Jan and Pam tagged me with the 8 things meme. And though I doubt 8 people even read this and thus cannot tag 8 more people, the least I can do is come up with my own 8 random facts or habits. Which is harder than it sounds.

Here are the rules: Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.

1. I am not a naturally neat person, but I am an extremely considerate person. Thus my personal bedroom might be a disaster area, but if I am sharing a house or an apartment, the common areas will always be picked up. I also have no problem snoozing my alarm. Multiple times. But in college when I shared a dorm room? I woke up a few minutes *before* the alarm went off almost every day so that it wouldn't wake my roommate.

2. I like school. I don't have any desire to get a Ph.D., but if I could stay an undergrad and major in everything, I'd do it. In fact, the one thing I don't like as much (because I'm not as good at it) is learning languages, but I am so very excited that one of my local public libraries gives their patrons access to the Rosetta Stone online software that I think I might just learn another language or three. I am starting with German.

3. I was bald in kindergarten. While at a back-to-school party the week before I was due to start school, I did a back flip off the side of the pool and hit my head. In my defense I had done back flips off of diving boards with no problem. But this time landed me with a blood clot under my skull. Which was removed surgically. Leading to me being bald in kindergarten. And a lifetime of family jokes about how Mom and Dad paid to have a brain implanted for me since my formerly white-blond hair came back in reddish-brown.

4. I make lists. I don't always complete the items on my lists, but I write them down. They make me feel in control and also like I won't forget important things. Every night I do a crossword puzzle and make a list of things to do the next day (or soonish) on the back before I go to sleep. This stops me from staying awake obsessing over what needs to be done.

5. I am not good at making decisions. Even easy things like what to order off a menu. Because, see, once you decide on one thing, all of the other things are no longer options. Sometimes I trick myself into making decisions by doing eenie-meenie-miny-moe. If I am happy with the result - that is my decision. If I am unhappy with it - I go with the other option. If I have no strong feelings one way or the other - I go with whatever choice won just to have the decision made. I even selected which college I went to by drawing it out of a hat.

6. I do not quit easily. For example, I did gymnastics when I was younger. It was a huge part of my life. As in, I worked out for 30 hours a week (6 days a week, 5 hours a day) while I was in 7th, 8th and 9th grades. At some point I got injured. And took a whole month off to heal. And then went back and tried again even though I could only really work out for the first two or three hours and had to stick to easy, non-back-hurting things after that. For another year. Because admitting I was injured and couldn't hope to advance much further would be quitting. This also explains why I have held jobs that I have outgrown and don't even like way (way, way) past their expiration dates. I am not a quitter!

7. On occasion I might get slightly more into certain things than is "normal" for your average human. Some people might consider me obsessed with these things. Those people simply do not know what they are missing. Examples: TiVo, Trader Joe's, Television Without Pity, The Milk Pail, social dance (waltz, swing, contra, etc.), Veronica Mars / Joan of Arcadia / other really *really* good shows that network execs cancel without any consideration for my feelings...

8. I am a fiddler. No, I have no musical talent, but I seem to be incapable of sitting still without having something to do with my hands. On the table next to my couch there is a fan which I open and close, open and close. Also a paperclip and a binder clip that I play with as I watch TV. On my desk at work I have a paperclip, a small post-it pad, a pen and one of these. I used to have a small slinky too. I don't know when, why or how I became this fidgety because I was not always like this.