Eleven

My friend Alyson tagged me in her post, and since I’ve been a little neglectful of my blog lately (“lately” here meaning “an embarrassingly long time”), it provides the little kick in the derriere I need to open up that New Post window!

First Things First… The Rules:

• You must post the rules.
• Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
• Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
• Tag eleven people and link them on your post
• Let them know you’ve tagged them!

Eleven Fun Facts:

1. Did I ever mention that I met Dick Van Dyke once? (That sound you hear is fifty people simultaneously rolling their eyes.)

2. Paul and I have different memories of meeting each other for the first time. He says we met at his brother Matt’s apartment a few days before classes began his freshman year at Harding. I don’t remember that at all. I remember running up behind him on the front lawn while he was playing volleyball and throwing my arms around his waist in a somewhat overly enthusiastic hug, only to find out when he turned around that it wasn’t Matt after all. (I’m not sure why I thought it was appropriate to storm someone’s volleyball game to surprise hug him in the first place!)

3. If I could live in any fictional universe, I would live in Middle Earth, in Rohan. I would braid my hair and ride horses every day and learn to fight with a sword. I would build a cottage on the edge of Fangorn Forest and sit by the fire at night, planning long journeys to see Hobbiton and Minas Tirith and Mirkwood. But I would not cook. Adventurers don’t cook.

4. I am totally done being pregnant. But I would definitely consider adopting someday.

5. I used to be addicted to World of Warcraft. Every moment I wasn’t playing, I was looking forward to playing. I concocted an elaborate back story for my character and lost myself completely in make believe. I had dreams in which I ran across Azeroth, pursued by bands of orcs. I had to quit for a while to reclaim my grip on reality. Now I’m playing another online role-playing game, Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’m enjoying it, but it stirs up no spark of the old madness. Maybe that kind of magic only happens with your first MMO.

6. The first food I ate after getting my braces off was corn on the cob. It is still the best corn on the cob I’ve ever tasted.

7. I can’t watch “America’s Funniest Home Videos” while I work out. Every time something makes me laugh, I stop moving.

8. I have heterochromia iridum in my eyes, but not the cool kind that makes each eye a different color. I have central heterochromia, where the iris is a different color right around the pupil than it is at the outside. Paul always says it looks like my eyes are rusting in the middle. Romantic, right?

9. Once, at one of my life’s lowest points, I was sitting in my car in a grocery store parking lot, crying and praying, and I begged God to give me some sign that He was with me, that I was not walking through the dark alone. The moment I stepped out of the car, it started snowing–big, fluffy flakes that kissed my upturned face and made me laugh through my tears. That was years ago, but every time it snows, I still remember the warmth and the joy and the feeling of being completely loved that flooded through me at that moment.

10. I love words! I collect them on my walls and shelves and doodle them in notebooks and admire them in other people’s writing. Sometimes one will pop into my head (“pusillanimous!”) and roll around in there until I figure out a place to use it.

11. I’ve always longed to go skydiving and experience the rush of flying through the sky on the wind, but I’d have to go tandem, attached to an instructor, because there is no way I could take that step out of the plane door. I’m a secret thrill-seeker wrapped in the pedestrian packaging of a pusillanimous wreck.

Here are the questions that Alyson posted for me to answer:

1. Would you rather be in prison for the rest of your life, or stranded on a deserted island with your closest loved ones for the rest of your life? (Assuming this is a tropical deserted island with plenty of food and such.)  Oh, deserted island, definitely. In fact, some days I would pay good money for someone to arrange it!

2. What was your biggest worry in high school? (Friends, grades, boys, acne, sports, something else?)  Boys. This boy, that boy, but mostly one boy who I had a crush on for four years! We finally dated the summer after we graduated.

3. If you had to be a character in a movie, who would you want to be? As you can tell from my #3 Fun Fact, I would love to be Eowyn from Lord of the Rings. Cooking isn’t her thing, either.

4. Would you choose an all-expense paid trip around the world (as many destinations as you want, for however long you want it to be, including your spouse and family if you want), or would you rather have $1 million cash here and now? It’s not very romantic, but I’d take the cash and pay off our student loans and mortgage. There would still be enough left to do some traveling, and I could enjoy it more knowing I didn’t have debt hanging over my head!

5. If you had to go a year and eat only 5 foods, what would you choose? (Let’s assume your nutritional needs are taken care of by a vitamin of some sort.) Sushi, grilled vegetables, ice cream, Zuppa Toscana soup, Hawaiian rolls. Hmmm… now I’m hungry.

6. What is your favorite physical feature on yourself? Well, I have lovely elbows, I’m told. Just kidding–I like my hands. They look like my mom’s.

7. What is your very first memory as a child? I was with my mom at the park and a man came up and asked my mom if he could take my picture. (It turned out he was from the local paper, and I ended up on the front page, playing on the playground in a patchwork dress my mom made. I wonder if she still has that somewhere?)

8. If you had to move to another country, which country would you choose and why? Scotland. Moors, kilts, cliffs, Scottish accents–need I say more?

9. What movie can you watch over and over and over again? Can I cheat and pick a series? If so, it’s definitely Harry Potter. If not, then Pride and Prejudice also gets a lot of replay time.

10. What is one job that you’d like to do, but can’t or wouldn’t because of circumstances? (circumstances such as: it doesn’t pay well enough, the hours are bad, you don’t live in a place where there’s a great need for marine biologists, you don’t have the body type to be a professional figure skater…) I’ve always wanted to be a writer. But most writers who aren’t J.K. Rowling fight hard for every word they publish, living pretty much hand-to-mouth–and I’m definitely no J.K. Rowling! I’d still like to write something, though, if only for myself.

11. What is your secret phobia? (I’m not talking spiders or being alone or public speaking, I’m talking about the weird and totally irrational one that you don’t like to admit to.) The King from the BK commercials. That guy creeps me out. I could totally imagine being stalked by a serial killer in a Burger King mask.

And here are my eleven questions for the people that I tag:

1. If you won a gift certificate good for a year’s service from either a maid or a private chef, which one would you choose?

2. Name something you’ve done that was totally out of character for you.

3. Imagine we discovered a life-sustaining planet and a way to get there in a five year space journey. If invited to go, would you be willing to leave behind your life on Earth to explore a new world? (Your family can go with you, of course.)

4. If someone gave you $500 on the condition that you somehow use it to help someone in need, how would you spend it?

5. What’s the worst movie you’ve ever seen?

6. If you lost your U.S. citizenship and had to relocate permanently to another country, where would you go? Why?

7. What’s your guilty pleasure?

8. Who would win in a street fight between the Black Eyed Peas and the Fugees?

9. If you could go back in time and change just ONE decision that you’ve made, what would it be? (I’m not talking about mistakes, but about a time you had to choose between two or more paths.)

10. What superpower would you like to have?

11. Do you have a weird body quirk? What is it?

This is who I’m tagging:

1. Kelly

2. Julie

3. Amy

4. Ada

5. Sarah

6. RosieBoo

7. Jessica

8. Phil

9. Jennifer

10. Silver Valley Girl

11. freebie

If I tagged you, don’t worry. There is no pressure at all. You can even just do part of the challenge, like the eleven fun facts! If you don’t do it, however, I’ll have to make up your fun facts, and I’m warning you–they will be EXTRA fun!