right, this tagging thing...

So I've never been cyber tagged before. I don't know how I've managed to escape it until now. I've seen a lot of tag entries on people's blogs. Guess it's my turn. Angel and Steph seem to think so.

Anyway, 25 random things about me... At least I think it's only 25. Do I have to write 50 things since two people tagged me? Forget I asked that.

1. I had three majors in college. In my defense, they all related to each other and got increasingly more specific. I started as an art major, then got interested in photography, and so switched my major to that. Then I discovered that the kind of photography I liked best was the more candid and spontaneous style rather than the contrived style, so I drifted into a photojournalism course, which led to my final major, which was journalism. One of the best decisions I ever made.

2. It's really hard to be an introverted journalist. That's why I don't do it and write other things instead that let me stay more introverted.

3. My very first published journalism article was about a chili pie fundraiser. It appeared in the TWU Lasso. It was an accident that I wrote the story and got it published. Another reporter couldn't do the story for some reason, I think she'd double-booked herself. I happened to be in the newsroom at the time (I was the paper's photographer), so she asked if I'd do the interview and write the story, and she said I could have the byline. I figured it was a one-time thing. The editor had other ideas. I became an unofficial reporter for the paper.

4. I don't consider myself Catholic anymore, but I still remember from Sunday School that the first five books of the Bible are called the Pentateuch. And I love that Lyle Lovett named one of his albums after three consecutive books in the Bible: Joshua Judges Ruth. It's a great album.

5. I drew a really, really good picture of a pterodactyl in first grade, and it seriously alarmed the teacher. The next best thing I ever drew was a self portrait in college when I was really sick with bronchitis and high as a kite on the meds for it. I look ghostly in the portrait, and it's eerily accurate.

6. I never had cats as pets until I moved out on my own. Louise was my first cat, and a great starter cat.

7. I learned to knit when I was 11 or 12. I learned to crochet when I was 30. I keep notes on patterns in a spiral notebook. My maternal grandmother did the same, although I did not know this until my uncle sent me some of her craft stuff, including her notebook. Her handwriting looks just like my mom's.

8. I can't eat dairy or wheat. I miss real ice cream and cheesecake and bagels and real pasta.

9. I made up words or commandeered words to suit my purposes when I was learning to talk. If I thought you'd done something stupid, I was likely to call you a "dumb jootch." When we lived in Japan, I called all the Japanese people "domos." They would say "domo" a lot, which means "thank you."

10. I have one biological sister and 7 step-siblings.

11. I was addicted to Dr Pepper in college. I went to college in Texas. Dr Pepper is bottled in Dallas. You couldn't look anywhere for all the Dr Pepper soda machines.

12. My dad went with me to my first Tori Amos concert when I was 18. Brave man.

13. I was an ugly baby. Ask my mom. She will confirm this.

14. The TV character I most closely identify with is Betty Roberts from Remember WENN.

15. The book character I most closely identify with is Anne Eliot from Persuasion. A close second would be Thursday Next.

16. I believe string theory is a huge key to the Theory of Everything and that Michio Kaku and Brian Greene and all their friends will figure it out eventually.

17. I only drink breakfast tea in the morning. Even though it's just black tea, and I 've no idea why it's called breakfast tea, drinking it at any other time of day just seems wrong.

18. I want to learn to play all the Bach cello suites, the theme from the Angel TV series, and the opening cello piece from Wings of Desire.

19. I never liked The Simpsons until I saw the episode where they explain why there are no pictures of Maggie in the photo albums at home. They're all in Homer's office. I love their Halloween episodes, too.

20. I only watch Family Guy for Stewie. I mute all the other scenes.

21. If I were braver than I am, I would follow Tom and Barbara Good's example and become self-sufficient.

22. Is it really so weird that I first read Little Women in the fourth grade? Lots of people have told me that this is not normal. I read Dostoyevsky and Solzhenitsyn when I was a teenager. I KNOW that was not normal.

23. I think Europe had the right idea keeping train travel popular. I much prefer traveling by train to traveling by plane. I suspect this makes me old fashioned.

24. I get car sick riding in the back of cars, especially limos. Sucking on candied ginger sometimes helps to settle the stomach.

25. I still think the best way to fall asleep is to have someone read to you or to listen to an audiobook.