No Tagbacks

I have been "tagged" by Kate and Chris to write about five things most people don't know about me.

1. When I was a kid, I tried to be a nerd and failed.
At various times in my childhood, I tried really hard to do very nerdy things. I collected comic books for about three months, bagged and boarded like a good nerd, and then got bored. I took up magic for about six months and got tired of that too. In junior high I joined the Math Club, the Social Studies Club, and tried to get into Ultima - but lost interest in all of it. Eventually I found theatre and had to settle for just being weird.

2. My mom believed my birth was foretold by God.
She was an incredibly religious woman (who died a few years ago - you can read all about that here). When my dad and she started trying to have kids, they failed for a long, long time. Then one day my mom was playing the organ at church during an altar call and an older lady she did not know came up to her and said, "God just showed me a vision of you holding a baby with black curly hair and he told me to tell you 'be patient, he has heard your prayers.'" Two weeks later my parents found out about my brother being available for adoption. He was born with blonde hair. At the same time, she found out she was pregnant with me, and seven months later I was born...with black curly hair (that later all fell out).

3. I really love Benji.
When I was a kid I was obsessed with the Benji movies, especially "For The Love of Benji." I once broke down crying in the middle of a church service because earlier that day I had decided to play outside instead of watching "For The Love of Benji" on TV. (My dad took me outside, found out why I was crying, and, I'm sure, immediately decided I was a homosexual.) The recent films, with some lame dog pretending to be Benji, look absolutely horrible, but I still like the idea of an expressive little mutt dog who knows what the deal is and takes care of business.

I love you.

4. I once found a truckload of Nestle chocolate products in a dumpster and kept all of it.
It was in a dumpster at the campground where my family used to go near Kerr Lake in NC. I have no idea why I was digging around in a dumpster, or why there was so much chocolate in there, but I found three grocery bags full of candy bars, cans of Nestle Quik, bags of Tollhouse chocolate chips, and boxes of baking chocolate. When I went to college (probably ten years later), we were still using some of the Nestle Quik I found.

5. Cotton balls make me want to die.
I use Q-tips every day of my life, but I can't touch cotton balls. The texture gives me the willies. Just thinking about them makes me want to throw up. Please do not make me touch a cotton ball. I would rather die by stabbing, burning, or drowning than live by falling into a vat of cotton balls.

I hate you.