Dagger’s Blog

I stole this idea from Betty, who stole it from CraftyChica!  It was pretty fun.  Everyone should try it!

1. My first pet was a rooster.  Someone bought me one of those dyed Easter chicks when I was about 3 or 4 years old thinking that it would probably die as they usually do.  Oh no….mine grew up.  They finally gave it to someone who had a farm because the rooster got real possessive of me and would attack anyone who came near me.
2. I have moved 26 times in 48 years.  The most amount of time I have spent in one residence is 6 years, the least amount of time is one month.
3. I have a birthmark on my back called a hemangioma.  If it is ever lacerated, I could bleed to death.  The same goes for surgery, which must be performed by a specialist.
4. I fell down the stairs at the Astrodome during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  I tripped on about the third stair from the stop and didn’t stop tumbling until I was almost to the front railing.  A guy seated in the third row from the front broke my fall.
5. I do not like seafood.  My saying is, “If it drew its first breath underwater, I’m not interested.”
6. I played Mary Poppins in my second grade class play.
7. I sang in the choir for 3 years from the 4th grade through the 7th grade but you’d never know it to hear me sing now.
8. I was hit in the ass with a hard hit foul ball at a Fresno Grizzlies game!
9. I can type about 120 words a minute.
10. I was in a car accident when I was 5.  I rolled off the seat and took out an air conditioning vent.  I still have a knot-like scar over my left eyebrow.  This causes the uneven furrowed brown that I have.
11. I was a kindergarten drop out.  I kept catching every kind of illness that went around so the doctor said I couldn’t go to school until I was healthier.
12. I’m not afraid of public speaking.  It’s said that people are more fearful of public speaking that death.  I think this is ludicrous.  Death is far more scary.  Public speaking doesn’t bother me at all.
13. If I didn’t have to work for a living, I would have as many tattoos as Kat Von D.
14. I’m extremely intuitive about things.  I can sense tension, angst, anger or even happiness before a word is spoken.  It took me a long time to understand this.  People often thought I was a snob because I don’t say much when I walk into a room.  It’s either because I’m already sensing something bad or because I’m trying to “read” the room.
15. I’ve never in my life had a brain freeze.  I don’t know why.  I don’t think I’m capable.
16. I’m not afraid to shoot to kill to protect my life, my family or my property.
17. I LOVE to dance!
18. I have a keen sense of hearing.  My mother used to say that I could hear a mouse piss on a piece of cotton. 
19. I’m right handed except when I deal cards or count money.
20. I’m a direct descendent of Jakob Luckenbach… you know…”let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas…”  The lineage is me-Janis Schumann-Lawrence Schumann-Adolph Schumann-Augusta Luckenbach-Jakob Luckenbach.  Although Jakob Luckenbach was the first in the town, credit for settling the town actually goes to the Engel family.  Carl Luckenbach (Jakob’s son and Augusta’s brother) was fiance to Minna Engel and she named the town after him.  This lineage qualifies me to be a member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.
21. On my father’s side of the family, our roots have been traced back to the Napier family, who as an Earl in Scotland. 
22. I’m extremely claustrophobic, but I try to work on it often.
23. I’m named for a movie character, Tracy Lord, played by Katharine Hepburn in the movie The Philadelphia Story.
24. My nickname, Dagger, comes from a Marvel Universe comic book character.  She was my character in a role playing game.
25. I have a fundamental knowledge of how to play the piano, the guitar and the flute, but I don’t play any of them well.   I can read music, however.

Much ado has been made about “random acts of kindness.” I don’t think of myself as a nice person. I think I can be nice, but mostly it doesn’t come natural for me. I have to think about it. I always admired people who could whisk into a situation and knew exactly how to lend a helping hand. With the holiday season here, I prayed that God would give me a situation where I could help out, maybe even a project. Yes, I’m shallow, I guess. I wanted to be the superstar who came to someone’s rescue. But I’m rethinking that. Maybe my purpose is not to be a big hero, but maybe I’m meant for the smaller detailed type stuff. And maybe I have been all along but I’ve been rushing through the day, missing opportunities to be nice and to help because I was after the big picture or doing it for the wrong reason. Today for example, I went to the doctor’s office to have some lab work done. I didn’t have an appointment and hoped I didn’t need one. Turns out I really should have made an appointment but the girl at the desk took pity on me and squeezed me in. I waited my turn and when it came time, I sat down and made small talk with the nurse. I asked her how her Christmas was and she gave me the pat answer, that it was great. Then I was kind of overcome and felt like I should say more. So I said, “You know, I’m always afraid to ask that because what if someone had a real depressing Christmas.” Well that opened the flood gates and she talked to me about her Dad who is terminally ill and how she was depressed at Christmas but she had a change of heart. She talked more to me in that 10 minutes that she’s said in the 2 years she’s been sticking me with a needle. It was like she needed to say those things and she just needed someone to listen. Maybe I helped…maybe not. But I sure left there feeling on top of the world. And I left realizing that maybe God was giving me opportunities all along but I wasn’t paying any attention to them. And maybe “random acts of kindness” shouldn’t be an event, but how we live day to day…..rather “regular acts of kindness” should be the buzzword or even “routine acts of kindness.” After all, we’re all just trying to make it through the day.