Do you really want to know this stuff????

So Lefty tagged me with that “Tell 8 Things about Yourself” meme the other day, like I’m just going to drop everything head to the computer and start typing away or something. So, just to show him a thing or two, I waited a couple of days. I’m ornery that way, sometimes. (Just kidding, Chris!)

Anyway, here are the rules:

- Each player starts with eight random facts about themselves.
- Those who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight facts and post these rules.
- At the end of the post, choose some people to get tagged and list their names.

I don’t do the tagging thing, so I’ll be disregarding the last one, but I think I can handle the rest of it. (It seems to me that Roger tagged me with something similar ages ago too. Maybe I should check that out.)

So let’s see…eight random facts about me:

1. Foods I need to stay away from when I’m trying to lose weight: potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, pop tarts, french fries, sugared cereals, pizza, and those ice cream bars with the chocolate coating on the outside and vanilla ice cream on the inside. I find it very hard to have any of these foods in any sort of moderation whatsoever, so I have to abstain. Except, of course, for a very rare and occasional splurge.

2. When I was in college, I was a student summer missionary every year. I worked in the “four corners” of the lower 48 states: Lake Placid, NY; San Diego, CA; Miami FL; and Seattle, WA. I caught a lot of flack from my friends over the Miami and San Diego assignments, since they thought I’d be in for a cushy vacation at Baptist Student Union expense. However, I worked my butt off in both places. So what if I came back from both assignments with the best tans I’ve ever had?

3. At one time I was the news editor for a lesbian magazine. Seriously!

4. My life travels in very weird circles sometimes. When I was in college, I dropped a major in math, yet ended up working in the math department as a senior. My first job of any substance in Louisville was for a non-profit, which I left in 1990, only to return in 1997. When I left the second time, some of the folks there told me that they would be waiting for me to come back again. Taking my current job brought me back into a building where I worked in the mid-nineties. Same floor, even! Different agency, though. I’m tantalizingly close to having another of those circles happen to me again. I can’t say anything until it happens, but keep your fingers crossed for me. Please.

5. When I was a kid, I used to have frequent throat infections. When I was sick (which was a lot of the time), I had a hard time swallowing anything, so I lived on mashed potatoes and apple sauce. As a result, I was a skinny little booger. Then I had my tonsils removed when I was about eight. Cleared up the problem! And I’ve been a tubbo ever since. Applesauce is still one of my favorite foods, though. My grandmother used to keep a jar in her cabinet all the time, just in case I came by.

6. I have read over 50 books so far this year. Over the weekend, I finished three. Reading has always been a stress relief for me, so I guess that says something about the way 2007 is going for me.

7. When my mother was a senior in high school, she won the history award, which was one of the few competitive senior academic awards at her school. Everyone who wanted a shot at the award had to take a test and write an essay.

When I was a senior in high school, I won the history award, which was one of the few competitive senior academic awards at my school. Everyone who wanted a shot at the award had to take a test and write an essay.

8. I have shared various parts of my life with 16 different cats. Three of them have been neighborhood-roaming cats who made my yard one of their usual stops. (In fact, there’s one of them right now who stops by our front door every day for a hand out. His name is Zeppelin. The kid down the street named him.) One of them kind of came with a house we rented when I was a teenager. The first one that we ever had as an official pet was named Kitty. He ran off after we moved and we never found him. The next one was called Kitty Jr., because he looked like Kitty. The third one was called Black Kitty, because he was, well, black. My brother was responsible for all three of those names.

Okay, those are my thrilling and obscure eight facts. Anything else you want to know?