10 Things about me...9 are true, one is a lie

Fellow blogger Karen Hooper did this fantastic thing on her blog yesterday. She wrote ten little stories about herself. Nine of them were true, and one was a lie. We had to try to guess which one was the lie.

I thought this looked like so much fun that I decided to do it on my own blog. Except I think I'm going to raise the stakes. If you can accurately guess which of my ten stories is the lie, then you'll win a copy of Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. Good luck!! :)

1) I have visited ten countries in the last ten years. I didn't have a passport until ten years ago, and since then I have visited Italy, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Belgium, the Carribean, India, and Hong Kong. And I just renewed my passport with an awful picture, which I will be stuck with for the next ten years. :)

2) Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Timetraveler's Wife, knows me personally. She is good friends with a good friend of mine, so I hear all about how Audrey is doing, where she's visiting, what she's writing, etc. Likewise, my friend talks to Audrey about me, so Audrey knows what I'm up to, what I'm writing, etc. When I finally met Audrey at a book signing for her new book, Her Fearful Symmetry, I felt I already knew her. She said she felt the same. And then she said that one of these days all three of us need to go out for coffee.

3) My first paying job was detasseling corn. My grandparents own a farm, and I used to go visit them every summer, along with several of my cousins. Often, all of us grandkids would get recruited to walk through the bean and corn fields and pull weeds. Then, as if I couldn't get enough of this punishment, I took a paying job riding on a tractor in the sweltering August heat and detasseling corn. I kept up that job every day (including weekends), from 6am to 6pm, until school started, while the rest of my classmates were laying around at the pool.

4) I can crochet with my eyes closed. I learned how to crochet when I was twelve years old, and have been doing it ever since. I find it's a relaxing thing to do while I watch TV, and can do fairly simple stitches by feel. I can make an entire baby blanket without looking at my hands.

5) I have never been to Vegas. I've been to most other parts of the country, though, and one of my best friends has been trying to get me to go for the past twelve years, but it hasn't happened yet. It will happen eventually, though, because I think she's going to knock me out and drag me there pretty soon. :)

6) I couldn't ride a bike until I was ten years old. For some reason, I just couldn't get everything together when I was first learning how to ride a bike. I couldn't pedal and balance at the same time, so I'd always fall over. I'd try, fall, try, fall, etc, and then finally give it up until the next summer. I didn't fully get it until I was at least ten years old, maybe older (can't remember exactly).

7) I used to race motorcycles. I learned how to ride a motorcycle in 1997, then bought a race bike two months later. I raced for two years and earned a couple 1st and 2nd place plaques, then quit to do other things.

8) I broke my toe by tripping over the vacuum cleaner. When I was in high school, we had this ancient vacuum cleaner that was made of something like cast iron. The thing weighed a ton. Anyway, someone had left it out one day, and as I walked past it my little toe caught the edge. The bone snapped, and my toe was sticking straight out the side of my foot! My mom called the emergency room, but all they could do was wrap my toe in gauze and give me this super ugly shoe to wear. I was mortified to wear the thing to school, but a regular shoe was too tight and hurt my toe. So I wore it for six weeks until my toe healed.

9) I was on the Diving team in high school. I learned how to swim when I was four, and loved every minute of it. I was also constantly jumping off the diving board, trying to do flips, back dives, you name it. The lifeguards all kept telling me I should try out for the swimming or diving team at school, so I finally did. I made the diving team, learned a dozen or so different dives with all kinds of cool twists, and made it to Sectionals.

10) The Salvation Army once brought us a Christmas dinner and a tree when I was a kid. I grew up in a poor part of town, in the middle of nowhere. My parents divorced when I was three, and my mom's job didn't bring in much income. One Christmas, there was barely enough money for presents, so Mom sat me down and told me there would be no tree that year, but we'd still have a good Christmas. I was bummed, but wanted to be helpful so we decorated a plant instead. The Salvation Army heard of our predicament, and showed up on Christmas Eve with a tree, a turkey, and lots of other goodies. I was more excited about the tree than anything else. :)

So? Which one is the lie? Put your guesses in the comments! Next tuesday, I'll announce who has guessed correctly, and who will be winning Hush, Hush. :) If, by chance, more than one of you guess correctly, then I will put all your names into a hat and draw the winner.

Good luck!!