Anne Truitt Zelenka

Tagged by James and Amy. Five things you might not know about me.

1. I know how to build a latrine. When I was sixteen, I lived in a rural village in Mexico for eight weeks, where I helped the townspeople to build latrines with the goal of slowing the spread of intestinal diseases. I actually know how to build two types of latrines: a basic model consisting of a large slab of concrete with a hole in it, set over a big hole in the ground, and a more advanced model designed to create compost from the waste.

2. I air type and play air piano obsessively. My fingers are usually moving, tapping out whatever words or music I’m thinking about. I played piano for twelve years and learned to type pretty fast when I was twelve. Now my fingers move without conscious control whether they are on or off a keyboard.

3. My third child weighed 10 pounds 4 ounces at birth. I had her entirely naturally with no anesthesia and no pain medication at a birth center run by nurse-midwives. Her shoulder got stuck on the way out but fortunately the midwives acted quickly and neither I nor Laura suffered any complications. It’s a good thing she was my third child, because if that had happened on my first, I wouldn’t have had any others. I am now utterly terrified of childbirth and so relieved that it’s behind me.

4. I’ve owned five houses. I talked Rick into buying a house together before we got married when we were just out of school on the theory that the demographics and geography of the Palo Alto area made residential real estate there a sure thing. We went from a fixer upper in Mountain View to a cute two bedroom in Palo Alto. Then on to a renovated ranch in McLean, later a builder colonial in McLean, and finally my dream home in Denver. I never want to see another real estate sales contract again.

5. My parents thought I’d never be happy. I was a screaming baby, a bored child, a rebellious teenager, and a purposeless college student. In my twenties, I found the three things I needed to be happy: a fun and funny best friend (my husband Rick), lots of fuel for my brain (provided by my work in software development), and a house that I love near the people I want to be with. Since I figured that out, there’ve been periods where I didn’t have everything I needed to be happy–like when I wasn’t working and was miserable at home with the kids or when I left my tight-knit Northern Virginia neighborhood for a gated community in the resort town of Wailea on Maui. But I’m back to having the three things I need, and I am happy. My parents are pleased to have been proven wrong, I think, and I’m pleased that I now count them among the people important to me who are nearby.

Tagged: Judi, Tim, Ken, Audrey, and Vanessa. Tell us five things we might not know about you.