Amy's Really Personal Page

Thank you for being interested enough in me to come to this page.

I'm an intensely curious person.

Does this mean that I'm curious about a lot of things
or that I'm strangely eccentric?

Both definitions apply. Ask anyone who knows me.

I'm a seventh-generation North Carolinian.
Many of my direct ancestors were in America before the Revolution.

I'm the female first-born of two children (one brother)
of a male first-born of five children (two sisters, two brothers)
of a female first-born only child
of a female first-born of two children (one sister)
[She was actually second-born, but their eldest sister lived only five months.]

I could read by age four.
I distinctly remember noticing (at that age!)
that the white word on the red sign could be re-arranged
to spell POTS and SPOT and TOPS and POST.

BEFORE the public school systems added kindergarten,
I spent one semester in a private kindergarten
[The Little Red Schoolhouse in Chapel Hill]
while my father took some courses at UNC
in preparation for employment as an Electronics Design Engineer
at Western Electric, an AT&T subsidiary.

I stayed in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County system
from First through Twelfth grades, in four different schools.
Near the end of Second Grade, I took some really neat tests (they were fun!)
and was placed in the very new Gifted Program.
They wouldn't tell me my IQ while I was in school,
but it's 160 according to my high school transcript
(which I requested a copy of when I applied for Mensa membership)
and subsequent testing has confirmed that score.
There were about 50 qualified students (IQ at least 130)
which was enough to make two different groups,
and we stayed with our respective classes through Sixth Grade.
I didn't start getting bored with school until Junior High School
when we were mixed in with "regular" students,
except for our Language Arts/Social Studies core teachers.

I was a member of the National Honor Society and a National Merit Finalist.
I ranked 14th of a graduating class of 548.

I attended Appalachian State University in Boone
but eloped the week before first-quarter final exams.
[I did very well in everything except Calculus.]

Watch me grow up:

[several years are missing]

My eyesight started deteriorating after a bout with Red Measles at age six,
and I've worn corrective lenses since age seven.
My vision without glasses is 20/800.
I still have some double vision as a result of injuries sustained in The Wreck of '93.

I learn very quickly and prefer to study at my own pace,
which is usually much faster than classroom-oriented courses.

I prefer not to annoy people with my political opinions,
but I could easily be described as holding Libertarian viewpoints.

When I was six, I wanted to take ballet lessons,
but my feet usually cramp when I point my toes.
I learned Yoga as a teenager and am now studying Tai Chi.

I've been singing longer than I can remember.
I was always in school chorus and church choir.
I took voice lessons for several years and am a lyric soprano,
but can also sing contralto or tenor, since I have a three-octave range.

I enjoyed playing toy pianos and xylophones.
My mother and grandmother had Real Grown-up pianos
and (conveniently) some beginner music books.
I took piano lessons for three years (age 8-11) until my teacher quit giving lessons,
and then I continued working through the course books by myself.
I especially like to play Debussy (Clair de Lune, Arabesque),
Beethoven (Rondos, Sonatas, Bagatelles),
Scott Joplin (Weeping Willow, Bethena, Magnetic Rag),
Duke Ellington (In A Sentimental Mood, Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me),
and popular music (Bridge Over Troubled Water, Send In The Clowns).
I sight-read (and play) very well, but I get performance jitters.

I still have (needs repair) the six-string (nylon) Silvertone Classic guitar
that my father bought for me on my fifteenth birthday.
I learned from books and can play fairly well, mostly folk music.

I built my own dulcimer and floor harp. [see photos]

[more stuff goes here!]

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