Seven facts, weird & random

underwater lena
Originally uploaded by monokultur

I was tagged by my pal Ms. Obsessive for this meme. The rules are:

• Link to your tagger and post rules.
• Share 7 facts about yourself, some random and some weird.
• Tag 7 people at the end of post and list their names.
• Let them know they were tagged by a comment on their blog.

1. I have memories of swimming underwater solo (accidentally) for the very first time on a family vacation when I was four years old. I went on to swim competitively and was a lifeguard in high school.

2. Whenever I tried to “sneak out” or otherwise surreptitiously disobey my parents in high school, they somehow found out every time in random and bizarre circumstances. After several embarrassingly thwarted incidents, I gave up and started just being up front with them.

3. As a child, I never had to suffer the death of a treasured pet; our cockatiel, Chirp, was added to our family when I was 8 years old and died in 2002. She was 27 years old.

4. Foods I tell people I’m allergic to, but really just don’t like: mayonnaise, blue cheese, sea scallops, American cheese, and pasta salad (the kind with cheese cubes). For some bizarre reason, I don’t like chocolate cake or fudge, but just can’t resist BROWNIES!!

5. One of my ears is about 1/4-inch higher than the other, which makes wearing/adjusting glasses and sunglasses a bit of a pain. I can wiggle my ears, though!

6. I met my husband 15 years ago through a Washington City Paper personals ad. His was the only ad I have ever answered. He likes to say he wrote it to find me. I also can remember it by heart: “Slim, exotic, single male, 25, half-Japanese (no accent), ISO clever, non-insane bureaucrat with an artist’s soul to explore bookstores, existential dilemmas. Likes Joyce, Python, Waits, Welles, iced coffee. No double-dipped Baptists or women who can’t recover from their recovery.”

7. Our children’s first names are based on a character in an Orson Welles movie and a 1930s crime fiction author (bonus points if you can guess who to either!); their middle names are from AJS’s maternal grandmother and my father.

I tag:
Dees
Radical Mama
On the curb
Mrs. G. (who has commented here a few times lately, HI!)
Miss Molly
Monkeyrotica
Forstmeister

Since I’m not readily able to leave comments on people’s blogs, I’ll make an effort to poke around at home on our dial-up; it might take awhile, so I hope you take your cue from this tag!!