G is for ...

Post a comment, I'll give you a letter, then write 10 things starting with that, explaining why. The letter I was given was G.

1. Grapes -- one of two things (along with string cheese) that I've had pregnancy-related cravings for. One night, I woke up and had to eat grapes. Luckily, there were grapes in the fridge. I washed a whole bowlful and shoveled them into my mouth by the handful.

2. Government -- I work for a contractor that contracts with another contractor that is paid by the government. Ultimately, your tax dollars pay for me, but I am not a government employee.

3. Green -- I am surrounded by green here in Tennessee. All the hills and mountains are covered in leafy trees, bushes, and poison ivy.

4. Games -- I love to play many different types of games, such as role-playing games, board games like Carcassonne, card games like bridge, and certain outdoor games like croquet. Mind games? No thanks, I played plenty of those when I was growing up, so I'm all done with that.

5. Gold -- the only type of jewelry I can wear. I am allergic to nickel, and jewelry made from silver and other metals usually contain a non-trivial amount of nickel. When I got my ears pierced, I chose sterling silver studs, and as a result my ears swelled and got infected. The stainless steel back of a watch causes my wrist to break out if I wear it too frequently. This is one of many reasons that I don't wear much jewelry. The only things I wear every day are my (gold) wedding and engagement rings, and I try to keep gold earrings in my ear lobes.

6. Grammar -- I am a stickler for good grammar and spelling and I tend to get upset if I discover a typo or a mistake in something I have written.

7. Gum -- I love chewing gum, especially sugar-free wintergreen-flavored gum. Unfortunately, the artificial sweeteners in the gum are off-limits at the moment. Even most sugary gum has artificial sweeteners in it! The only brand I could find that didn't have any artificial sweeteners is Double Bubble, which is kind of nasty, so I've pretty much given up chewing gum altogether.

8. Growth -- I have always been big. I was over 9.5 lbs when I was born, and I was nearly full-grown by the age of 13. Today I am one inch shy of six feet tall. My husband was a more than ten-pound baby and is also tall, and I think we are destined to have a big baby who will grow into a big grown-up.

9. Girl -- I grew up in the South, so it used to be my first instinct to call any woman under the age of 30 a "girl." For example, it was hard for me to think of a female college student as a woman rather than a girl. (To be completely fair, I never really thought of a male college student as a man, either; he was a guy. But not a "boy.") But after living in Illinois for so long, and returning to the South, it is now somewhat jarring to hear younger women referred to as "girls."

10. Grip -- I've often been told to "get a grip," but that's not really what I'm talking about here. Because of the overuse of my left arm and the twisting of that elbow for hours on end when I was practicing the violin as a child, I don't really have much of a grip with my left hand anymore. I still have trouble with hand writing and if I overuse that arm I find myself in a lot of pain. This is something that I really wish the doctor could fix, but all he can do is treat it by giving me shots in the elbow at most twice a year. I have to keep wearing my elbow brace and minimize the use of that arm.