It

Got tagged by Wylee! I think people are fascinating, how we can be so very different in some ways and yet so incredibly similar, so it's been fun reading all the tags.

Haven't been blogging for too long, so the 'stuff you don't know about me' part is pretty easy. It would have been nearly impossible if I'd been around longer 'cause I tend to disseminate information pretty freely.

I've been reading as many of the tags as I could track down but I never found the original rules, so I'm winging it. Since I don't think anybody can top Wil's awesome list, I'll just keep going until I run out of time and call it a day. I've got shrimp waiting to be wrapped in bacon for a Christmas party.

1. I can't stand mushy food. This started as a small child with a 'getting sick in my plate' incident involving mashed potatoes. To this day I can't stand the sight or smell of mashed potatoes - someone else has to make them at Thanksgiving. And the quirk about squishy texture has now extended itself to any kind of soggy bread situation, including strawberry shortcake. My husband thinks it's blasphemous that I eat Italian Beef sandwiches dry, and once referred to my stuffing as 'trail mix' because I don't make it like bread soup.

2. I have a tattoo. It's on my bikini line and it's of Smaug (the dragon from Tolkien's The Hobbitt). I was 21 and thought I was being very cool and literary. Now he's faded and I want to get him removed so I can eventually replace him with an M-Dot.

3. I had a perfect GPA in h.s. and was going to be co-valedictorian (with my 2 best girlfriends) of my class... right up until last semester of senior year. I aced Physics, Calculus, Biology and the like. I lost my 5.0 to Senior Comp (a college prep writing course) and Public Speaking. The teachers and I didn't see eye to eye on what was "good" writing. (I did learn the valuable lesson of writing to your audience). Personally I think I won the battle on principle, seeing as how I went on to earn a BA in Speech Communications and become a professional writer.

4. I'm not afraid of snakes, lizzards, mice, rats, bats, etc... I can even handle spiders of any size as long as they don't surprise me. But show me a cockroach (or a cricket) and I will run screaming like a little girl.

5. I could ride a motorcycle before most kids could ride a bicycle.

6. I was target shooting with rifles before most kids could ride a bicycle.

7. My first pet was a hermit crab named Herman. I was 3 and terrified of it.

8. My favorite drink is a Cosmopolitan.

9. My other favorite drink is a Chai Soy Latte.

10. My favorite color (this week) is dark red.

11. I am bisexual.

12. I hate it if the food on my plate touches eat other. The only exception to this rule is Thanksgiving, when I'm putting gravy on almost everything anyway.

13. I have a biological brother, a half-brother and a half-sister. All younger. I lived with my brothers, my half-sister lived with her mother. I've only seen her twice in probably 20 years - at my brother's high school graduation and at my wedding. She's really sweet and wanted to see me growing up, but her mother never let her.

14. I played clarinet from 6th grade through college. I was in regular band the entire time, and the only year I wasn't in marching band was freshman in college. I auditioned for and made it into the Marching Illini (aka per John Philip Sousa "the best band in the land") the summer before sophomore year. I miss it a lot and am looking to join our local city band; they play concerts once a week in the city park on summer evenings.

15. On St. Patrick's Day 1995 I marched in the parade in Dublin with the Marching Illini.

16. I am a huge U2 fan. When I was 14 the guy I was kind of seeing had tickets to see them in Champaign. He was 19 and it was 120 miles away, so obviously my parents said no. That was right before they hit it huge... after that show Bono walked around the quad and hung out with students. Since then I swore I would not miss a U2 concert if they played nearby, and so far I haven't.

17. The perfect confluence of #15 and 16... Our hotel in Dublin overlooked the parade route. Bono and The Edge checked in to watch the parade. So I can truthfully say that Bono has watched me in a musical performance!

18. I am scared of bridges and white-knuckle it driving over them - especially the kind with metal grates where you can see the water.

19. The year I graduated high school I was invited to be in every beauty pageant in the area. I turned down all but one. I got 2nd runner up.

20. I'm an alto. I sang in my junior high's choir. I participated in a student effort at the high school to get choir reinstated as a class, then I sang in that. I sang in my sorority's a capella group. When I went back to school I auditioned for and joined the UIC choir because band didn't fit in my schedule.

21. I grew up knowing a family member's (relatively) tame coyotes and timber wolves.

22. I have eaten squirrel, rabbit, venison and goose that was hunted and cleaned right at home.

23. I was born and raised Roman Catholic but have from my earliest memories been an athiest. If pressed for a label, I would say I consider myself a Taoist.

24. I eat my steak just shy of still mooing.

25. I hate needles but I still donate blood.

26. I taught myself to play saxophone to do the talent portion of the pageant because I thought the clarinet wasn't cool enough.

27. My (biological) dad is a 6th degree blackbelt in Judo and is internationally influential in the sport. He's been published in 3 languages in Judo magazines, and he's even coached Olympic coaches. He still coaches, and occassionally competes in the Master's division.

28. I've studied 4 martial arts (Goshin Jitsu, Kuk Sul, Kempo and Judo). Never got past yellow in any of them. Am looking to get back into Judo, mainly for my dad, but he hasn't yet found a local class 'good enough' for me to go to.

29. I have 1 nephew from my biological brother and 2 nieces and a nephew from my half brother.

30. My secret wish is to someday sing the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley Field.

31. I can't leave a bookstore for under a hundred dollars. I want them all.

32. My house came with a fake, light-switch activated fireplace. I hate it so much I put the entertainment center in front of it.

33. For not having had an inordinate number of boyfriends in my past, I have dated a ridiculous number of guys named Jason.

34. In spite of a slight fear of heights and a tendency towards motion sickness, I looooove roller coasters. My weight gain kept me off of them (those seats are made for 10 year old butts!) for many years now, and my husband is totally psyched for my current weight loss because it means we'll be planning road trips to amusement parks again.

35. Starting in first grade I was pulled out for a special advanced learning program once a week. Because of this, in 1981 I was about 8 years old and writing code (in Basic on Apple IIs - remember those?!) before most people in my home town had ever seen a personal computer.

36. My brother and his friends once thought it would be funny to scare me and my best friend, home alone studying for the ACT. They had been hunting, and so snuck up to the house in full camo, wearing face masks and carrying rifles. My daddy always told me if some guy is coming in the door after you, shoot to kill. I got out "my" gun (a 38 special), told my friend to hide in the closet, and stood my ground as my brother and his friends pounded on the front door. I thought I recognized a voice so I did not pull the trigger when he opened the door, which didn't even have a lock. He got in big trouble from dad, who said it would have served him right if I'd shot him.

37. When I go home they say I have a Chicago accent. When I have a few drinks, my friends here say I slip into my redneck accent.

38. I can be super girly and will often re-do my nails several times to get them absolutely perfect. I won't go to yoga if I'm overdue for a pedicure, and the polish on fingers and toes has to match.

39. Even more girly - I recently became a bikini wax convert.

40. I can't stand it if my bra doesn't match my underwear.

41. I am anal-retentive to a fault. I will often catch myself rewriting the grocery list just because some of the entries were sloppy. And I'll stop in the middle of making dinner to re-alphabetize the spices. When we eat at restaurants I often arrange the condiments, which drives my husband crazy.

42. If I was rich I would open a bookstore, coffee shop and animal shelter.

Here's the Holiday themed questions:

1. Your favorite holiday memory. Childhood Thanksgivings - they all sort of blur together into one long, warm happy memory of my Grandma's tiny kitchen full of great smells and aunts and uncles and cousins sitting around and talking for hours.

2. Your favorite holiday cookie or treat. Can't get enough eggnog at Christmas.
Guilty pleasure: the one place I eschew my gourmet aspirations is for the love of that stupid canned gelatinous cranberry jelly at Thanksgiving.

3. Where you will be over the holidays. Staying at home to this year. Maybe starting a new tradition - this year going to attempt roast goose with port cranberry sauce for Christmas dinner.

4. Your favorite holiday song or carol. O Holy Night (sung) Greensleeves (harp or piano) Carol of the Bells (a capella)

5. A special holiday tradition in your family. Didn't have any traditions growing up, but now we have two.
First, we're going on I think our 6th annual Christmas Eve Eve gathering, where all of our friends meet for drinks and appetizers on the evening of the 23rd (either I host it or we meet at a local restaurant). It allows us to have special holiday time together before we all head off to family obligations.

Second, my in-laws have a long-standing tradition of dinner and gift opening on Christmas Eve, which began when my husband was a little kid and couldn't wait for Christmas morning.

OK... I'm going to tag Mipper and Lisa in Madison.
(Update - looks like someone just beat me to them, so I'll try tagging his highness, The Spandex King.


Merry Christmas!