I've Been Tagged

I'm mostly sick in bed today. Some kind of stomach bug. And, Sherrill Quinn took advantage of my weakened state to tag me :)

Rules first. 1) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 2) People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. 3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. 4) Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Let's see. Eight random facts about me.

1) I seem to have a natural affinity for orienting myself to the directions of the compass--even without the sun as a guide. I do much better with north-south-east-west directions than with turn-right-turn-left directions.

2) I have a huge Beanie Baby collection. It started as a way to amuse my young nieces when they were small, and then just got out of hand. I think it's a combination of the fact that I'm incredibly competitive and that I wasn't allowed to have a Barbie as a kid (Mom didn't have the cash to buy all the clothes).

3) I'm afraid of water. I can swim if I have to, but--like a cat--I prefer not to. I won't even put my face under the water in the shower.

4) I love violent, escapist movies, and I'm not talking Die Hard or Lethal Weapon. I'm talking Pulp Fiction and Grindhouse.

5) I am incredibly accident-prone. My friends claims it's because I do everything too fast, and they're probably right. On a sunny day in February, 2003, I slipped on an icy hill while cleaning out flowerbeds, slid down the hill and knew I'd broken my leg. When we arrived at the emergency room, the staff asked me to give a number to my pain. Looking at all the people moaning and groaning around me, I said, "I don't know. If I don't move it, it's probably a 4 or 5. So they left me sit for between one and two hours (the time gets longer with each retelling of the story).

When the technician got me up on the table and began the X-rays, I heard him say, "Holy Sh*t!" I asked, "Is everything okay?" He said, "Yeah, yeah. Just lay still, okay?"

Turns out I'd broken both bones in my left leg in two places. I spent a week in the hospital, three weeks in a rehab unit, and six weeks in a wheelchair with two surgeries on either end of my rehab. The good news is that the left leg is great today. However, now I'm doing physical therapy twice a week on the right leg because I tripped during the great Electricity Blackout at the beginning of this month. The surgeon who operated on my left leg (and on my broken thumb a year later) says I have a moderate sprain in my medial collateral ligament.

6) I had carrot-colored hair while I was growing up--it matched all the freckles. My father's Italian family would look at me and shake their heads in disbelief. They only recognized me as theirs because I had my father's green eyes.

As soon as I could, I began coloring my hair a darker, less obnoxious hue--more auburn. I've been coloring it ever since. This month, my hair is Preference by L'Oreal 7G.

7) I've had season tickets to the Dallas Symphony for about fifteen years, but my favorite piece of classical music is one I think of as being somewhat unsophisticated. In the Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg. It's the theme from Peer Gynt. You can hear Peer tip-toeing into the Mountain King's castle and then hear him running away when the trolls give chase. Its delightful creepiness appeals to something very dark in me.

8) I am the least girly-girl you know. My hair is very curly so I keep it short. I wash it and let it dry on my head in the morning. I hate lipstick, but will wear eyebrow liner. Can't imagine doing anything like Botox even if my face ends up looking like a shar pei's someday.

Thank God, I came up with eight things.

All right. My turn to tag: Sherry Davis, Kelly Fritz, Yasmine Phoenix, B.E. Sanderson, Joyce Scarbrough, Marie Tuhart, Grace Williams, and Maria Zannini.

Tag! You're it!

And be warned: I'll kill the next person who tags me again.