Ok....The Random Things List

from the mom

I was tagged awhile back to do another random things list. Here are 8 things:

1) I was raised a vegetarian but tried to "overcome" it in my late teens. My attempts ended after hours of throwing up after eating pepperoni pizza my freshman year of college. I am not a purist--I'll eat chicken broth and even well-disguised chicken, but I don't fight it anymore.

2) I take great pride in driving in difficult places. I have driven in most major US cities: Houston, L.A., Chicago (Lower Wacker), D.C., San Francisco, Boston, and New York. Boston is the worst. I've also tackled Dublin, London, and Belfast. (Belfast was really confusing.) These required driving on the left.

3) My mom had an 18-year old and 12-year old when she was my age. When I'm exhausted I remind myself of this and feel better.

4) After I finished my undergraduate degree, I took a few more courses, attended some conferences, and did research and writing that earned me a paid position teaching a few hours of a course with two of my former professors. I taught on Northern Ireland and assigned a book and a movie as part of the course.

5) My friends started me an elephant collection in my early 20s because I was such a die-hard Republican. I have about a dozen elephants all with names like: Reagan, Limbaugh, Danforth (Quayle), and Bennett (William). I liked the latter's name so much I used it for a real person.

6) My first memory is of jumping from the children's pool into the adult pool when I was little (3???). My dad got there as fast as he could but I still remember the confusion of realizing I couldn't breathe under there.

7) A guy named Jeff Gordon (but not that Jeff Gordon) spent over a year trying to get me to date him in my mid-20s. He tried all kinds of tactics including getting on his knees in the middle of a huge administrative area where I worked and BEGGING me. He had my hand and I was so humiliated I agreed to meet him for a date if he promised NEVER to ask me out again. He didn't keep his end of the bargain and later he walked into a meeting I was having with my boss and a two coworkers and dropped Ferrari keys and his paystub in my lap. He thought that would impress me. Not so much.

8) My little brother wrote me a letter in his college telling me he thought it was his duty to marry Chelsea Clinton to save her from her horrible fate (being the unattractive daughter of really messed up parents). I still have it somewhere. He was kidding but it still could be good for blackmail.