choose a page and then rip just the tiniest little bit...not even a millimeter. Sometimes I'd have more than one book going at a time. Every day, I would go back to those books, to those specific pages and rip just the tiniest bit more. It would take months for the rip to develop into a much larger tear that would eat its way to the centre of the page. When I would start on a page, my parents told me that they were never sure it was actually a rip, perhaps just a snag from wear, but when they would go back to those same pages after a space of time, that very same rip would be decidedly longer. Yes, I know what you are all thinking...I had a lot of issues. I was probably born with them. I am sure that Freud would have had a heyday with me.

3. I, and everyone in my family, have memories that go back to about the age of two or three. These aren't fabricated memories or things that I've heard people talking about and then adapted as my own, these are my actual memories. Memories from when I was younger are sometimes more of a visual memory and at other times I remember the situation or event because I remember specifically what I was thinking at the time when the event happened. I am always astonished when people tell me that they can't remember anything before the age of ten. That's a whole decade that is lost or forgotten. I simply cannot imagine.

4. I have never been able to sleep in moving vehicles, especially cars. When I was young, my family would drive to the coast several times a year to visit the grandparents. It's a long trip through numerous mountain passes. I had visions of the car driving off a cliff so I would force myself to stay awake and keep watch. I recently recounted this to my father who excitedly informed me that when I was a baby, I was in a vehicle with my mother who missed a corner and drove the car over the bank. We both wondered if this incident had somehow imprinted itself upon my cellular memory so that even though I don't consciously remember the event, somehow my body did.

5. I am a night owl. Always have been, probably always will be. There were at least a couple instances when I was young where I simply forgot to go to sleep. No, this was not when I was at university pulling all nighters, although that did happen much later. At sleep overs, I was always the last one awake and usually the first one up. Now, although I still tend to keep rather late hours, don't find it quite so easy to get up so early. I have considered that perhaps I was supposed to have been born in a different time zone, not sure how I would actually confirm that though.

6. Last but not least...I talk to myself a lot...or sometimes to people who aren't there. Okay, I usually don't do this when other people are around, or if I do, it's internal dialogue. I'm not an outright freak, at least not yet.

Now, who to tag, who to tag...eenie, meenie, minie moe, I choose Cheryl, JBelle, Fede, Pinks, Mone, and VE.

28 comments:

thailandchani said...

(sigh) Tagging.

Anyway, very nice pictures.. and I did like the six facts. Interesting to get to know people a little bit better.

Steffi said...

Great post again,Carla! I am a night owl too ;O)!Your pictures are very nice again!Where are you on the second pictures ?It looks great!Yes and point 4 I am too.I can´t sleep in moving vehicles.It´s nice to learn more about you!When you will be the next time in Germany again?

Ed & Jeanne said...

I have a memory back to last week...sometimes. I know there was a Monday back there and I'm pretty sure a Wednesday and some other days.

Ok, you tagged. I don't do meme's per say but I have a couple of meme like posts that I hadn't posted and so I'll post one on Saturday as a thanks for thinking of me.

Besides, you don't want to know weird facts about me like the time I had to jump from ship to ship in a hurricane in the Bering sea or that I learned to spell antidisestablishmentarianism in third grade or once drank 22 tall glasses of water at a restaurant. I don't want to scare anyone.

Guilty Secret said...

I love these as a way to get to know blog friends better :)

Perfectionism is such a barrier to language learning. How is your French now?

How amazing to have memories from so young! And the thing about moving vehicles... that was a little spooky!

TK Kerouac said...

Great Tag.
I definately would have pegged you as a perfectionist. I use to be, and have toned it down.
Also am very OCD. Perhaps these personality traits and quirks go hand in hand.
And like you, I remember everything as a child.
Maybe we are soul sisters??

You are the brighter one, I'm the bolder one,
Don't you think?

Carla said...

Chani, Yes, I know, and usually by the time the memes get to me most people have already completed them. Usually I just tell everyone that if they want to complete it to let me know and then let it go at that.

Carla said...

Hi Steffi, It's hard to break the habit of staying up late, isn't it? And some days the morning comes so early. The second picture was taken in Vancouver with my sister. I haven't yet decided when I will go back to Germany but I have been thinking maybe the spring or summer. I would like to take some language courses. We'll see, but I'll definitely let you know.

Carla said...

VE, Short-term memory and long-term. Sometimes I can't even remember what I did yesterday...but I still remember that stuff from so long ago. Hmm...I'm sure you could make this meme pretty interesting. Twist it around if you will...make it what you will.

Carla said...

Guilty, My French is actually pretty good. I completed my second degree at a francophone university and didn't really have any difficulties. Still, it always takes me a day or so to get back into it and feel comfortable. Yep, that thing about moving vehicles is a little freaky...but I would rather it be something that's already happened than a premonition of something yet to come.

Carla said...

Tracey, Perhaps you should do this tag too. I would like to know what you would say. I think you may be onto something about OCD and perfectionism, but I don't go too overboard on the OCD side of things. You are definitely bold, but don't cut yourself short in terms of smarts. You have a lot going on in that head of yours.

Anonymous said...

I longed to be perfect but never could get it quite right, so i gave it up. I now blunder with great enthusiasm. F.A.I.L. = First Action In Learning.
It seems to me that being multilingual would be a great advantage for talking to oneself. Gee, in English, French and German you could devalue the euro, all alone.

Randy

Carla said...

Randy, Oh, I agree...getting perfect just right is never going to happen. Yep, we can't be afraid of failure. Besides, we learn so much more from our mistakes. Oh yes, being multi-lingual is great fun...I can pretend that one part of me doesn't understand what the other is saying ;-)

Anonymous said...

Numbers 1 and 3 are me to a T. I did a post not long ago about reading slow in grade 2 for the very same reason, I didn't want to get one word wrong. I also have specific memories at 2 and 3. I even remember a dream I had when I was still in a crib. I remember waking and crying and not being able to tell my mom why. There were spiders crawling all over my crib and some coming down from the ceiling in webs. I remember it so clearly, and I remember getting my tonsils out and getting the needle in my bum and having to sleep in a giant crib which I didn't do at home anymore, and a whole bunch of other things about the hospital and my stay.

Carla said...

Dawn, That is so interesting. I too remember some awfully frightful childhood dreams and hospital stays. It's amazing how that kind of stuff can stay with you. I was never slow with reading though. As soon as I started I just never stopped.

Anonymous said...

I too have memories from my childhood. I used to roam the forest on our property, and other peoples property for hours. Me and my dog Pal. Oh the memories...

I am also a night owl. I have trouble going to bed before 11pm. Most nights it is 11:30. The problem with that is that my alarm goes off at 5:45am. Thus I am tired...but still can't go to sleep at night. I seem to get a second wind or something...

Carla said...

Sirdar, I certainly hear you about that second wind thing. If I stay up beyond a certain point there is just no sleeping, the fatigue is totally gone. But of course the next morning is another story completely.

JBelle said...

done.

Fuser said...

Nice, very nice to get to know you under a different light. Now I know why your writing is so clean and error free.
;-)
Memories of the past...I also have clear memories of a few events before I was 3. Not really much, and they are now blurred and fuzzy. But they are there!
Nice picture the one that closes your post. You reminded me I have a similar piece of past. For a second I thought I would close my post like that, but I may not do it.
I am a little perfectionist too, and it is a limitation when one learns a new language. It is all about trial and error...and the error is the upsetting part...I know...I know...
It is a big family then. ;-)
Good night and good luck.

pandave said...

what a great share! and the photos are out of this world. i too am a night owl and so so terrible in the morning. i have been told that i have a bit of an edge in the morning.
love the revelations...

Carrie said...

I adore those pictures - I, too, am a night owl. Its sucks when you find yourself awake at 2am when all the world is asleep, yet at 2:00 pm you're DOA.

Carla said...

JBelle, Fabulous! Fabulous, indeed.

Fede, The thing is, we remember so much better when we make an error first. I don't know why we should be so apprehensive about it.

Carla said...

Pandave, We would get along great then. I'm sure I have an edge in the morning too...so we just wouldn't bother talking then and neither of us would take it personally.

Carrie, I totally hear you. Glad there are a few of us out there. I'll remember that next time I'm up late.

Pamela said...

egads... I talk to myself, too.

When I was a kid I could sleep in the car. Now I feat that my hubby will fall asleep driving. So I drive or talk.

Carla said...

Pamela, I'm sure there are more of us than we think...most of us just won't admit it though. Yes, I hear falling asleep at the wheel is a fear for many.

Anonymous said...

Such great truths. How I wish I could remember the first decade of my life. Years 0-5 are definitely lost in a vortex somewhere.

Carla said...

Jeanine, I don't know what makes some people able to remember their childhood and others not, but you are not alone. And if it makes you feel any better, some of my adult memories are lost in a vortex somewhere too.

Mone said...

I'm a nigth owl too and I always hated to get up early. Guess what kind of job I learned by trade?

Baker, no kidding!

Well, today I'm sitting all day long in front of a PC, I would have never thought of an office job in my teens.

Carla said...

Mone, I don't think many of us when we were in our teens were able to envision what our lives would really look like. Baker, I would have never been able to handle the early hours.