tag'd

I've been tagged, by D at Lingo Franko. Problem is, I don't know 8 bloggers (well enough) to send this to. I'm planning to compromise.

Tag Rules:
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.


(my) Eight

1. I floss.

2. A non-intimate who casually touches the top of my head (or reaches as if to touch) is at significant risk of sustaining personal injury.

3. There are two stories about how I got my first name.

4. One is that my parents named me after a woman who was the focus of a certain long dead Italian poet.

5. The other is that my first name is the feminine of my father’s first name. Had I been born a male, my parents told me, my name would have been the masculine of my mother's. Thus, by just one bit of chromosomey goodness, I narrowly escaped being "Charlie".

6. I have been to Graceland.

7. I draw during academic talks. “Talks” include colloquia, tenure talks, so called ‘workshops’ (just another name for a lecture), job talks, conference talks, and sometimes even classes. It helps keep me awake if the speaker is a droner or otherwise unskilled orator, and oh so very many of them are. Sometimes I write notes in the form of speech bubbles in my drawings. More often, I draw concepts I’ve found interesting or amusing for one reason or another or I draw pictures of people who are annoying me. This habit has the undesirable effect of sometimes sending me into a snorting, choking fit of suppressed laughter.

8. I avoid direct sunlight.

I'm tagging...
cjblue
J
Triticum Turgidum
Reverse paranoia
A_____

And now I’m stretching…
Rosie (this one’s cheating somewhat but what the hell)
My sister (who will have to respond via comment)

Tag

I have been tagged by cjblue. I am to list five peculiarities, quirks, or odd habits I have.
Just five? Are you kidding?

1. I clean when I am stressed. This does not mean I am a clean person by nature, according to my sister, I was something of a packrat as a child (I've gotten better since having to move every other year in grad school). But even then, I didn't like to have visible clutter around me, so it was confined to drawers, underbed areas, and closets. The stress induced cleaning is a very strong and enduring habit. Cjblue had to intervene the night before my wedding. I had gone to wash up for bed and I just couldn't help myself. I started cleaning the bathroom. I was cleaning the faucet of the sink when she knocked on the door. "Are you in there cleaning?" she asked amid the giggles and hoots of laughter of friends and family staying at my apartment that night.

2. I can wiggle my nose. Not in a cute Bewitched way (which is back and forth) but in a strange rabbitty up and down way. I discovered this once when my siblings were busy flaring their nostrils at each other. I can't flare my nostrils, not on command at least, it seems.

3. I can't look straight up without getting really dizzy. The last time I tried this, I was attempting to read the over the counter menu at a local coffee shop. I almost fell over. It was embarassing.

4. I pronounce the word "bathroom" strangely. It is the only truly noticable hold over from my native accent. I pronounce the first vowel as if it were the vowel in the word "cot". It's not even really a Boston-ism, as it turns out my father, sister, and brother do not say it this way. My mother, however, does. She is from rural Medway MA, which is practically Rhode Island. Or Connecticut. But it sure isn't Boston.

5. If I am out somewhere and loud frat boy like men settle near me, I am immediately unable to concentrate on anything else. This usually happens at restaurants, although I think that is just because you're sort of stuck where you're seated through the remainder of the meal. Their grunted conversations distract me to the point where I can't pay attention to the conversation immediately around me. I also get really annoyed.

Now that I've listed just a small sample of my quirks, I am supposed to ask "five bloggers to reveal 5 weird habits or peculiarities about themselves". Yeah, well I don't know five bloggers unless I can tag cjblue again and some of her friends. So um...here's the best I can do: Burning Fingers, Kate of Catbird Journal (who is taking a break from blogging but who maybe can get to this when she comes back), Rhiannon, and uh if I think of anyone else I can possibly tag I'll do it.

20 random facts about me

Since I was called names (well one at least) for not posting my 20 random facts, I'm digging this out of "drafts" and posting it. I still don't have 5 bloggers to tag but, whatever...

I've been tagged by Ruth at cjblue. Below are 20 (largely) random facts about me. Now I just have to think of 5 other bloggers to tag....Hm.

1. I am very bad about returning things I’ve borrowed from people.

2. I sometimes think I should have gone to law school instead of grad school.

3. I loved dairy products so much as a child that I once ate an entire stick of butter.

4. I was diagnosed as being lactose intolerant at 14.

5. I become very attached to the places where I live but the city I grew up in always feels like home.

6. I do not plan to ever have children.

7. I was married to a doctor for 5 years.

8. I hate doctors.

9. The worst and best job I ever had was working at a florist in a mall at Christmas time.

10. I was a radio DJ at my campus station last year.

11. When I am out at dinner, I can’t help listening to other people’s conversations - even when I’d rather not.

12. I once had sex in a storage closet.

13. I get cold easily but I hate the humid heat of New England summers.

14. When I was 31, I caught Lyme Disease and it wouldn’t go away.

15. I spend most of my time at conference and colloquia talks drawing amusing (to me) cartoons of the people I dislike in the room.

16. Sometimes I can’t stop laughing at what I’ve drawn, even if I hide the picture so I can’t see it.

17. When I was a kid, I used to take articles of my parents clothes, like socks and shirts, and turn them into stuffed animals that I would then give to my parents as presents.

18. I was a National Latin Scholar in high school.

19. My mother was adopted.

20. I used to think I wanted to be an anthropologist. Because I was sure I would travel to exotic places, in order to “train” for the strange and unfamiliar diets I might need to adopt in the field, I would sometimes force myself to eat things I didn’t want to eat…like broccoli.

Tagged

Hm. I've been tagged by Ruth. I'm supposed to post 20 random facts about me and then tag 5 other bloggers. But I don't really know 5 other bloggers. I managed to scrounge up about 4 that I could tag without them wondering "wtf?" but after that...well, I'm fresh out of contacts with blogs. There are a few blogs I read somewhat regularly, not counting Ruth's which I read very regularly, but they have been tagged already. So what to do? Get a friend to start a blog so I can tag him/her? There's a friend of mine at school, but so far I've not really made my blog public at school. It's too hard for me not to post about the personal, and although I'm not exactly a closed book in the department, I'm not wide open either. So....I think I'll wait on posting my 20 random facts about me until I have at least one more person I can legitimately tag.