8 Things Meme (grumble, grumble)

C'mon folks, I'm a dictionary; I'm really not interesting enough to come up with 8 things to tell about myself, yet I've been tagged twice, so I guess I'll need to try. Ren says she thinks it's ego that drives us to do these memes, but for me, it's more that pressure of not wanting to be the one to drop the ball—similar motivation for dragging myself to do chain letters and other obnoxious pressure-oriented stuff. Oh, and I guess I should link to Ren and Madeline who both tagged me.

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.



1) Well, since I already shared this over at Ubasics, it's a no-brainer: when I was 16 I used to sneak out of the house at night. I'd jump off the roof below my window, put the car in neutral, roll it down the driveway, and spend the night at my boyfriend's house. I was always a bit of a rebel and really couldn't stand being told what to do...or what not to do as the case may be. I'm really not much different now.

2) Despite being a wild child, I have this incredible dose of Catholic guilt. In and of itself that may not be all that interesting except that I'm an atheist and was raised entirely without religion of any sort, well besides having to say grace at the dinner table. I have this major confessional streak, and I can't seem to release things until I've confessed them and tried to make amends. Maybe this is some kind of past-life residual thing.

3) I'm incredibly loyal and excellent at keeping secrets...except when it comes to gift giving. I have absolutely no will-power when it comes to waiting to give people gifts when I think they will really like it—the excitement is just too much. And on that same note, I was a terrible snoop as a child when it came to Christmas. I used to wait until my mom was out of the house, and then I would slit the tape on the presents under the tree, carefully unwrap them to see what was inside, then put new tape exactly on top of the old tape so no one would know. Of course, I was always disappointed Christmas morning when there were no surprise gifts—I could never understand why my mom didn't hold a few back.

4) I squeal like a little girl. No really, I do. I'm highly startle-able and excitable, and I squeal; it just pops out of me involuntarily. Sometimes Jim will chase me around the house, and I get all worked up like I'm about 5 years old, which of course just cracks him up. I have an overly-developed fight or flight sense.

5) I was supposed to get married once, and I called my wedding off 6 days before hand and went to spend the summer at the beach where Jim and I met. Jim and I have known each other since we were kids, and that summer something just clicked. Truth be told, he was a large part of the reason I called off the wedding. *eg* Though I had really just been looking for an excuse for a while to end a bad relationship before getting in any deeper.

6) I once spent 6 weeks backpacking around Thailand and China and signed up for the Peace Corps, but that was all part of that bad relationship, so the Peace Corps thing got called off along with the wedding, and I went to grad school instead.

7) I have a huge scar up the side of my right shin from a bike accident when I was 13. I had more than 70 stitches in multiple layers and was very lucky that the pedal missed my muscle when it ripped open my leg.

8) My first word was "flower," and I've always been a gardener at heart. I used to love spending time at my great aunt's farm, sleeping in the loft and riding in the wagon. My heart has finally found home here on our farm, and I feel myself putting roots down deep into the earth. This fulfills that part of me that has always felt unanchored, adrift, unconnected to the world as a child of adoption. My family is my world, and I'm finished this silly meme just in time to go outside and milk my goat.

I'm tagging:

Robin,  Cheryl,  Karl,  Leanne,  Wendy,  Stephanie,  Arun,  and Christy