Tagged!!!

Well, my friend Allyson "tagged" me on her blog. There are a couple of different tags in the blog world, but with Allyson's tag, I am charged to share five random things about myself. Hmmm...where to begin...

For those of you who have openly expressed (or silently thought) that the quality of a post is directly proportional to its inclusion of pictures of Carter, please scroll down, as I did not want to disappoint you.

On to my random facts...

Random Fact #1: I have an irrational dislike of shower drains. I cannot begin to explain this. I wish that I could. I wish that I could say it started in college, when I had to wear flip-flops to shower at Tutwiler (the freshman girls' dorm) or the sorority house. I wish I could say that it started all the years I was a counselor at camp and wore flip-flops in showers that were cleaned (or not cleaned) by the campers in the cabins. It didn't. I can remember hating the shower drain in the tubs/showers at my parents' house growing up. I don't think anything is going to come out of the drain and bite me. I don't think they are especially dirty compared to anything else. I just don't like them. Doesn't matter if it is my house, The Four Seasons, or some nasty communal shower. A shower drain is a shower drain. And I don't like them.

Random Fact #2: I have a flossing obsession. Unlike the shower drain dislike, this did begin when I was a camp counselor. The first summer (after my junior year of high school), one of my co-counselors flossed every night. We got into a conversation about it one night, and she challenged me to floss every night for a week. (The next part is nasty...just a warning.) She said to see what I would get; and, then, if I didn't want to keep flossing, just stop. Ah, Eva. Anyway, I did, and I didn't stop. Enough said on the learning experience. I now hoard floss. I have it in my bathroom, my purse, my desk, and when I was a sales rep, I had it in my car. I love it when I go to the dentist and they tell me they can tell that I floss. Maybe that has more to do with the fact that I like recognition than the flossing obsession, but I digress.

Random Fact #3: I am not a morning person. Or a night owl. I am just a run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-day kind of girl. I am not sure if this has to do more with the fact that I like my sleep or that I operate in sort of a bell-curve fashion. Takes me a little time to ramp up, then I am good to go for a while, and then I like to wind down. Either way, I find that the time of day is less important to my productivity than the environment that I create for myself to accomplish whatever task is at hand. I find it interesting that while many people seem to identify themselves as morning people, night owls, etc., few people actually say that they just like the "core hours" of the day. I do.

Random Fact #4: I hold a lifetime saltwater fishing license in the state of Alabama. This is really only seemingly random and is truly attributable to my husband (though, I think his logic is solid). My dad has a nice fishing boat in Orange Beach, Alabama, and he and my brother are quite proficient fishermen. When Nick and I were about to move to Indiana, he decided to buy a lifetime AL hunting and fishing license while we were still residents (it is cheaper as a resident). He made the suggestion to me that I should consider getting a lifetime fishing license while we were residents so that, if I wanted to, I could go fishing in the Gulf with Dad and Steve without having to buy an out-of-state fishing license. Not the first time he has been right about something. Probably not the last.

Random Fact #5: I am a middle child. (Ha, ha...I can hear you laughing now, family!) See, the fact that I am a middle child is not inherently a random fact. I think that the fact that I am still talking about the fact that I am a middle child is probably more the random fact. I grew up believing that I was so slighted and so mistreated because I was the middle child. My sister, Button, was older and she and Mom were a pair. My brother, Steve, was younger, and he and Dad were a pair. Or at least this is how my warped young mind perceived things. I can clearly see now that this was not at all how it truly was, but there was no convincing me of that growing up. I don't really exhibit a lot of middle child traits--at least I don't think so. Others may disagree. When I was a sales rep, I called on psychiatrists. One day over lunch, two of my female psychiatrists and I were discussing my middle childhood. After a disclosure much more detailed than the above, I said, "But I got over it." One of them responded, "Clearly. ...since you are still talking about it." Touché.

There you have my five random facts. My turn to "tag." So, I am tagging Andrea, D, and Caroline.

And for pictures of Carter: These pictures are of him on Wrigley's bed. He loves it! I do not. He winds up covered in dog hair. This is not, in and of itself, a terrible thing, as clothes do wash. However, Carter is a thumb-sucker, and putting his hands in his mouth after being on Wrigley's bed can't be good!