I'm It

Were I the sort to get tagged for memes all the time, I'd probably be more reticent about doing them, but since I'm not, and Nels just did me the honor, what the heck...this'll be as good a way as any of breaking the blog silence.

I will say that doing memes at a pseudonymous blog is trickier than at my old name-up-front space, and since some readers there are readers here, you may know some of these things about me.

THE 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 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. (Ok, 'cept I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you like the meme, consider yourself tagged).
   

THE FACTS

1. Not only was I a fundamentalist Christian for much of my pre-independent life, I was a Christian performer. My first gig, at four, was to sing "Christian Cowboy" at several churches around the area, complete with boots, cowboy hat, a suede fringe vest and yup, you guessed it, matching chaps. Heh.
2. My brother-in-law's new father-in-law (got that?) told the entire table at the rehearsal dinner Friday evening that according to Vietnamese tradition, my earlobes should tell Willow very good things about me: that I will be rich (still waiting on that), and also faithful (one outta two ain't bad).
3. I have a long history of dating artists, all of them more talented than me: a piano prodigy in high school, a beautifully-voiced soprano was "my first," my first fiancee was the most affecting actress I'd ever had the pleasure of seeing in person to date, my last girlfriend was also a soprano, and Willow is a writer. Aside from playing piano, I have aspired to all of these art forms with mediocrity--paging Dr. Freud?
4. I never got straight A's before graduate school. This was always considered a sign of underachieving, since I was apparently allergic to math and science homework, but aced most of the exams. Undergrad B's though were B's I worked for.
5. In a paradoxically related fact, in the many many standardized tests I have taken in my life, I have never scored better on verbal or writing than on math or logic. This includes the Praxis Exam (nee' National Teachers' Exam) that I took as a backup option after I finished my dissertation in English.
6. I am deeply ashamed of the fact that I am irrationally afraid of the elderly (although my definition of the elderly gets older and older all the time). First, I wasn't really terribly close to any of my grandparents, and both grandfathers died when I was young (and my remaining grandmother still isn't 80). Plus, as a child and teenager, I witnessed an oddly high number of older people dying unexpectedly in my presence, and so I think I have to work a little harder than some to be a normal person around octogenarians.
   
7. Both of my thumbs are double jointed, which means I can pull my thumbs back and bend them downward so the tips of my thumbs can lock behind and below the knuckle of my index finger. Most people find this to be absolutely disgusting.
8. I cannot stand suspenseful films--Even mildly suspenseful moments in TV shows make me have to leave the room to pee (a likely excuse). Particularly the case are moments of dramatic irony (intended plot devices, overly cliched plotting, or times when I know the ending already), when I know something bad is about to happen. The first time I remember a suspenseful moment in a film that caused this reaction was Old Yeller, after I had already read the book in school. The predictability factor explains to me why I absolutely love to watch live sports on television--because what happens next is rarely formulaic.
   
9. EXTRA BONUS FACT: We subscribe to a huge number of periodicals in our house, mostly magazines and academic journals. But of all of the ones we get, I consume none with the immediacy, fervor, regularity, and thoroughness than Entertainment Weekly, which I have usually read cover-to-cover within 48 hours of its arrival.

OK, the extra bonus fact will stand in for tagging 8 people. More posts before long.