Diagonal... aka Me

I'm a whole lot of things but not too much of any one thing, I hope. I can be anal retentive about some stuff but I let other stuff slide because it's just not worth the effort to worry about it. I am, more oft than not, an optimist, determined to find a silver lining even for the darkest cloud, but I am also a cynic at times and not without my conspiracy theories. I can be obsessive but rarely compulsive. I have lived long enough to know where most of my passions lie and I go with them. Why fight what is? Spouse says I'm easy to please and that is often true but I have plenty of darkside to go with my apparent light. I just don't let folks see those shadows very often. More likely to see them in my writings than in my daily life. I tend to collect a lot of moths around my soft warm flame and I do my level best not to singe them. I care. So what does all this tell you? I'm human. I have inalienable rights and I exercise them. I was given mind, heart and soul and I try my damndest to use them. When I fall, I fall hard because I wasn't expecting it, wasn't looking for it... but even when I'm dumped on my ass, I'm learning something, I'm living. It's the journey and not the destination that counts so I don't mind the potholes too much. I've just been fortunate enough not to hit very many and they haven't been terribly deep. Am I blessed with good fortune or is it my attitude that makes my path easier? I don't know. This is the only path I've trod and I am only me. It works.

Where did the nickname come from? Why "Diagonal"? Diagonal has been my nickname in some circles for nearly 20 years. My real first name is Diana. During idle discussion with a workmate once, I recounted how there had been 5 Diane's or Diana's in my 2nd grade class. I jumped out of my skin when one of us was called out, fearing it was me the teacher referred to. (There were two of us Diana's, plus Dianne, Diane and Dianna.) I also noted that throughout school I had found some terminology annoying (ex, diagram) and math classes particularly harrowing because of the frequent use of the words "diameter" and "diagonal". Since I have always been a little off-kilter (but entertainingly so?) the moniker "diagonal" stuck. It spread from that co-worker throughout the building and leaked over into my social life. In fact, I married a fellow named Rex and my friends were highly amused when one of them tagged him with the nickname "Rexagonal". So, that's the tale of Diagonal & Rexagonal, though I generally refer to him as Spouse or formally as Spousal Unit. And lastly, the name Diagonal has been quite useful on the net for its genderless nature.