Who Are You When No One's Watching?*

The great basketball coach John Wooden once said, "The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one's watching."  But who am I when no one's watching?

A nine-year-old on a sugar rush, that's who.  

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Exhibit A.

At school/work I'm put-together, driven, and serious...most of the time.**  But when I'm at home, the only thing I'm serious about is being a goofball.  In public I'm usually quiet and reserved.  Kinda cold and standoffish. But once I get to know you, there's a whole different person comes out. And once I let you in, there's no going back!  You're stuck with the goofy kid who dances in the kitchen, tries to get you to box with her in the dining room, sings at the dinner table, raps in the car, wears 3D glasses around the house, skips down the hallway, does 360 cannonballs off the deck into the pool, hugs you all the time, laughs until she cries, and sleeps on the floor.

Yep, this is pretty typical around our house.  If I had a nickel for every time someone said, "Hope, you are so weird," I would be rich! But anyway, we were baking cookies and I created my alter ego -- a superhero called Oven Mitts.  Unlike Clark Kent and Peter Parker, who take off their glasses when they transform into their superhero versions of themselves, I put my glasses on.  And then I'm off, saving the world one oven at a time!  What can I say? With great power comes great responsibility. *** I am also deathly afraid of fire so the oven mitts are an essential part of my wardrobe.  And they double as pretty decent boxing gloves in case I get caught in some hand-to-hand combat.  They would also make pretty good mittens in case of a snowstorm.

So that's who I am when no one's watching.  Who are you?

 * My apologies if you thought this was going to be a serious post.  About the meaning of life or something.  Maybe later.  I'm on vacation.

** I've found that I'm somewhat of the class clown of graduate school.  Partially, humor is how I choose to combat my insecurity.  It always has been.  If I don't know an answer, I come up with something witty.  It's worked pretty well so far.  One of my professors said she gave me an A because of my "good humor."  I'll take it.

*** If you didn't catch that Spiderman reference, I'll forgive you.  But just this once.