Monday, June 11, 2007

Help! I've been Tagged!

So I come in to work Monday morning, planning to be really productive today and crank out lots of deliverables to make all of my customers happy.

Yeah, right.

I see that Saint Pat has tagged me with the Eight Random Things meme. It wasn't enough to post Six Weird Things or to come up with 100 Things - no, now I have to figure out eight more things that I haven't already told you about myself. But: it's better than actually getting work done, right? :-)

So the rules are:


  1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
  2. Each player starts 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.
  5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.


Here goes:
  1. I have learned two interesting things about my body recently. One is that stress gives me muscle spasms. The weirdest - and most excruciating - place for a stress-induced muscle spasm is the muscle across the back of the skull, but a close second is the muscle that attaches the jaw to the skull. The other is that if I let myself get dehydrated, I get a headache. Since I started treating headaches with water and a little food rather than immediately popping painkillers, I've had some success in knocking them out. I thought that was pretty cool.
  2. I get annoyed when people call me a flautist instead of a flutist. When pressed, I like to say that I don't flout anything, but you probably know me well enough to know that I tend to flout, well, just about everything! But I still prefer flutist.
  3. I wear very little jewelry. On a daily basis I wear a watch and an opal ring that my mom gave me when I graduated from college. Many days I wear a cross necklace, usually a rose quartz cross on a silver chain. I have a St. Bridget cross that is my favorite, but the chain keeps breaking on it. When I play flute jobs, I tend to wear a tasteful and understated necklace, perhaps earrings, and my gold flute pin on my lapel or blouse.
  4. Although I live just a couple miles from the ocean, I don't really like going to the beach. In the summers here, it's hot and humid, and the beach is sandy and salty and jellyfishy and crowded. I do love to go down in the fall and early winter, and walk along the boardwalk or the sand when it's quiet. And I love to listen to the surf, to watch the breakers roll in, to feel in touch with the pulse of the world. But a summer day at the beach, getting sandy and sweaty and sunburnt? No thanks!
  5. I find that I'm losing my sweet tooth. I enjoy sweets now and then, but often find myself preferring to have a second helping of the meal rather than dessert. I love simple things - fresh strawberries and cherries, a juicy peach, shortbread rather than uber-decadent gooey chocolate. When I had periodontal surgery last summer, for the first 24 hours I was only allowed to eat cold soft foods. And I learned about 8 hours in that almost all of the cold soft foods that are not nasty are sweet. By 4pm that day, after smoothies, jello, and milkshakes, I was desperately craving anything that wasn't sweet. I was so pleased to find half an avocado in the refrigerator, and I inhaled it. For the next week or so, I had half an avocado every morning for breakfast, and the people here in the office would shake their heads and laugh at me when I'd take it out of the refrigerator.
  6. I miss several cartoons: The Tick, PowerPuff Girls, Dexter's Lab, and most especially Animaniacs. I am absolutely thrilled that Futurama will have new episodes again next year. Woo hoo!!!
  7. I have here at my desk at work six technical books, a bible, and nine books of poetry. Not counting the copy of Spenser's The Faerie Queene that is under my desk. Hmm - I seem to be missing a Book of Common Prayer here. And I should have a Hymnal 1982 as well. Maybe a Lesser Feasts and Fasts for good measure. :-)
  8. Okay, now I'm really digging into the goofy stuff. I love to send Christmas cards. Most years I send out between 120 and 150. I don't get nearly that many in return, but that's not what it's about. I consider it a kind of ministry, letting people know that I'm thinking about them. I know I should send them letters or cards or emails more often than just at Christmastime, especially because I usually am thinking about them throughout the year. But it's something I really enjoy, and it's so wonderful to have somebody say thank you or tell me it really lifted their spirits.
Whew. I thought that was going to be the hard part, but now I have to tag eight people who Pat didn't already tag! So I'm going to go with (in alphabetical order)...
  1. Ann+ of One Wild and Precious Life
  2. Eric+ of Bread and Wine
  3. Kate of When I Was a Boy
  4. Milton of Don't Eat Alone
  5. mompriest+ of Seeking Authentic Voice
  6. Mother Laura of Junia's Daughter
  7. PureChristianIThink of Rebel Without a Pew
  8. Sue of Inner Dorothy - hey Sue, do UCC pastors put plusses after their names?
So hop to it, y'all! And have a great week!