Easily Distracted

no, I won’t actually fit in a nutshell, but this is the short version of “me” (maybe someday I’ll bother w/the long version, but today is not that day)…

I’m 38, happily (re)married for 3+ yrs now, and the mother of three active kids (my stepsons Ethan, 8-1/2, and Aidan, 6, and my daughter Vivienne, 5-1/2)… I was born in Virginia but grew up mostly between Germany and Texas, courtesy of the U.S. Army (my dad’s active duty stint and then later as Dept of the Army – Civilian, and my own time as a DAC and then a “blood-sucking, money-grubbing” gov’t contractor at Fort Sam Houston); San Antonio will always be “home” to me (go Spurs!)… I’m the eldest of four, and my family all live within a 20-mi radius of each other, so I now find myself permanently stuck in Utah (wahoo)…

in addition to the wife-and-mum gig, I own and operate Open Door Resumes, a professional resume service that I finally started and opened to the general public after being a private resume consultant for more than 15 yrs… I’m also an actor transitioning from stage to screen — I still feel like I have SOOO much to learn about tv/film, but I love being involved in acting again! I currently have the privilege of studying under director/producer Lance Williams at the Professional Actors Workshop in SLC; I’m also a member of Utah Actors. I can hear it now: “acting. tv/film acting. in Utah. huh??” yup — bet you didn’t know that SLC is known in the industry as “Little Hollywood,” did you?

I love music (especially classical and jazz, but I’ve got a decent little collection of dance remixes, too), reading, cooking, and all things girly (I’ve recently developed a passion for shoes that borders on a fetish LOL)… I’m allergic to cats; I love my high-efficiency front-load washer; my favourite snack is any flavour of hot/spicy Pringles chips; I’m becoming a Hatha yogini — namaste; I use Tension Identification – Prone and a special blend of sedative essential oils at night to help me sleep (no more sleeping pills for me!); I will desperately miss David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who (the jury’s still out on this Matt Smith bloke); I collect high-resolution computer desktop wallpaper from Webshots; I used to own a fine designer jewellery studio but had to give it up when the economy tanked; and it drives me absolutely BATS when people waste food…

WHY MY BLOG HAS THE NAME IT DOES
anyone who’s spent any time poking around my blog tends to quickly figure out that I’m about as random as it gets — I have a tendency to rapidly progress in my head from Topic A to Topic G, but what usually gets verbalized is only A and G, so everyone else is lost b/c they weren’t along for the ride between the two; that, and I tend to just shift gears pretty quickly, going from planning meals to the market price for gold in about 0.6 seconds, which also tends to confuse the heck out of people… in the movie Disney-Pixar animated film Up, one of my favourite scenes is where Doug the talking dog was in mid-sentence when he’s suddenly sidetracked: “I love my master, he is good and kind and SQUIRREL!” and his head jerks violently in the direction of the critter that distracted him — I can relate a little too well… LOL my “Easily Distracted” blog title is a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of the Johnson family trait (which of course I inherited) of jumping far and fast from one subject to another, w/the occasional post that might actually be related to one that’s almost in close proximity to it…

MORE RANDOM STUFF
I found this little name-meaning thingy on someone else’s blog, thought it was kinda fun and decided to add it to my “About Me” page:

What Tanya Means

You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless – and you have a lot of questions about life.
You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You’re most comfortable when you’re far away from home.
You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.

You are usually the best at everything … you strive for perfection.
You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic “Type A” personality.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.
You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.
You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in.
You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising.
You may miss out by not settling down, but you’re too busy having fun to care.

not all of this is accurate (I’m already “settled down”…again, and I’m actually pretty much a homebody), but most of it’s (surprisingly) reasonably close to describing me… makes me kinda curious who comes up w/meanings for names and how they do it (but not so curious that I’ll spend any time trying to learn about it)…

here’s another “personality test” someone sent me, results say I’m HFPS (Humanity, Foreground, Big Picture, and Shape) — the Humanitarian: “You perceive the world with particular attention to humanity. You focus on what’s in front of you (the foreground) and how that fits into the larger picture. You are also particularly drawn towards the shapes around you. Because of the value you place on humanity, you tend to seek out other people and get energized by being around others. You like to deal directly with whatever comes your way without dealing with speculating possibilities or outcomes you can’t control. You are in tune with all that is around you and understand your life as part of a larger whole. You prefer a structured environment within which to live and you like things to be predictable.“  I’m not sure how they came to some of those conclusions, esp since I’m not exactly a “people person”… ;\

I took another personality-typing test in Oct ‘08 — it was a professional test administered to my dad as part of his application for a senior position at a local college, and he was able to bring the test home, so he helped me take it… most people get 3 different results w/3 different personality types that blend together; I had ONE personality type across the board: “creative” — you can read the related blog post here…

I’ll continue to update this as appropriate, but that’s enough for now…