My first meme...

...at least I think that's what it's called.

In the last week or so, at least three people, maybe more, have tagged me on Facebook for that "25 Random Things" thingy that's going around. I really don't like Facebook, but I do like friends, so in the interest of promoting friendship and participating in friendly things I will do my 25 Random Things here on my blog instead. Then I can participate and still semi-boycott Facebook.

25 Random Things about Me:

1) I wore glasses from 12th grade up until Sofi was born. Who knew pregnancy could improve your vision?

2) I collect little boxes. Really. For putting things in. I have like, maybe fifty?

3) I also collect teacups

4) I am addicted to blog reading-- you may have already known that.

5) I have a phobia about talking on the phone. I really hate it. There are only four or five people that I can comfortable chat with on the phone. Which is why so many of you never hear from me. Now you know...

6) I love jokes. Dumb middle school jokes, even. If you tell me a joke, I practically guarantee I'll laugh. J has this one about a dead bird that cracked me up when we were dating and I still laugh silently inside when I remember it.

7) This has gotten me in trouble many times over the years when hearing jokes of questionable subject matter in the company of certain people. Because..

8) I really have a hard time stopping laughing once I get started. I laugh so loud in movies I embarrass myself. And whomever I am with. The laughing and also...

9) I get waaay too "into" the movies I watch. And I'm super loud. I'm the annoying person in the theatre that keeps gasping and asking "What did he just say?" and "Oooo, this is scary..." In the first Spiderman movie, in the scene where the spider lands on Peter Parker's shoulder? I screamed right out loud when it bit him. Full volume. I'm sure there are still people out there talking about that...

10) I've seen the first of the Ring Trilogy movies four times. And watched most of it with commentaries on at least once. I am a fanatic.

11) I've also read all of Tolkein's other works (including letters and papers wherever I could get ahold of them), although I've never learned to speak Elvish, so Josh still has one up on me.

12) I've never, ever considered naming our children after any of the characters in the Trilogy. I promise. Really. J, on the other hand....

13) I love to play Starcraft. J got me addicted in college and is my dealer. He's reeeeeally good. I'm moderately good.

14) I wrote my final high school term paper on Charles Dickens and now I can't stand the man. It's true what they say, familiarity does breed contempt. At least when it comes to wordy Victorian authors.

15) I've read both volumes of Norton's English Lit in their entirety. I know. Overkill. I was CLEP-ing out of Eng 101 and was convinced that I needed to read Every Page in order to pass.

16) The single most valuable thing we own, besides our house, is my violin. It's worth more than our car. Either car. In a few years, it may be worth more than both cars put together.

17) The one thing that cracks me up more than anything else in the world is word humor. Like, pig latin. Or Wixing up Merds. (go ahead, go ahead, say it out loud. you know you want too!) They're called Spoonerisms, after a Reverend Gentleman of the same name who was famous for them. It's actually a family trait-- this fascination with witty wordplay. When we were kids we used to to it all de thime. I mean, do it all the time. It used to drive my mother absolutely batty. She ended up charging us a quarter every time she heard us wix up merds-- purely out of self-defence. (* is cracking up at how funny "wixing up merds" sound in my head*)

18) Apparently I have a really hard time thinking up 25 things about myself.

19) I raised rabbits as a middle schooler. We ended up butchering and eating them. I was glad to see them go, and enjoyed the rabbit stew with gusto. I don't know what that says about the normalcy (or lack thereof) of my childhood developement. I don't think I want to know.

20) I love foot rubs.

21) I have a secret dream of winning this online photography contest one day. I've submitted, but never won. I'll probably just keep trying.

22) I have a secret dream of one day seeing my actual published work on a library shelf. I've written about ten children's picture books and submitted them to dozens of publishers, dozens of times, but never got anywhere. I will probably also keep on trying with this one.

23) I usually give up much more easily than that. On pretty much everything. Some might call it "lack of perserverence". I prefer to think of it as the shotgun approach to life. If you try enough different things, you're bound to succeed in a few.

24) I'm married to a man who believes in a Class A #1 sniper (or whatever the proper term would be) approach to life. Believe it or not, these two do actually work fairly well together.

25) Thankfully.

This was way harder to do than I thought, so I'm not gonna perpetuate the burden by tagging anyone. BUT. If it looks like fun to you and you wanna try it, be my guest. Consider yourself tagged. Especially you, Sue, and you, Laurie. What can I say? I'm curious. :D