Introduction, Part 2

***Okay, so I'm really not that good at writing introduction-type entries, so bear with me if this is stilted and wanders. Thanks.***

Hi, I'm Megan. I'm assuming you've gathered that much, at least, from the blog title and from some of my prior entries.

Let's start with the physical stuff and get that out of the way. I'm 5'0", with a thick frame, and I weigh between 125-130 lbs, depending on the time of day and whose scales I'm using. I have hazel eyes that tend toward honey-brown most days, a crooked nose, and pale skin that tans up dark and easily in the summer, with a few dark-brown freckles scattered across my arms, shoulders, and cheekbones. I have high cheekbones, tiny ears, short thick fingers, legs, and toes, and I wear a size 5 1/2 shoe. My hair is naturally dark brown with a lot of red in it, but the actual color varies frequently. At the moment, it's buzzed off to 3/4" long and dyed black-blue. I have thick Irish eyebrows that I keep thinned out as much as possible, dimples by my mouth, one on my chin, and one oddball one on my right cheekbone, just under my eye. My feet are flat, and my toenails are usually painted some shade of purple. I have broad shoulders and what my boyfriend Jeremy describes as an angular face. There's a dark purple scar next to my left tearduct, another one going across the bridge of my nose, one under my lower lip, and a razor-thin one that runs through my right eyebrow, only visible in the way that it affects the shape of said eyebrow. I have three tattoos, all on my back, seven piercings in each ear, one in my navel, and one in my right nostril.

More facts: I'm twenty-seven years old, twenty-eight on June 11. I'm a Gemini. I was born by c-section at 10:58 pm, in 1982. My boyfriend and I will have been together for four years on my birthday. We have two young sons, Matthew Elliott, who just turned three on Monday, and Jonah Lee, who will be two in August.

I'm blunt and brutally honest a lot of the time, but I can be tactful when the situation warrants.

I'm the oldest of three birth siblings and two "adopted" siblings. Jeni is the my only sister. Travis is my birth brother. Scotty and Andrew are my two "adopted" brothers. My parents will be celebrating their 31'st anniversary in June. My mom is the special education teacher at Concord Academy in Petoskey, and my dad is an artist.

I've worked several different jobs, but spent the majority of my working life in kitchens. At the moment though, I work part-time at Ill-Lusions in Petoskey. It's a little hole-in-the-wall shop that sells trick card decks, novelties, magic tricks and supplies, Lucky 13 tees and shoes, Halloween costumes, bachelorette party supplies, adult greeting cards, King Kerosin and Busted Knuckle tees, Rockett tees, and band tees. The owner is one of my good friends, and working for him has been one of the best jobs of my life.

Before Ill-Lusions, I worked at City Park Grill for three and a half years, which is where I met Jeremy. It was educational working there - I got to work under a real chef, John Norman, and I learned how to keep my temper in check from working with a certain d-bag who shall remain nameless here. However, if you've worked at City Park within the past seven or eight years, you know who I'm talking about. He works nights, always has to be right, and is extremely condescending. It's so good not to have to work with him anymore. *insert sigh of relief here

What else? I hate math and love reading. I'll read just about anything. My favorite authors include Dorothy Parker, John Steinbeck, JD Salinger, John Irving, Anthony Bourdain, Ann Rule, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Robbins, and J.R.R. Tolkien. I'm an extremely fast reader. I'm also a bit of a spelling and grammar freak. Jeremy will have me proofread sales letters for him and ask me to "PLEASE don't point out what's spelled wrong and where the missing commas are, just tell me if you like the content."

I dropped out of high school two weeks into my junior year. When I was twenty, I found out that the Michigan Works learning lab did high school completion courses instead of just offering classes to get a GED. So, I went back to school. That year was a busy one for me. I was working full time at the Dam Site Inn from April-October, working at Concord Academy as a paraprofessional (read: classroom aide) from September-June, and going to school at the learning lab. It paid off though. I graduated high school two weeks after my 21'st birthday.

I've been arrested twice, although neither charge will show up on my record. One was a misdemeanor, and the other was a traffic charge, for violating my learner's permit. I've never been to jail, though.

What I call my "day-to-day" friends, meaning the ones who are involved in my life on a more or less day-to-day basis, are for the most part older than I am (my friend Melissa VanNorman and her husband Travis are the exception. I'm not counting my sister's fiance in this - he's younger than me, but he's already family, and will be legally so in a few weeks). For some reason, I've always preferred to hang out with people older than me, and since I've met most of my friends through Jeremy, they tend to be closer in age to him.

I've also preferred to date older guys. Jeremy is no exception - he's ten years older than me. And here is where I take a break from talking about me to tell you about him.

Like I said, he's ten years older than me. He is the love of my life and father of my children. If you were to crack open my chest and look at my heart, you'd find his image engraved over a large portion of it. We've been together nearly four years, like I said before, which is the longest I've ever been in a relationship. He's 5'7", a little on the chubby side (which I love), heavily tattooed, and both intelligent and stubborn, enough so to keep me from getting bored. Almost all my prior relationships were casualties of boredom. He has a day job as the lunch cook at City Park Grill, but what he does, where his heart lies career-wise, is graphic web design. He's working like crazy to get that business off the ground, so he can retire from cooking and be a work-from-home dad. I fully support this. In order to avoid making myself sound angelic about my support, I do hereby admit to being jealous of his computer at times, and being frustrated about the amount of time he spends on it, on occasion, but underneath the jealousy lies my certainty that the business will take off, he will get to be a stay-home dad and full time graphic web designer, and that he'll get to retire from cooking and make enough money that we don't have to juggle bills anymore.

Yes, we do have to juggle bills in the winter. Petoskey is a tourist town for the most part, and food service is dependent upon customers, so right when bills for heat and electricity spike, business at the local restaurants falls off and hours get cut. However, we always get by, maybe ordering groceries from the Angel Food Network on occasion, and maybe making partial pays from time to time, but, we get through. We're both survivors.

Jeremy balances me out. My mom says that he keeps me grounded, which is true. I'm a worrier by nature, and I'm fairly high strung. Jeremy is laid back, very rarely worries, and gets me to be spontaneous on occasion, which is good for me, I suppose.

His hair is black, and he has dark brown eyes. He's half Mexican, on his dad's side, and is originally from Flint, but moved up here to Petoskey in 2001. On Devil's Night, to be precise. Both his ears are pierced, and he recently cut his hair for the first time since Matthew was born. He speaks in a very soft voice, and has a broad sense of humor like I do. He's been cooking for over 20 years, but has also worked numerous other jobs, including one in a bucket factory, one going cross-country with his grandpa selling stuff that his grandpa had made (Grandpa Dallas is a carpenter), and one working at the Capitol Theater in Flint, doing music promotions. Go ahead and think of a band that came out in the 1990's and was anywhere from semi-famous to very famous, and the odds are extremely high that Jeremy worked with them. That includes Pantera, Rage Against the Machine, Downset, and the Rugby Mothers, along with a bunch more I can't remember. So there's another mark in Jeremy's favor, he never runs out of stories to tell me, lol.

Back to me. What else?

I'm fascinated with Michigan lighthouses and ghost towns. I like doing stamped cross stitch but lack the patience for counted cross stitch. I like loom-knitting, but again, lack the patience for needle-knitting and crocheting. I love to cook and bake. I like doing punch needle embroidery too. I tried taking up crazy quilting at one point, but lost interest in it due to not having a sewing machine. I write poetry and short stories when inspiration hits. I'd rather text than talk on the phone. In fact, I have a bit of a phone phobia. I'm all right calling up my parents and Bill, but anyone else, even Jeremy, and my palms get sweaty and my heart starts racing. Same thing when anyone else calls me. I'm all right after a couple seconds, and can carry on a conversation quite well, but that first minute is very close to a mild panic attack for some reason.

I don't do drugs, and I only get drunk two or three times a year. I'm not a big fan of wine, unless it's sweet (I love sangria, especially my tropical variety, which I will post the recipe for at some point), and I can't stand beer. I also don't do well on clear liquor for some reason, so I almost always drink either Captain and Coke or shots of straight Captain with a chaser of some sort. My friend Joe introduced me to Jager shakers a couple months ago, and while I enjoyed the flavor, I did not enjoy the way I still tasted Jagermeister 24 hours later, so those will most likely be avoided.

My ethnic heritage is Irish, English, Scottish, and Cherokee. My favorite foods are cheese ravioli, cheese tortellini, loaded baked potato soup, bacon, french fries, fresh broccoli with Italian dressing, and sausage gravy and biscuits. Shellfish and fish give me hives. I like bacon and pineapple on my pizza, or if it's a specialty pizza, I love a good chicken alfredo pizza.

And, that's about all I can think of to tell you about me.