More Than You Needed To Know

I saw HPMelon last night and she alerted me to the meme request that's been volleyed my way.

I kind of feel like most of my random facts have come out in dribs and drabs in other posts, so this might not actually be any new information. You know, they are the things that make me, me. I guess in a way they are also the things that make me not anyone else.

Here goes:

Bloggers must post these rules and provide eight random facts about themselves. In the post, the tagged blogger tags eight other bloggers and notify them that they have been tagged.

1. I have a twin brother. He is six minutes older than me. We look alike if you want us to, or nothing alike if you don't want us to. He got the height genes, which worked out well in the end.

2. When I was in elementary school I had an obsession with great woman history-makers. In fourth grade I dressed up like Amelia Earheart. In fifth grade, Joan of Arc. That year we went to France and I made my parents take me to any town we came within twenty miles of with a Joan of Arc statue so that I could take a picture. I had pencil drawings of Billie Jean King and Nadia Comaneci hanging on my walls. I think I was a budding feminist but sometimes I wonder if I was actually a budding lesbian and just never realized it. I told my friend JT that a few years ago and she told me--years after we were in college together--"Oh, my mother always thought you were going to turn out to be a lesbian". Her mother had left her father when JT was eight to be with another woman. "Why didn't you tell me!? Maybe she knew something I didn't know?" I asked. It's probably for the best that Ms. JT didn't tell me. I think it would have confused me.

3. I love, and will use, every condiment except mayonnaise. In excess.

4. I have never had stitches outside of my mouth. But I have had three root canals.

5. We did not have drama club or thespian society or forensic whatever in high school but we did have show choir, and lemmee tell you, it was *big* (Donna Champlin was a show choir queen at my school, and she just won an Obie, so umm, ha! all you show choir skeptics). I wanted more than anything to be in show choir, but for my first two years I was relegated to being a "pit singer" (we provided back up vocals but didn't get to dance or wear the little spangled outfits). This was usually where they put the homely folk so those two years served as my petri dish for years and years of self-doubt and body issues. I finally made it into the full blown show choir ranks when I was a junior. I have never had such big hair, or worn eyeliner and fuchsia lip stick with the relish I did for those two years.

6. I pick at my cuticles incessantly. If you see me doing it slap my hand away. Seriously. I want you to.

7. I wish I actually-actually spoke another language. Ironically, or rather, prophetically, my mother--who is a foreign language teacher--always told me this would happen. She was right.

8. As a young person I had major issues controlling my temper. It seems the years between age 9 and 13 were the worst. During that time I threw a chair, kicked a hole in my door, dumped ice tea on someone, walloped a classmate with a bottle of glue and punched my best friend in the stomach. I used to think that those impulses just went away as I neared adulthood, but I later realized they were still there, I'd just started taking them out on myself.

Okay, these aren't really factoids, more mini-stories. And most of them are about my childhood rather than the me right now. Ah well. That's what I got for ya.

As for paying it forward, well: Gwenergy, Hanvnah, Joziu, and the Lighting Designer. And anyone else up for a little navel grazing.

In other news, I went to the beach for about 36 hours. It's the first time I've been in the state of North Cackalacky since 1999. We got sun-burned, drank frozen beverages, swam in the pool, waded in the ocean, and drove with the top down. Pretty great time.