I’ve been tagged (and so have you)
. . . by Diana Peterfreund, author of Secret Society Girl (which her publisher recently expanded from a duo to a quattro–congratulations, Diana!). Anyway, back to me. I’m supposed to reveal five little-known facts about myself. Whoo, boy. I’m already guilty of revealing a little too much on this blog at times, but why stop now?
1. I met my husband when I was a trial lawyer and he was the lawyer on the other side. It has been alleged, though never proven, that we may have fallen in love while still in the midst of the case. Apparently that sort of thing is frowned upon (go figure), so I ended up withdrawing from the case. How’s that for juicy??
2. I sucked my thumb until high school. (Oh, man, am I really saying this stuff in print?)
3. I wet the bed until junior high. The boy I had a crush on came over to my house one day after school, and sat down on my bed and heard the protective plastic mattress cover crinkle. He asked, “What’s that?” and I nearly barfed.
4. I am the only person in the history of my law school to pass out during Moot Court. One moment I was arguing my case to the judges, then the edges of my vision started to go dark, and next thing I knew my opponent was catching me and easing me to the floor. The judges said I could go ahead and take two minutes to lie there (I’m not kidding), but then I had to finish my argument. The odd thing is I ended up being the graduation speaker, and had a great time with that. So apparently my problem is with public argument, not public performance. Which may be why I’m not a trial lawyer anymore.
5. In college I mailed myself love letters and actually bought myself a TV and left it outside my door to surprise me. I have no idea whom I was trying to fool. Myself? My neighbors? My mailman? This was about the same time I took up smoking Virginia Slims, even though I never learned to inhale. I just liked to light them and smell them and take a few semi-puffs whenever I sat down to write my English papers, because for some reason smoking and drinking a big bowl of half coffee, half milk felt very sophisticated and very writerly. I am one big freak.
Thanks a lot, Diana. There go all my blog readers.
Someone else’s turn to embarrass/reveal themselves. I tag Bookseller Chick, Living Read Girl, and Heather Harper. (I would have tagged Liz B. Fuse #8, Kelly Herold, Eisha, and Jules, except all of them already revealed so much in their recent interviews on Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. So they’re out for now.)
And as a special bonus for the readers of this blog (if you’re still here), I tag Annette, Patrick, Herb, Barry, and Lizzie
[UPDATE] all of you to reveal here on this post five little-known facts about themselves. You might want to review Diana’s list first so you can see it’s not all about bed-wetting.
[UPDATE: I'm going to leave this up for a little while longer, because I'm so enjoying your lists!]
Technorati Tags: I’ve Been Tagged, Diana Peterfreund, Bookseller Chick, Living Read Girl, Heather Harper, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Thumb Sucking in High School, Bed Wetting in Junior High, Lawyers in Love, Moot Court, Embarrassing Secrets Recklessly Revealed
Hmmmm… 5 things WHO doesn’t know about me???
I’ll have to think about this…
Here’s one time when my brother is luckier than I am. I can think of ten things about him that are perfect for this, including his exwife posing in Hustler, discovered by his soldiers.
“Hey, I think that’s Sarge’s wife.”
Opens door, looks at magazine, “Yep that’s her.” hands magazine back and walks away.
Ooh, that’s good. I mean bad.
this is creepily like “truth or dare.”
robin, take it all back, get patrick to purge that tiny corner of your hard drive and we will all take an oath that we never, i mean never, read any of this post and therefore none of the above. you seem to have taken this assignment a bit too literally. i mean factoid #3 “wets bed in jr. high” is just a wee (pun intended) bit different than “blue used to be my favorite color.” no way i’m playin, oh no. okay, since you insist, one little known fact, “i’ve never posed for hustler.(i don’t care what patrick says!)”
1. I once sent in an audition tape for Survivor and didn’t get picked. — In my defense, a few days after I sent it, I discovered that they cancelled auditions and went with the ‘allstars’ season and my tape may have been thrown away.
2. My first girlfriend had to kiss me, because I was to nervous to lean in to kiss her.
3. I was in band through 8th grade. I was 1st chair trumpet even though I can’t sight read sheet music. 2nd chair would play it one time and then I would play it better than her once I heard it.
I’m still thinking…
Thanks for sharing, Robin! And, you’re right. I’ve bared too much of my own soul lately
Wow, Robin! I’m with Annette, I clearly took the wimp’s way out, here. I’m in awe of your bravery…
Uh, but if you think this is going to inspire me to get more personal, you’ve got another think coming.
Okay, fine. On my sixteenth birthday, I took a nosedive with a glass of OJ in my hand, and sliced my face open on the glass. 28 stitches, all the way to the bone. Now I have a four inch scar on my cheek/chin (can’t see it on my publicity photos, don’tcha just love Photoshop?) to show for my klutzyness.
Diana, now you’re talkin’!
4. Small world moment – I once lived with Scott Magoon, the illustrator featured on Seven Imposible Things, today/yesterday.
5. I broke my neck when I was 14 and spent 6 months in a neck brace.
(Annette, don’t make me search eBay for April ‘94)
Okay, RB, you shamed me into upping my game on my blog.
Mine are up.
And I’m not going anywhere, Robin.
Diana, I had a firecracker explode in my face the day before I took my senior pic. I definitely support the retouching of photos.
1. Due to my father’s twisted sense of humor, I spent the years up to high school honestly believing that Karl Marx was one of the Marx Brothers.
2. When I was five, I managed to fall UP a flight of stairs…and ram my knee into a strip of metal weather stripping on the front door, requiring a trip to the hospital for stitches.
3. In fourth grade, I thought that the “Three Investigators” series of books were true and spent a lot of time looking at maps of California, trying to find out where they took place.
And…that’s stupid enough.
Gee, thanks, Robin.
aww patrick, you’re sooo sweet.
In third grade I gave a boy named Kevin a can of Sprite to go out with me! He broke up with me when he finished drinking it!
I know no one asked me. I’m so ashamed.
(
Speaking of peeing a bed…
I once woke up in a hotel room to find my best friend standing on his bed, naked, because he pissed himself.
“I’m coming over.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am!”
Now, doing what any rational man would do in this situation, I got away from the naked man. Went over to his bed. Discovered the pee. Then flipped the mattress, destroying a wall light in the process.
Look, I’m not sleeping in the same bed as a naked man.
Molly, consider yourself tagged after the fact. I appreciate your story.
Annette, don’t be shy. You know you want to confess something.
Barry, you’re welcome, of course. How do you fall UP anything? Weird. That Marx Brothers thing is funny. Though very mean.
Heather, your list is way cool. But that makes sense, since you were the clear winner of Party Bingo last year. Your life is just so fabulously odd.
Patrick, I agree with you about not sleeping in the same bed as a naked man. It’s a sensible policy for anyone. Proves you would have done great on Survivor.
I think that all facts about me are little known but, here goes.
I designed concert material for Yo Yo Ma when Yo Yo Ma was something someone would say when they were calling to their mother.
I was thrown down stairs zipped up in a sleeping bag when I was 10. Never forgot that.
Saw Devo play outside my dorm during a thunderstorm. They never stopped playing.
I’m left-handed but, learned to play golf right-handed. I sucked. Learn to play golf left-handed. Still suck.
Recently discovered I have a separated right shoulder. It has been separated since birth. Hey, that explains the problem with golf.
Everything really weird stays locked in the little box in the dark corner of my mind.
Patrick, I agree with you about not sleeping in the same bed as a naked man. It’s a sensible policy for anyone.
You people don’t know what you’re missing.
Herb, I didn’t even realize it was possible to keep some things secret. You mean just because Diana says so I don’t have to tell everything embarrassing about myself? Hmm. I need to cogitate on that.
1) I’ve got a photographic memory. I can memorize random sequences of numbers very easily, but never tried memorizing pi because I’m not a dork, jeez!
2) I havn’t eaten chocolate in over eight years.
3) I’ve been drinking coffee since before I could talk.
4) I have a piece of gunpowder permanently embedded in one of my fingers, which is pretty amazing considering I had hundreds of pieces explode into my hand, and after weeks of digging, this was the only one I couldn’t get out.
5) Everything I know I learned from The Simpsons and West Wing. Maybe I learned a little bit from all those years of school, but mostly TV.
You people don’t know what you’re missing.
Good point, Diana. Maybe I’ll amend my policy to drunk men who have recently pissed themselves and are jumping into my bed.
Molly, That’s awesome! I so would have dated you until I could determine if there was a second Sprite coming or not.
Annette, not as sweet as it sounds. I wasn’t the first boy she kissed. She got tired of waiting for me to make my move, so the kiss was proceeded by something like “Stop being such a wimp.”
Robin, of course I would have done well on Survivor. I win everything!
Lizzie, I’m so glad I tagged you, because I didn’t know a single one of those things.
Which makes me think I should have tagged everybody who reads this blog. Come on, people, tell us what you got.
Wow,haven’t been tagged since grade school! Well,I hope it’s okay to do the revealing here:
1) I have a Harry Potter scar. That is,it’s on my forehead in a V shape. When I was a toddler,my parents had a door taken out in their apartment but the hinges were left on the door frame. I was playing with a Fisher Price rolling item(my mom naturally remembers this better than me,so not sure about the toy)and I slipped and splat! Scared my mom half to death by running to her with my face covered in blood(head wounds are messy). To this day,I have a bit of a needle phobia and the source of that can be linked to my going for stitches from this incident.
2) I’ve been bitten by a dog twice. The first time,it was by a family friend’s Irish Setter,which taught me the valuable lesson of “never point your finger at a dog.” The second bite came from a white German Shepard that belonged to a neighbor,whose kid was walking the dog at the time(actually,it was more like the dog was walking the kid!). We had to call the ASPCA to find out if the dog had his shots,since our neighbor was being less than helpful. I like dogs,despite that,but cats are easier to take care:)
3) I went to see Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves by myself as an adult in a movie theater. It was the last time Disney released it theaterically(remember when they used to to that for all their classics?) and since it’s been my favorite cartoon film of all time,just had to go.
4)When I was a kid,I made dolls out of tin foil to play with. I had regular dolls but they always looked the same and it was easier to imagine different characters with tin foil. My tin foil creations were all females and one sided(one arm,one leg and flat). Don’t know if that means anything or not.
5) I had scarlet fever twice as a child,so the doctors thought my intelligence would be severely lacking. No worries there but I do throw like a girl:)
Oo, Lady T, so cool about the Harry Potter scar!
So, I’m assuming this means Annette has chosen the DARE.
Hmmm…
My favorite dare is always “chew a stick of butter,” but maybe you have a larger repertoire, Patrick.
happy to accept that dare as long as it’s embedded in a big ole’ tub of popcorn,umm, umm.
CHEW A STICK OF BUTTER?!?!?!?!
Remind me NEVER to play ToD with you, Robin. Clearly, all the kids I played with in middle school were bush league. It was always stuff like, “run around the back of the house with your shirt off” and stuff like that.
I have so enjoyed reading all these little known facts of the bloggers, and am so relieved I was not tagged so I don’t have to reveal anything myself.
I was not tagged but will throw in some unknown facts.
1. I have every one of the “original” Nancy Drew books except for #48 & #52. Still hunting for those two.
2. My best time for completing a Kakuro puzzel is 4 minutes 27 seconds, my average time is 7 minutes. (maybe I’m only doing the easy ones?) Yes, I’m a closet geek.
3. I once beat up a boy with my lunch box in 3rd grade.
4. I got to hold a real live Oscar. (But then I think you knew that one) Just thought I’d throw that one in since tis is the season. Who would have guess that Oscar would be so heavy? Might I suggest a low gold diet?
5. Robin was the oki for my blackbelt test. Which means she was the one I got to beat up. Did you guys know that she was the kind of person who would intentionally put herself in harms way for a friend? Guess this one was more about you than me.
Butter is a food group in my house.
Sometimes we put vegetables on it. Sometimes bread.
Sometimes we throw it at the people running around the house with their shirts off.
Deborah, you are so tagged. Come on, let’s hear it!
Michele, thanks for volunteering (see, Deborah?)! Great list, especially the Nancy Drew and lunchbox part. And it’s nice of you to mention my role as your oki, but really, it’s the job of every girl to help every other girl be strong. So I was happy to do my part.
Butter is also a food group at my house. My fiance loves my butter-and-brussels-sprouts soup. But we like it melty.
OK, I’ll do it, but then Annette has to also. I have to be careful so as to not jeopardize my protected secret identity, but here are a few tidbits:
1. In college, on a dare, I ate 7 eggrolls at a Chinese buffet. The manager then asked us to leave.
2. I have all my childhood Barbies and baby dolls in a box in my garage.
3. When I was 5 I was first runner up in a beauty pageant. I sang a song about ducks and wore a dress with ducks on it.
4. I’ve been a chronic insomniac since an infant.
5. I have had only 1 sip of coffee my entire life and haven’t had caffeine in 14 years.
6. My dogs have Holiday placemats for each of the Holidays.
7. I have a large collection of miniature statutes of Dachshunds.
Deborah, I cannot believe you were even thinking of holding out on us. And all the way to seven items! You’re hired!
Oh, I flippin’ love that you bought yourself a t.v. and left it as a gift for yourself. You rock.
OOps! Looking back I now realize I was supposed to only list 5. I got carried away in the cathartic nature of the task-you can just ignore any 2 you want.
Jules, nice of you to say so, since I see that as some pretty sad, lonely behavior for the sad, lonely girl I was in college. I feel such affection and sympathy for her. But I can’t say I fully understand her.
Deborah, you could have sent me fifteen more and I would have printed them all.
Deborah – I too have only had a sip of coffee in my whole life. I love saying to coffee-aholics, “I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life”, and watching their expressions….priceless!
Okay, so I’m late to the schmaltzfest.
1. One of the ways I worked my way through college was to be a magician’s assistant, where we did the School Assembly circuit (TOUGH audience!!!) I quit way too soon though, since I’m not rich and famous and Teller now is.
2. The very first time a boy kissed me I got a bloody nose. Remember that, Lali Muniz???
3. My very first steady boyfriend later turned into a She, which I didn’t know ’til 20 years later. Funny how I never could find another guy who enjoyed shopping for clothes like (s)he did, and couldn’t figure out why . . .
4. I have three unfinished novels sitting in a box somewhere. They’re all awful. A writer I’m not. At least not a fiction writer.
5. I finally figured out around the age of 49 what I wanna be when I grow up. I’m doing it now, though I’m still working on the growing up part.
BJ, love the list! Don’t know what to say about items #2 or 3. Both would lead to massive chocolate addiction, in my professional opinion. I’m glad to hear #5.
Wow how did you get all these people to tell all their secrets? Is this a club?
Cloudscome, that’s a very reasonable question, and I have no idea what to tell you. Apparently we all had a deep, deep need to tell these things about ourselves. It’s a club of TMI-ers, and I love it. Please join us.