Tagged! Eight Things About Me

The talented, and soon to be published, writer and funny blogger Kim Stagliano tagged me to complete this post.

Dah da de duummm.............Eight Things About Me

1. Like Kim, I am a righty with special lefty skills. Unlike Kim, I brush my teeth left-handed. I was ambidextrous with coloring until first grade. Then I guess it was beaten out of me. Just kidding about that last part.

2. I was born in Florida, grew up in Massachusetts, and spent my formidable teen years in Nashville, TN, but managed to escape without an accent of any sort. I can pull out the Baahston accent when talking about the doawhg faahting (sorry, that's my bad attempt at phonetically spelling the Boston pronunciation of "the dog farting"). My sister and I once had a contest to see who could do the Boston accent longer when staying at my dad's house in Holbrook for the weekend. We were inspired by the Beltrimini girls who lived across the street who raawhked those accents! Oh, for more on this see this wicked awesome site I just found on Google. I am actually better at doing a Boston accent than a southern one, though the other day a cashier asked me where I was from with my twang. Huh? Must have doing some slow talking that day. My southern relatives could never understand anything I said with my "Yankee" fast-talking (read: normal speech).

3. I also managed to escape Massachusetts and Nashville without big hair. My sister tried hard to get me to follow her lead, but I couldn't embrace an orb of bangs. The worst I did was bowing to Mom's pressure to get a perm. I had several "body waves" over those hellish teen years. And just so you know, a body wave is the same thing as a regular perm where I had them done. Today, I embrace my flat, limp hair, as if it were my own. Oh wait, it is my own. Maybe I should get someone else's beautiful waves as extensions?

4. I have what my family calls "Hagan toes". These were named after the first distant relative who discovered that his second and third toes were sort of webbed. Or maybe they were named after his wife/sister. Haha, just kidding. I think my great-grandfather, who wasn't married to a close relation, had them and coined the term. The toes are separate for the most part, but the last little section by the foot is connected. OK, ignore the blurry pic and bad chipping nail polish. Warning scary freak toes to follow!



I knew a guy in high school who had the same toe configuration, but I didn't find out until we were in college and having a drunken hot tub toe comparison. Good thing our relationship didn't go far, or we might have found out were were cousins. It's all in the toes!

5. I've had lots of different pets. The animal frenzy started when I was a toddler in Florida, with tiny frogs I'd carry around all day, then bring inside and try to keep in the bathroom sink. Those never stayed around long for some reason. Flebster and Webster, the ducks. Rabbits. Guinea pigs. Gerbils. Hamsters. Rats. Parakeets. Fish. I really wanted goats, but had to settle for visiting the goats some friends of my parents had. In college, my friends surprised me with a tree frog for Christmas (they knew about my frog love, as I was fond of all things froggy). His name was Norwood, and he was very nice, but required live food, which was not always fun. Since Norwood, I've stuck to the more common pets. I have to remind myself not to get sucked in by the cute critters every time I visit the pet store with Harrison, though. (To self: You can barely keep up with the litter box as it is! Just say no to animals that require the changing of cedar bedding!)

6. I was the runner-up in the 7th grade spelling bee. I went to get out of English class for a few minutes. It worked. I got to stay out for the entire class. I can't remember what the word I lost on was. The boy who beat me went on to misspell saltine and I shook my head in disbelief. SALTINE! Other dorky contests: I read the most books in the year in my sixth grade reading class, and I won by a landslide.

7. I was on the Safety Patrol in fifth grade. I don't know why my fifth grade teacher chose me, the shyest child in the class, to don the orange plastic sash with metal badge, but I got to leave class five minutes early and always got a primo spot on the bus, leaving my backpack and trumpet on the last seat before I went on to my exciting job. "Walk!" "Slow down!" Yeah. I've still got it, baby! (I don't play the trumpet anymore. Stupidly enough, I quit in eighth grade, when we moved to Nashville and I had my braces removed, so I never knew what it felt like to play it without sliced up lips. I mistakenly thought I'd appear cool by not being in the band and not having braces.)

8. I can wiggle my ears. I spent so much time as a kid pretending to be a horse "pricking up its ears" that I got those muscles built up. I read lots of Black Stallion books, and every horse in there was pricking up its ears every other page.

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So, those were long, and some were answers and a half. I really rose to the challenge, didn't I Kim? Can you come up with some award for me? Nominate me to be the blog meme answerer of the day, perhaps? Don't worry. I won't need a plastic sash or badge.

Now, who is up for the challenge? I'll tag....

Agent M., since she was tagged already and didn't do it. Doesn't my being annoying spur you on?

and Mom Without a Manual. To take her mind off of school crap. I mean important things we must do to make sure our children are adequately educated.

I have to deal with my own school crap tomorrow at 8 a.m. Why I am up blogging? See what I do for you, Kim?!