Tagged Again, This Time By My Roomie

I discovered today quite by accident while blog-hopping that I have been tagged by Elaine at Artful Spirit http://artful-spirit.blogspot.com/. She is going to be my roommate at Art & Soul in Hamtpon, VA in May 2008, so I guess we'd better get to know each other! I can tell you she makes fabulous folk art sculptures from paper clay. Elaine was tagged by two other mutual blog friends, Viv, hostess of the snowman swap, at http://vivs-whimsy.blogspot.com/ and Sadie Hartmann, maker of Betsy ornaments and more at http://craftilyeverafter.blogspot.com/.

So I am supposed to tell five unusual things about myself. Although I am not feeling very unusual at the moment and seem to have the holiday blahs and a muse slump, here goes:

1) I am a little bit obsessive-compulsive, and this is not to mock anyone who is medicated for this. Perhaps I should be. I like to hang my clothes by color, line up my shoes neatly, organize my canned goods in my pantry by type, and much too much to even name. When I was little I had a collection of porcelain animals on my dresser, and one of my girlfriends took pleasure in rearranging them. It would actually make me cry. So it would when my nieces and nephews messed with my Barbie house arrangements. What can I say? I was a brat. An OCD brat.

2) I used to be fluent in Spanish, having majored in it in college, having hosted briefly an exchange student from Chile and having taken honors Spanish all through high school as well as French in college. By the time I graduated, I had read a novel in Spanish and written a term paper. I wish I had done more with it and have lost much of my ability.

3) Sadie Lou said she bites her fingernails, so I am going to steal that one, although I don't anymore. I did from toddlerhood to age 15, and then stopped cold turkey in 10th grade, probably the only cold turkey thing I've ever done. Moreover, I can't believe I ever did it, because I am so fussy about my nails now, girly and I don't like to stick anything germ-y in my mouth, like fingers (more OCD coming through). I don't even like to touch my face with my fingers, except when washing my face.

4) Can't sing or dance a lick, although I try. I absolutely love all music, know the words to a million songs, could play Name that Tune or Songburst until the cows come home, but no one can stand to be around me when I do. Although I was short, I got moved to the back row with the tall boys in second grade choir (that's how bad I was), and I pretty much got kicked out of junior high band. I was just awful-really. Several years of dance lessons also did no good, although by the time I took ballet in college, I was okay, except for leaping- ugly! And I would start to giggle- and ballerinas can't giggle, or even crack a smile.

5) I wouldn't mind living on a farm. I like all the hard work, baking, cleaning, gardening. I have driven a tractor and a chisel plow before. I like the big old houses, big open spaces, animals, natural foods, vegetables, canning. I can ride and saddle a horse. And all this is funny because my friends think I am a prissy city-slicker.

Done. And in the spirit of the busy holidays, I am not tagging anyone! Aren't you relieved?