Eight Random Facts

So Cynthia over at Sorting the Pieces memed all of her lurkers. Here are the rules:

The rules:
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3.At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Here are my eight:

1. Sometimes at night I wake up and I see two snarling beast heads over my bed. They are terrible tooth-gnashing, tongue-lolling things, like jackals or hyenas. They appear to be caught in slow motion, their shapes slowly swelling and deflating as if they are trapped mid-attack. I used to be afraid of them. Then I would lie awake and stare at them, trying to discern if they were real. I reached out my hand but could never touch their transparent features. Sometimes I fell asleep and would wake up to find them still pulsing, like evil mermaids suspended in some liquidy hell above my bed. Now I just roll over and go back to sleep.

2. My Superstitions:

-When I run a red light, I kiss my palm and slap the ceiling of my car. This prevents speeding tickets.

-Whenever I realize something positive about my life (For example, I enjoy my job or I wake up refreshed and energetic every day or I am excited about my life) I keep it to myself because the minute I tell someone, it ceases to be a happy secret and becomes a burden, an obligation to feel positive because now I have told someone else.

-If I am compelled to confess my happy feeling, I also feel compelled to knock on wood to protect the happiness.

3. One night when I was working on homework, my mom got a phone call. She screamed, "Oh my God!" and dropped the phone. Before she had the chance to tell me anything, I knew that guitar player Danny Gatton had been shot in a dark place with cars and that he was dead. She called the person back - they'd only had the chance to tell her Danny was dead - and learned that he had committed suicide in his garage. My mom used to work with his wife in the early eighties but I never met either of them.

4. I once sobbed through an entire fireworks display because I was convinced that flaming shards of metal were going to rain down on me. I must have been about eight years old. Finally a young couple became exasperated that my family did nothing to comfort me. They leaned in close and asked me what was wrong. When I told them, they whispered comforting words and told me they would protect me and by the end of the evening, I was completely happy and laughing and enjoying the evening. I think of this when I see distraught children and want to avoid getting involved for fear of offending their parents.

5. When I was very little, my favorite thing about Christmas was when my mom would vacuum before we put up the Christmas tree. She would always push the chair, which had big boxy arms that made up three sides of a square, up against the couch. The arm of the couch would complete the square, leaving a little cushiony hole in the middle of the chair. I would get one piece of American cheese and sit in the hole pretending I was a mouse until my mother finished vacuuming. It was the best.

6. I'm still pissed that I lost the sixth grade spelling bee to Aderonke Ajala.

7. The character trait I like least about myself is that when I try to make a point, there is something in me that wants to pin you beneath the force of my argument, that wants to attack and watch you squirm and fail to escape. It is the ravenous insistent bloodthirst that I have to keep in constant check.

I don't mean that I want to "win" by name-calling or shouting louder than you, which seem to be the techniques employed in much of contemporary American debate. I don't even necessarily want to sway people who disagree with me. As long as you have thought out your position, I can respect it even if I think you are wrong. I just can't respect positions that are poorly considered or reactionary, that fail to look forward to their possible ramifications or backward to see if the "solution" addresses the true problem or only the symptoms.

I want to crush the poor argument, pulverize it, grab it by the throat and tear it to pieces. I tend to keep my opinions to myself or simply ask questions of others rather than making arguments so that I can avoid looking like a rabid wild-eyed frothing-at-the-mouth lunatic.

8. I hate olives, peanut butter, cole slaw, "maple-flavored" meat products, potato salad, pickles in my tuna, coconut, flavored cream cheese, anchovies, radishes, Goldfish crackers, salmon paste and bleu cheese. I love bread, Neufschatel cheese, garlic, basil, oregano, black pepper, oranges, well-seasoned sausage, pizza, Mom's lasagna, raw spinach, Havarti with dill, blueberries, shallots, ripe strawberries, fresh whipped cream, blueberry bagels, tuna fish, Italian Wedding soup, hummus and pita, and lime daquiris. The fettucine noodle is the most perfect noodle ever to be created.

I don't even think there are eight people with access to this blog. If you are reading this right now, consider yourself memed.

As an extra treat, I have added a Random Fact of the Day to my sidebar for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!