Thank you to Andrea over at No More Decorators for the meme tag, and I apologize for the long delay in getting to it.
Seven Random Facts About Me.
1. My elbows are defective so I can’t completely straighten my arms. And I have an odd bony bump on the top of each foot. My doctor says these are just some of the things that make me me.
2. I once started a magazine just so I could interview Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) for the inaugural issue.
3. I used to be bilingual – English and German – but it wore off when I was about four.
4. I met Henry Morgantaler, the famous abortion provider, at his trial when I was about 13. I shook his hand on the steps of a Montreal courthouse. I shook Paul Anka’s hand too, a couple of years later at the Ottawa Ex. Paul Anka’s big hit was “You’re having my baby. What a lovely way of saying what you’re thinking of me.”
5. I’m not allergic to anything, but I throw up if peanut butter gets in my mouth.
6. I am always early or exactly on time. I cannot bear to be late. Being late causes me to break out in hives.
7. I got fired once for being a woman. I urged the boss to think up a better reason for firing me, but he insisted it was because it was a man’s job, so I took his sorry sexist ass to the Human Rights Commission and won.
Okay, now the fun part, where I get to subject other people to doing the Meme! I’m going to name a couple of people who don’t have blogs, as well as some who do. If I name you and you are currently blogless, please either start a blog or do your Meme responses in the comments. And don’t forget, you each have to tag seven more people.
1. I received my fourth little brother on my first day of school and NOT the replacement I had ordered for my younger sister.
2. I have so many driving issues that it often takes longer to plan a route than to reach the destination. I drive almost every day.
3. I turned my first heel when I was seven. Piqued the interest of all you non-knitters didn’t I?
4. I have experienced my own ‘super human’ strength.
5. Once I find a restaurant dish that I like it is almost impossible to get me to order anything else. Fortunately I live in a city with lots of great places to eat.
6. I bought my first cat when I was 5. My father got back at the salesman by coaxing me to name him with the vendor’s much-loathed and mostly secret second name. . . which I announced to the whole (small) village over and over again in my childish treble.
7. As soon as our first child could talk she spoke of the two little girls that would be coming to live at our house. Not really ‘about me’ but it kills me how much this story creeps out her two younger sisters.
Assuming I am THAT Grace, Grace
Seven random facts about me:
1. I’m a hydrophobic Pisces : I almost drowned when I was four, and since then I don’t go into the water unless I can see the bottom.
2. I’m a natural hermit. Without the crab part, mostly. I think being an only child has something to do with it, paradoxical as that may sound. I also hate to bug people about helping me with stuff, which I suppose is par for the course for a hermit.
3. Our cottage is in Kazabazua. The cottage is no great hell, but I love the sound of “Kazabazua”.
4. There’s a bicycle in my shed that my wife hasn’t used in five years – or two bikes that haven’t been used in five years, if you count mine.
5. I’m easily distracted by small shiny obje —- look, a kitty!
6. In 16 years at our cottage, I got hot and inebriated enough to jump into the Gatineau River only once. (see #1)
7. I’m always anxious to please – do you want me to write another seven facts? Or is seven enough? Are you sure?
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Re. tagging seven more people:
Sorry, ain’t gonna happen — see #2
(besides, I don’t even personally know seven bloggers…)
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Re. blogging vs commenting: my wannabe blog is on hiatus…
Gilles
Those were all so interesting. How else would we get to read about Morgantaler and defective elbows in one post?
1. Part of me lives in Ottawa. Part of me roams a mythical dreamscape that centers around a place coincidentally not unlike this one.
2. I am part-mythical, part-totemic, part-wild. And mostly dog.
3. I’ve been charged by an adult bison. And lived. True story.
4. I’ve eaten adult bison. But not the same one.
5. There is no fifth thing. With Elgin Street Irregulars, there never is…
6. I have a huge affection for saskatoons. Sixty times more ambrosial than blueberries, no matter what easterners think.
7. I only rarely answer memes, and never yet have passed one on…
1) I have broken the “ring” toe on my right foot three times…I think it is because I have feet with lonnnng toes that look like fingers.
2)I rush home every night so that I can watch Y&R…thank God for time shifting…because otherwise, I would have to be there by 4:30 and that is a bit early to be leaving work.
3) When I was a teenager, my mother used to take me with her to Waffle meetings (slightly left of NDP) but the most memorable moment of going was having some guys throw a quarter at me from a moving car window and yell “call me when you are 16” as I walked in the door…I was really deep back then.
4) I didn’t get my driver’s license till I was 29 because I had an accident with a stolen car when I was 16. Also, I am a huge speeder.
5) I love trashy romance novels.
6) I am terrified that I have early onset Alzheimers because my memory is terrible…both long and short, which I hear is a good thing. But I still worry all the time about it.
7) I forget what I was going to write here.
I was disapointed that I wasn’t on the initial list of 7 people to describe 7 random facts. I’m sure Deb or Kerry will add me to their list of 7 people. I’m not usually much for these things as I can’t stand most vira/chain letter type Internet trends – but suprisingly, I like this one.
Techwood, you can have my spot. Enjoy!
By all means TW, jump in and tell us 7 random facts about yourself. Same goes for anyone else who wants to do it. The more the merrier!
I’m really enjoying the responses so far.
Grace, you had four little brothers AND a little sister by the time you started school? That’s crazy. (I love the story about your oldest daughter and the two little girls. Was this an isolated incident?)
Gilles, I had no idea you were a hermit. You always seemed pretty sociable to me. I love saying Kazabazua too, and would buy a cottage there in a heartbeat just for the pleasure of saying it more often.
Coyote, I’m intrigued by the adult bison theme that seems to run through your life. It’s okay not to have a fifth thing, but have you considered having two seventh things to compensate for it? (By the way, there’s a saskatoon berry tree in the southwest corner of Dundonald Park across from the Somerset beer store.)
Deb, I wrote today’s post just for you. (And I’m curious to know if you were flattered by the quarter-thrower.)
Robin, that was sneaky!
Zoom, One year and one day later a new sister appeared! I had 8 sibs when I was 10. As for the two little girls, she spoke often about the ‘other little girl’ who was coming until her second sister was born and not again after. She is very intuitive and has rescued a couple of people by going TO them when they were in trouble. You can’t lie to her, ever!
7 Random Things About TechWood
1. I’m a paranoid social butterfly. I will easily share with others deep thoughts and personal information in a one-on-one or group setting. However, I hate most aspects of being tracked electronically or information gathering by those that are going to store it away.
2. I’m a workaholic entrepreneur and believed that charity starts at home. I started working at 11 and owned my first registered business by the age of 14. When I was younger I collected bottles door to door under the premise that I was going to take myself to the Ottawa Ex or buy a clock-radio for my bedroom. I chose the Ottawa Ex. If I ever came into bazillions, I’d be a very generous philanthropist.
3. I’m extremely liberal minded and that everything in life should be consumed in moderation, including moderation.
4. I believe that certain people have a charisma and magnetism about them that attracts “odd” people, events, and experiences into their lives. I think my family has been blessed/cursed with this more than others.
5. I love driving and got my temporary drivers license on my 16th birthday. I received my drivers license 4 months later on the first try. I have been at ease driving in the most difficult cities in north-america (NY, Los Angeles, etc.) Now that Iv’e lived in in a rural community for past 6 years I find Ottawa too congested from a traffic perspective.
6. I have met more celebrities than all of my friends combined. In most cases I didn’t recognize who they were until somebody else told me who they were.
7. I firmly believe that the decline of civilization started in the 50’s and that future generations will hate us for our rampant consumption of resources and what we’ve done to the planet. I also believe that every time someone shops at Walmart they are supporting the death of future generations.
Cheers!
1. When I was 10 I had a really serious fall off my bicycle. I broke my thumb and tore ligaments in my knee and broke the kneecap and the knee got horribly infected and I still have the scars and I didn’t find out about the extent of the knee damage for several years because at the time everyone was more concerned with my hand. The big secret is that I did not disclose how the accident happened for more than a decade. I was pretending my banana seat bicycle was a horse and I had tied a skipping rope as reins to the big tall handle bars and was steering this way. My “horse” saw a snake and shied. As I made my “horse” buck and rear up in fright, my front wheel got stuck between two rocks and I went through the wheel as I fell.
2. I am afraid of fish. I am so afraid of fish I won’t open my eyes underwater when I swim because one might be in front of me and attack me.
3. I’m 38 and still don’t have my driver’s license. I think its a combination of the suicide seat experiences, and a recurring nightmare I had as a child where I’d fall asleep in the backseat of the car, wake up to find dad had disappeared and I had to drive the car home.
4. My favorite movie of all time is The Big Chill and it has been my favorite since it came out. I was definitely born in the wrong era to identify so strongly with it as a young teen. I always get along better with end of the era boomers.
5. I’m a strong environmentalist and anticonsumerist but I have a secret love affair with disposable baby wipes. I don’t want them to clean babies, but if I could, I’d clean my entire house with these disposable prewetted paper towels. I swear they’re dipped in solvent – they’ll clean anything!
6. I hate the telephone and my rational self flees as soon as I’m on the phone. I assume the person on the other end is making faces at everything I say. I’m afraid of videophones though, because then I’d have to brush my hair before I answered the telephone.
7. I was little I thought I was part of a huge experiment and my reaction to things was being tracked so every once in a while I’d do the exact opposite of what I wanted to do just to mess with the results. I also thought my clothing was bugged and tried to pee quietly.
Kerry, you are hilarious. I have a bike story too for the next time we get together…remind me, because I will probably forget
Kerry – I was going to tell a story that had you in it but figured it would be too revealing (on my part) and likely too shocking for zoom’s readers. It had to do with a Kenmore and a blackmail attempt at the dinner table – I think you can guess it, but please don’t make any guess attempts online!
*snicker* Here’s one that isn’t so personal. Remember when all the bike racks fell on your face at school? I sold admission to the kids on Beaverbrook to see your face. We (me and Julie A???) bought chocolate bars at the Macs and I think we bought you a cheapo one, but I might have added that to the memory just to assauge my guilt over exploiting your pain. Ah such a wholesome childhood!
I remember the Kenmore story too. I wasn’t there, but I heard it through the grapevine (mom) and thought it was hilarious.
I always thought it was a Hoover though.