Alright, you asked for it.

I was tagged!

Salty tagged me in a comment the other day (I've had, like, no time! I swear!), and according to the rules, I now have to link to Salty, post 7 random or weird facts about myself, and then link/comment to 7 more bloggers who then will have to spread the love. Like Salty said, it's kind of like a chain letter, but with less of a pyramid scheme slant. Normally I see this kind of thing as lame and silly (like those emails that say you have to forward them to 20 people or you'll have bad luck for 20 years). And by now you know that I detest talking about myself, so you know that I'd never do it. Not in a million years. Not me.

Let's get started!

1. I don't like rice. I'll eat it, but I just don't like it very much, and I certainly would always prefer a noodle or pasta dish to a rice dish. If I have the option of potatoes instead I will always choose potatoes--they really are one of my favorite foods, although I try eat more nutritious plants when I can.

2. I have a lot of scary dreams. My worst one came when I was 22. It was about standard poodles the size of Clydesdale horses. They had huge fangs and giant pegasus wings and they talked in sinister voices. Some were all black, and they were the mean ones. The others were all white, and they were even meaner. They had taken over a city and were chasing me and some other people all over town, terrorizing us. I most vividly remember hiding in a giant warehouse full of cardboard boxes while the poodles stalked around, growling and telling me all the ways they were going to tear my body to shreds but not let me die.

3. I was one of those internet-addicted dorky rpg kids for a few years in high school. And it was fun, in a ridiculous kind of way, and it was a way for me to let out my creativity and dorkiness, when I felt like my environment at high school was stifling and mildly oppressive. I found this emailing list that was based around a tabletop roleplaying game about vampires and started reading the stories people wrote--and some of those stories were really great and really well-written. Then I started posting on it. Then I found out that all the people on the mailing list had a chat room, so I checked it out. I even had internet "ldrs." LOL.

4. I was also, simultaneously, one of those youth group kids for a few years (I'll go into the reasons why this an the internet-addiction thing happened and how they relate to each other as the Legend of Miss A unfolds). Some friends invited me to church, and I went, and then as I kept on going I became a self-righteous, card-carrying Catholic Life Teen dork. I went through all the motions and had lots of fun and even got to see Pope John Paul II. Talk about a desperate outcry for social acceptance... I wonder what my youth group leaders would think if they found out I'm an atheist now.

5. Smart as I am, I almost failed out of college. I still don't know how I didn't even get a warning, but I got a 1.7 GPA one semester. Clearly, I was allowing myself to be distracted by..... drugs! Not heavy drugs, mind, mostly just a lot of pot occasionally mixed with booze or opium. The heavy drugs came later, and I was more of a dabbler than a user. Still, after I transferred to my school in New Orleans I was a 4.0 student and made the dean's list every semester, even in the face of Hurricane Katrina! My graduating GPA was still a 2.97 though. Lame.

6. I love singing. I often deny it, but I really love it, and sometimes I wish there was a choir for grown-ups that I could join. When I was in high school I decided that I liked music and wanted to sing, so I joined the choir. Under Sister Mary Karita's tutelage, I got pretty good. I went to the state music contest (which was really not a contest, more of a do-your-thing-and-get-rated-on-it) and got great scores. Then when I went to college I started hanging out with PDF, who could put the American Idols to shame. I got self conscious under the constant hail of his well-meaning taunts and I really haven't sung since.

7. When I think about myself from an outside perspective, I generally imagine myself as a cartoon girl wandering around in the real world. Not like Roger Rabbit, but like...like if Sally Brown was 27 and wandering around New York. This is, obviously, a function of not wanting to grow up and resisting the looming anvil of reality overhead. I like the bubbly little cartoons in my imaginary habitat, it's what keeps me me. It's why I named my plant and talk to him (he's Phil the philodendron). It's why I put up pink curtains in my apartment. It's my green coat and my goofy multicolored polka dot galoshes. I love all things rainbow striped.

So that's it....my turn to tag. I really only know four of y'all from actual real life, but I've been reading your blogs, so here goes anyway. Loud Paper, Queen of Crows, Dawn, Jay, NYC Ponderings Chick, Quarter Life Crisis Girl....consider yourselves tagged!

And PS, I know I was supposed to blog about speed dating today; I'm a little behind.... Believe me, I wouldn't be this far along if I actually had a life!