What are we talking about today?

I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

Cast of Characters

You know that saying, "My life has a brilliant cast but I can't figure out the plot"? Well, the same is true of Cheekyness. Meet the characters here:

Family members:
Chadwick: Husband. Also known as Chad or DH (darling husband).
Billy: Brother. Younger than me. Married to Jennie and stepfather of two (who I generally refer to as "the kids").
Denise: Sister. Also younger. Also smarter and funnier than I.
Jennie: Sister-in-law. Married to Billy. Mum of the kids.
The kids: Charming nephew and darling niece.
Mum: Duh.
Dad: Ditto.
Grandma: My mum's mum. (Dad's mum passed away in 2015.)
Deb: Cousin and frequent commenter. *waves frantically*
Uncle Gary: Mum's older brother. Father of Deb. Also comments with some regularity.
(You see the pattern here... I add family members as they comment. It's my little incentive program.)
Amanda: Baby cousin. She doesn't actually like it when I call her baby cousin, and that's probably because she is now past 20.
Eldest Cousin: Actually, she isn't technically my eldest cousin, but since I haven't seen our actual eldest cousin in years, the nickname passes on to the cousin who was always in charge when we were little and played together.
Running Cousin: Eldest Cousin's oldest kid. I'm not sure where he got the running genes, but by golly, does he ever have them.

Friends:
Dawn: Best pal. Scottish. Has taught me many things, not the least of which is that growing up is totally optional.
Keely: Former roommate. Partner in crime. All of my strangest memories have Keely in them somewhere (like the time we carried an ironing board and a drying rack down the street. For a couple of miles).
Penciler of Songs: This may take longer than a few sentences... Prayer partner, confidante, and all-around lovely person. As a bonus, is nearly old enough to be my mummy.
Ruth: Ditto on the above, except about her age: Ruth is younger than me. And also is a running buddy.
Princess of Unicorns: Daughter of Penciler of Songs. Loves all things glittery and outlandish. And unicorns. And cupcakes. And hats.
Rebecca: I didn't bother finding her a nickname, because she isn't reading my blog and doesn't care that much. A dear friend who brings light to my life. Which reminds me, I should call her more often.
There are others... I'll just add them as we go along.


Church:
Social Butterfly: Is in charge of keeping everyone informed about what's going on, which she does very well. Just forget any negative connotations you may have about the term "social butterfly"; they don't apply here. She's very sweet. And from Indiana.

Classmates/Instructors:
Do Not Cross: The instructor for two of my three rhetoric classes one spring, and later my thesis supervisor (or whatever the title is) for my independent research project. She's gracious, she's kind, she's encouraging, and I loved both her classes. But she's a teeny tiny (and very fit) woman, so she's also a bit terrifying. (Seriously, small women? We're a scary bunch. Don't mess with us.) And so I called her Do Not Cross because under no circumstances do I want her to be angry at me.
Lord of the Writing Center: The instructor who teaches the class for aspiring Writing Center Consultants. And he is not, in fact, the Lord of the Writing Center in any way, but he does get to choose who gets into the class and who does not. I gave him this nickname last fall after he said, "No one gets into the class except through me." I also took his Advanced Writing class.
Chicago: My linguistics instructor. She told us the first day that she is from the Midwest, but you know what? No clarification necessary. It's all there in that accent. I originally thought she was from Ohio, though.
French Teacher: Actually from France. Nice guy and a great teacher. Has a baby face.
Caffeinated: Rhetoric teacher. He had approximately three cups of coffee before class every day. He tweets a lot, particularly about riding the bus. I don't technically follow his feed (I unfollowed him when I signed up for his class, to keep the teacher-student distance), but I do lurk from time to time because he's hilarious.
Skinny Jeans: A TA. She and I did not see eye-to-eye about... well... anything.
Red Ball: Rhetoric instructor. So named because her dog has a red ball that he loves, so she uses it for a lot of illustrations. Loved her class.
Abbey: My first rhetoric instructor at UT. So named because she looks a bit like Stockard Channing, who played Abbey Bartlet (the first lady) on The West Wing. It took me a while to come up with a nickname for her, but we got there in the end.
Blonde Spanish Teacher: Kinda self-explanatory, really. I loved her class, too.
Crazed Spanish Teacher: Tiny woman (remember what I said about tiny women??) who is a little bit off-kilter. She knows her stuff when it comes to Spanish, though.
No Entiendo: I really loved his class and thought he was a brilliant teacher, even though I didn't understand his Spanish half the time ("no entiendo" = "I don't understand"). Unfortunately, he passed away before the end of my first semester at UT.
New Spanish Teacher: Replaced No Entiendo when the latter was hospitalized. He weirded me out a little, but I still liked his teaching style.
Almost-PhD: Linguistics instructor. Same age as me. Doctor Who fan. Really fun. Working on her dissertation.
Walking Argument: Everything this young man says comes out like he's expecting someone to argue with him. I'm not sure what his issue is, but he earned a nickname pretty quick.
New Guy: A fellow non-trad and transfer student, also suffering the slings and arrows of being stuck in a freshman class.
Smart Guy: I haven't said much about him, but he's a fellow rhetoric student. We sat next to one another in our summer class. He's an excellent writer. And he gives great peer reviews.
Outside Voice: Everybody has to have at least one loud classmate, yes?
More Non-Trad Than Me: A fellow Spanish student, homeschool mother of 7, and friend-of-a-friend.
Moderately Amusing Freshman: Linguistics classmate. Kept me laughing.
Amazing Hair: Linguistics classmate and friend of MAF. I'm not kidding about her hair.
Looks Like Luna: No really, she does. So much so that she dressed up as Luna for Halloween. Also a linguistics classmate.
Happy Spanish Student: Very kindly giggled at the lame stuff that I say. Crazed Spanish Teacher would always catch her smiling and comment on how happy she was.
Writing Centre Co-Workers:
Professional Smart Aleck: Fellow non-trad. She used to get paid to be cheeky. Some people have all the luck!
Sprained Ankle: Yeah, I was way off on her actual injury when I picked this nickname. But she doesn't seem to mind. Also, she's a FB holdout, which I think is amazing. 
TARDIS girl: Fellow Dr. Who fan and all-around fun person. Also, co-conspirator on Frenzied Novelists, the UT club for NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy, formed by ourselves and a few other crazies.
Natalie: Doesn't get a proper nickname because she has her own blog, which you can visit here. I was going to call her "The Chef", though.