Gosh, St. Peter, that's a hard one...

OK, technically you’re supposed to wait for somebody to tag you with this one, but I like the idea, and I’m not waiting. I got it from She Walks Around With It, whose mommy happens to be an imaginary internet friend on my sister’s blog.

Jon? Molly? Consider yourself tagged. MDHL? Time to start your blog now, and here’s your first entry.

Update: the new profile doesn't number ordered lists, so I'm using unordered lists. Deal with it. Picking a new profile is just too much drama for me right now.

Ten random things you might not know about me:

• In my 10th grade French class, I put my name into an international pen-pal matching service and got paired up with Andrew. He and his partner Marcus came to visit us this summer, 20 years after we started writing each other.
• I actually transferred colleges to be closer to my partner, six months after I met him.
• I like teaching, but I don’t think I’d ever want to be a teacher. I love making the light bulb go on over somebody’s head, no matter what subject. Sometimes that means I talk too much.
• I much prefer European sports cars to big American luxo-barges. But my taste in cars isn’t quite as funky as Jon’s.
• I despise talking on the telephone.
• Around five years old, I started getting godawful headaches, and the doctor sent me for an EEG, which didn’t find anything wrong. Eventually they went away, only to come back during college. I got glasses, and they went away.
• I miss making music with friends. Or at least with other people.
• I want to retire to at least 50 private acres in the mountains.
• At one time I thought I wanted to own my own business, but I’ve decided I don’t want the headaches.
• My 16th birthday was the first time a full moon fell on a Friday the 13th in like 40 years.

Nine places I’ve visited:

• Asheville, NC
• San Francisco (The only place I’ve ever visited that I could’ve called home to have my furniture shipped to me.)
• Slough (but we did make it to Oxford, Bath, and London)
• Berlin and the eastern end of Germany
• Manhattan
• New Orleans (can’t wait to go back)
• The Grand Canyon
• Washington DC
• Colorado Springs & Denver

Eight ways to win my heart:

• Hug me.
• Recognize obscure pop cultural references when I quote them, or quote them for me to recognize.
• Make me a drink without asking.
• Suggest a really good book for me to read. (Katie, I haven’t forgotten your suggestion, but I’m catching up on my French. Oh yeah, you’re tagged too. Get to work.)
• Listen to me.
• Understand when I want to be alone.
• Smile at me.
• Surprise me.

Seven things I want to do before I die:

• Hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
• Own an Aston Martin.
• Reach my goal weight.
• Learn American Sign Language.
• Play the guitar without embarrassing myself.
• Hike the Appalachian Trail.
• Take a cruise.

Six things I’m afraid of:

• Never finishing my CD. Or never recording anything else after I finish it.
• Growing old.
• The day that either of my dogs dies.
• Working through retirement because I have to.
• Another day like September 11.
• Losing my hearing.

Five things I don’t like:

• Dusk. Any day, but especially on Saturdays. I’m much better after sundown.
• Being alone in a quiet house. Especially at dusk on Saturdays. ;o)
• Knowing that my lawn looks like hell but not having time to clean it up.
• Guilt. If you've read this far, you are hereby absolved from all guilt -- past, present, and future.
• Feeling like someone’s keeping a secret from me.

Four ways to turn me off:

• Be nasty to me, my friends, or my family.
• Assume that looks matter more than personality.
• Make fun of southerners. Contrary to popular belief, we’re not all ignorant in-bred hicks.
• Assume that you and I have a lot in common and that I’m enthralled by your charm when we don’t and I’m not. (You’ll know.)

Three things I do every day:

• Spend too much time online.
• Wish I was somewhere else. Really. (Is that a sign of malcontent or something?)
• Try to make people like me.

Two things that make me happy:

• All the animals in my house, human and otherwise.
• Being with good friends.

One thing on my mind right now:

This took a lot more thought than I realized, and I’m not sure I’ll agree with everything on it tomorrow. But I think I’m glad I did it.