About

Originally I had this blog titled something completely different, something that I thought described me in the shortest explanation possible.  Then, in a twist of fate I recalled something from my childhood.  A name my mother lovingly called me…Gypsy Rose. 

If you’re not familiar with her check out the wikipedia entry on the woman and you’ll see just how odd having a mother give this nickname to a 5 year old would be. 

Entirely unrelated to the real Gypsy Rose, my mother lovingly gave me that name because as a child I would roam.  I would wander and I was all but impossible to be kept.  She tells of a story when I was not even old enough to walk…my father was outside (grilling I believe) and I was by his side (playing I presume).  My mother had to go into the house and said to keep an eye on me.  She came back out mere minutes later I was gone.  My father was completely baffled.  I was right there a minute ago.  Hours later they came to find me across the stree, down the alley, in the neighbor’s yard playing on the swingset.  I do believe that was the last time my father was left to be my only watcher until I was much older.

Once I became a bit older and was able to walk and run I was one of those children you occasionally see that are harnessed.  Leashed.  My mother to this day says that if I hadn’t been, I’d be long dead by now.  I’d have walked right into the lake at my brother’s boy scout picnic, I’d have walked directly into traffic on the highway that ran just beside our house.

Another story my mother often tells about when discussions of my ability to wander off is one that again as a small child I somehow climbed the cupboards in our kitchen and while standing on the counter I opened the cupboard where we kept the medicine, opened a child-proof bottle of pills and proceeded to down the entire bottle.  Those pills were my older sister’s heart medication.  My older brother caught me in the act, stuck his hand down my throat and retrieved them.  Surely I’d have died otherwise.

Armed with these stories of my past I have a certain sense of entitlement and grace.  I feel that I both have earned my place on this planet and also have dangerously risked foolishly throwing it all away.