sugar and spice, and everything nice

That's what little girls are made of.

When I was four or five, my family went to the zoo. I had the option to have my photograph taken with either a rabbit or a boa constrictor. My choice.

I'm sorry I don't have a copy of the resulting photograph to share with you, but there is a lovely image of little me with a boa around my shoulders. It has been on display in my parents' home for years.

The photo you see here is the eel I caught while fishing with my grandmother. (I am five years old, wearing a "Mork and Mindy" bathing suit!) My grandparents used to take me camping, and we would fish. In all the times I've gone fishing, I have never caught a fish.

This eel was my first catch. It was a freshwater eel, caught in a lake.

A summer or two later, we were fishing on a pier in the Atlantic Ocean, and I caught another eel. There are no pictures of me holding that guy ... he had nasty teeth! He squirmed, anyway, and broke the line.

Then my goofy cousin tried to re-catch it with his fishing pole (of course, it was still attached to my hook).

I wasn't a tomboy, though. Just not a girly-girl. I guess I just wasn't afraid of things most little girls are afraid of!