Thursday Thirteen #4

Thirteen Things From My Life that Begin with "B"

(in no particular order)

1. Books have always been a major part of my life. I can't remember a time when I didn't treasure them. In fact, I'm still pretty peeved at my mother for selling my Nancy Drew books to buy my brother a set of Hardy Brothers books which he never read.

2. Babies, baby stuff, baby clothes, and baby food were far, far behind me until a year ago when little Miss Abigail came into our lives. She turned my world upside down (in the best possible way.) Check out last week's TT list to see how happy and healthy she is now.

3. Blogging. I don't do as much of it as I'd like to because real life has to get a foot in the door somewhere, but I actually like blogging . . . when I can think of something to say!

4. Book Clubs. I love talking books almost as much as I love reading books.

5. Birthday. September is the month of the birthday in my family. In fact, Ian is the only member of my immediate family whose birthday is not in September. Even Abigail was born this month ... the day after her mother's birthday. It's worse than December on the old bank balance.

6. Brother. I have one. He's six years younger than me. I also have a brother-in-law.

7. Burnout. What happens to writers when they write too much, too fast. Unfortunately, the creative process has to include time to regenerate creative energy and in the quest to make a living too many of us don't build that recuperative time into our schedules. Sooner or later, it catches up with you though. You can't escape it.

8. Balance. The thing I am always actively seeking in my life.

9. Beatles. I'm old enough to remember when they first burst onto the music scene. As a girl, I used to play "Beatles" with my friends. We'd get our mother's brooms and pretend they were guitars and we'd stand out on the street (we lived on a very quiet street) and sing and "play" until grouchy old Mr. Tibesaur came home and tried to run us over for playing in the street. When we weren't actually being the Beatles, we picked boyfriends. Everyone always wanted Paul, but I was a George Harrison gal.

10. Bored. Me? No. Never. (yawn.)

11. Bagel. Probably my favorite breakfast.

12. Bankruptcy. I spent more than 15 years of my life working in the close-knit world of bankruptcy law. I went from being a legal secretary, to an office administrator, to a judicial assistant at the federal court before I finally quit to become a full-time writer.

13. Barbie Doll. I loved my Barbie because she wasn't like everyone else's Barbie. My Barbie had lovely black hair, so I could always tell her apart when playing with friends. She survived quite nicely until my brother (see above) decided she needed to go swimming in a hole dug in the field next door. He wrapped her in Scotch tape (he claims this was to protect her from the dirty water), tied a string around her waist, and dipped her in the muddy water. She's still in my original Barbie case in my garage.