Me Me Me Me Meme

I was tagged and I feel torn. It is nice to be noticed, but I dread the part where I have to tag other people. What if they get mad? What if they laugh and say "ha! You little worm, I will ignore your puny tagging efforts"? What if they think I mean grafitti and I come home to "nonlinear girl is a big nerd" spray-painted across my front walk? I guess I can worry about that later. For now, six things about me:


1. I was Warren G. Harding's campaign manager.
2. I was once chased across the room by a mechanical scorpion.
3. I scaled K2 carrying a giant teak cross.
4. I'm intercontinental when I eat french toast.
5. I dated Rudyard Kipling in high school.
6. I used to play professional basketball.

Ok, only 2 is true. And 4, I guess.

Let's try again:

1. I hate that I have to wear glasses, but I am perversely proud of how bad my vision is. Whenever I talk about vision with people, I hear "oh, my eyes are so bad." They are never as bad as mine.

2. I have only been to a casino once, and that was for work. At the time I worked for a federal agency, evaluating States, Tribes and other organizations receiving federal funds. Along with two colleagues, I travelled to Wisconsin to talk with representatives of a Native American tribe. (I've forgotten which one, but they have a casino, and not much else.) The only place to stay in the town was at the Tribe run casino-"resort". Really it was a motel with a casino attached. It was February, and the land next to the motel was filled with ice sculptures from the previous weekend's winter festival. When we checked in, the clerk gave us each ten dollars worth of chips. I am sure that accepting the $10 broke some kind of rule, though we were allowed to accept gifts under, I think, $20 in value. The nice folks at a Tribe in New Mexico gave me a coffee mug, at another I got a calendar from the Tribe's child care program.

After putting our bags away, my coworkers and I headed to the casino to lose our free money. We chose slots. I played until I'd won and then lost an additional $20. I walked out with the free $10. My female coworker played until she lost the $10. My male coworker put in $20 or $30 bucks of his own, but he was the big winner of the night. I'll admit that when his machine started dinging and the coins started rolling out, it was kind of exciting. He ended up winning a couple hundred dollars. But did he buy dinner for my other coworker and me? Noooo. Bastard.

The thing I remember most about the trip was that my female coworker's mother had recently been hospitalized for depression and we had a long conversation about a New Yorker article on the renewed popularity of shock treatment as therapy for major depression.

3. I asked my now-husband to marry me. By postcard. Lucky for me he said yes.

4. I find it hard to pass up a chance to have chocolate ice cream with peanut butter in it. Even if I am full, if it is offered I can not refuse. If it is available in an ice cream shop, I can't get something else.

5. I have watched every Firefly episode at least three times.

6. I have tried and failed to learn to knit and play bridge.

6.5 Really that first paragaph should have been thing 1 about me: I am lousy about chain-letters.

With that in mind, I tag
Life Without Instructions
The Small 'Stute Voice

They are people I know in real life and if they decide they don't want to participate I won't be upset. I hope they can forgive me. I also tag Bridgermama because I know she's already been tagged and I told her she could list me in her tag list. But that's it. I am usually very good about following instructions, but I just can't.