Friday Five Things About Me

It's Friday.  Two days until my longest race to date - the New England Trifest Olympic Triathlon in Vermont.  "What's that Miranda?  You're doing a race? You haven't mentioned it at all yet... we are surprised and totally dying to hear you fuss more about it before you just go off and do the darn thing already...."  Shush people.  For the love.  It's hard enough to live in my own head lately.  Which is why I'm jumping on the DC Trifecta's Friday Five this week in an effort to kill a few more minutes of taper-crazy time.....

This week's theme is Five Things About Me.  I'm going to assume no one really cares about five things related to me and my upcoming race, so I'll try to back up a bit and find some more interesting to share.

1)  I wrote, illustrated and published a children's book before I became a parent.  

And have done very little with it since.  It's the story of a baby duck who gets swept away from his family down a white water river, and the animals that help him along the way.  Teaches some natural history, self reliance, and is generally kinda cute.  My friend from graduate school and I got the idea while watching a family of ducks out in Lake Tahoe, around the time that she was getting her white water certification. The media of illustration is watercolor and pen & ink. You can still buy it on Amazon!

2) I lived in Australia for seven months

I studied abroad at James Cook University in Queensland during my senior year (I use the term "studied" loosely).  I did a lot of diving on the Great Barrier Reef, traveled a lot, and got to participate in a research trip in the bush.  On this trip, I found a Blue Tongued lizard subspecies several hundred miles outside its previously known range, which was very cool.  We also trapped bats, did all kind of bird and reptile trapping (and release), went spotlighting (nocturnal surveys of wildlife.  Kangaroo eyes shine in the dark!).  It was one of the best experiences of my life.

Not my photo.  http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/

3)  I love birdwatching

Call it a hangover from my wildlife grad school, or from growing up with my mother who's also an avid birder, but I love birds.  We have a ton of feeders in our yard, and my 5 year old son can identify at least 30 species by sight and some by call.  Both myself and my husband keep a Life List of all the birds we've ever seen.  I'd love to go to Costa Rica or Hawaii some day on one of those Audubon Society led tours.  I also have a tendency to call out any birds I see or hear to my workout buddies while we are running or biking.  Some like this, some roll their eyes.  Love my birds.

Turkey strolling by our feeder a few days ago

4)  Biggest fear - Dinosaurs

I'm putting this as past tense, because since taking on the sport of triathlon, I've gotten pretty good about facing fears.  But for a good 15 years after seeing Jurassic Park in middle school, I was petrified of all dinosaurs.  I'd have recurring nightmares about being chased by velociraptors.  When my son was born I honestly cringed buying him jammies with cartoon dinosaurs on them (another reason I've become desensitized).  Actually animals that aren't extinct like spiders, snakes, sharks... none of these bother me.  But dinosaurs?  Ugh shudder.......

This would get me running very fast...

5)  I'm a recovering band geek

Nope.  Make that just "Band geek". IN high school I played french horn, along with flute, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and anything else I could get my hands on.  My music teacher was one of the most amazing human beings I've ever known.  After high school I played in the college band and considered a minor in music (biology proved too be too difficult to support a minor).  I've played in community orchestras throughout adulthood and am currently teaching my kids to play piano and can't wait until they are old enough to play an instrument regularly.  But not my French horn.  It's my baby - when I was 16 my parents gave me the choice of a horn or a car.  Best decision ever....

Never miss an opportunity to repost embarrassing
 throwback photos.  Me and my coach
at the marching band Halloween parade -
 I was the drum major (in costume as cheerleader).

There you have it.  Have a great weekend everyone!