I wrote this last week but with the move and our DSL woes it has taken me a week to get it up.

Zoot posted 5 things about herself that have nothing to do with being a mom and suggested the rest of us join in to represent that there is (or at least used to be) more to us than just chief bottle/sippy cup getter and diaper changer. I like the idea so here goes:

1. Musically my development is arrested in the 80’s. I might own 10 CD’s (yes I still own CD’s…I don’t have an MP3 player because they didn’t exist in the 80’s) which were made after 1990. I love oldies (50’s and 60’s), motown, some 70’s (think James Taylor and the Eagles not the BeeGees), and just about all 80’s music. Love me some hair bands and power ballads. I am learning to like country while living in Nashville but I don’t own any yet. Current country actually reminds me of 80’s music – it is fun and very easy to sing along with.

2. I minored in political science in college. I was deeply and passionately into politics in college. My friend, Don, and I ran Student Democrats for a couple of years (until the Socialists Democrats staged a coup…but that is another story) and ran the presidential campaign for the county the college was in (it was a heavily democratic county so they figured even a group of college kids couldn’t screw it up). I failed a French mid-term because it was at the same time as a rally we were holding for Hillary (back in her hubby’s first run for president). That seemed way more important than discussing the sub-text of L’etranger (is there a more depressing author than Camus?). I don’t regret it at all. It was thrilling to meet Hillary before the rally and to watch the rally from the ranks of the security detail. And the keg party afterward wasn’t too shabby either.

3. I was a bit of a femi-nazi in college. Maybe not when compared to the combat boot wearing, lesbian experimenting, man hating, military hair cut femi-nazis I met in college but compared to the world at large, I was a femi-nazi. I discovered that kind of hard core stance just didn’t work in the real world so I became a bit more reasonable. I am still a feminist and get quite annoyed at women who proclaim they aren’t (because they don’t understand what the term means not because they truly don’t believe in the ideal behind the word – disagree away if it is for the right reason). It doesn’t mean anything more extreme than believing women and men should have equal political, economic and social rights in our society. If you don’t believe in those things then I have no trouble with you not liking the label.

4. I have an addiction to pottery. Not the mass produced crap but wheel thrown bowls and plates and mugs and vases. I actually attribute this directly to an old boss (Hi Vi!) who used to bring things into our office nosh sessions in the most lovely/funky/cool pieces of pottery. I started to covet them…and then started to buy my own. I’ve threatened for years to take some classes and learn how to do my own but it seems like such an expensive hobby.

5. My true passion in life after my family? Working with domestic violence victims. I spent years working in several shelters in rural Ohio. My love of the work is what stopped me from attending law school as I had planned. I also worked for other mental health organizations (a mentoring program which was lots of fun, a community mental health center which had the most dysfunctional staff I’ve ever seen, an MRDD organization, and the county bureaucracy) but none of them were as fulfilling or made me feel as vital and useful as working in the shelters. At one point, I needed a little break from the stress of the work I did and took a temp job at a local chalkboard manufacturer doing customer service. Everyone was amazed at how unflappable I was when someone called screaming about a missing chalkboard. I tried to explain that in my previous job, I dealt with children calling me from in their closet because daddy was hurting mommy again. Somehow I couldn’t work up the same upset over being yelled at about a chalkboard. Not sure if that made me really good or really bad at the job.

So there you have it – proof that I am, or at least was, something more than a mommy.