Tag!

I was tagged AGES ago by the lovely "Chere Amie" -- and have been asked to share "7 random and or weird things about [myself]." It's pretty much taken me a month to come up with these, lol.

Wow, I've never been "tagged" before ... thanks, I'm quite honored :o)

Let's see ...

1. Today is my birthday! Not really weird, but sort of a random thing to share, no? lol ... That makes me a Capricorn, and I've always harbored a secret obsession with astrology. I don't regularly read my horoscope -- but I had my chart done once and I'm completely fascinated by it.

{Picture of Capricorn, one of the twelve zodiacal signs ornating the chevet of the church Saint-Austremonius of Issoire (12th century), Auvergne, France - via Wikipedia Commons}

Also -- according to an etsy e-mail I JUST received -- I share my birthday with Charles Ingalls (aka "Pa" in the Little House series), who was born in 1836. Sweet. It's good to have some company -- usually it's just me, Rod Stewart and Pat Benatar. What on EARTH do I have in common with those two? Huh. Maybe I need to reconsider this whole astrology thing ...

2. I hate -- and am terribly frightened of -- grasshoppers. Gah! Their spindly little legs and hoppy, unpredictable nature freak me out. Once, while we were staying with friends who owned a cabin on the Current River, we drove on a dirt track through a field FULL of grasshoppers. As the car moved through the field they would fly up in swarms, hitting the windows. There were millions of grasshoppers flying in every direction. I was in the backseat, practically paralyzed with fear.

(I tried to find an accompanying picture for this ... but I can't even LOOK at pictures of grasshoppers. And I'm not even a person that freaks out about insects -- it's only grasshoppers. And quite possibly their scary little relatives: crickets.)

:: shudder ::

Okay, let's move on to more pleasant things ...

3. I'm actually pretty ambivalent about the whole "wedding planning" thing, despite all evidence to the contrary on this site (and my typical online habits)! Basically, I just like looking at pretty pictures and thinking about color and design. And I like reading about what other people are up to and seeing all their creative ideas come to fruition ;o)

Usually my blog and online-related obsessions are design and decor-related -- I think my interest in "all things wedding" stems from that. But I get terribly burnt out. I never even imagined that I would get married, let alone plan a wedding, so the whole industry is terribly overwhelming to me since it was something I consciously avoided. I am amazed by and truly admire those who create, design and are constantly inspired by weddings.

I am absolutely the worst, most absent-minded bride -- I forget to do things all the time. I haven't even picked out dresses for my poor bridesmaids!

4. I love all fruits and vegetables. Especially fresh and eaten when in season. Honestly, I can't really think of a fruit or vegetable that I don't like/won't eat. And that includes brussel sprouts, which I'm particularly fond of (especially when roasted). Oh! Wait ... I'm not really fond of honeydew melon, but I will eat it if it's part of a fruit salad ...

There's a restaurant in the Loop that has a fresh vegetable plate on their dinner menu -- you can pick three of their prepared vegetable dishes for your entree, with soup or salad. It's the most delicious thing ever and one of my favorite meals.

Pineapple is another favorite of mine. I hate that it's so expensive! I usually buy it cored from the deli and slice it up into chunks at home. I can eat an entire container of it for breakfast. That's like the whole pineapple, right? ;o)

Despite this, I am not a vegetarian ;o)

5. Cripes ... seven things??

Okay ... um. I have dual-citizenship - U.S. and U.K. Dual-citizenship isn't exactly formally recognized by the U.S., but as long as you don't like, make any waves, you're allowed to call two countries home. I acquired my U.K. citizenship from my lovely English mother, who was born in Preston, Lancashire.

{photo from myweb.tiscali.co.uk/prestonian/preston.htm}

My mom, her brother and my grandmparents came to the States when she was 15 - my grandfather's company transferred him to Mobile, Alabama, to run a factory there. My mom did one year in at a local high school and then enrolled at Spring Hill College, where she met my dad.

I lived in London during my junior year of college -- I was supposed to spend the entire school year there, but after spending 9/11 in London, I was anxious to get back to New York to be with my friends. Although, considering the events of my spring semester, I probably would have been better off staying put ;o)

6. I was kind of particular about our wedding date. I have a weird thing about numbers -- I'm not big on odd numbers, I always prefer even. I didn't really want to get married in an odd numbered month (like May or September) and I was very much relieved that we were getting married in an even year ('08).

I never wanted to be a June bride, but that's where we ended up. With my mom being a teacher, a summer wedding would be easier for her and despite our love of autumn, Jeremy and I decided we didn't want to wait THAT long.

We ended up with 06/07/08, which was almost more of a coincidence than anything. The sequence definitely appealed to my weird numbers obsession, but what really sold me on the date was that it's my parents' wedding anniversary -- and it should have been my grandparents' anniversary, but my grandfather's leave from the RAF was cancelled in 1944 due to D-Day.

7. I'm a complete video game junkie. Actually, pretty much just an all-encompassing computer nerd in general, to be brutally honest. Time-wise, I actually don't get to play a lot of games -- but we do have a Wii, and Jeremy and I like to duke it out in boxing on a fairly regular basis. It's good for the upper arms ;o)

The Zelda series has long been a favorite -- I'm slowly working my way through "Twilight Princess," trying to savor it as much as I can. Not much of a traditional "gamer," but I absolutely LOVE Diablo II/LOD and I did dabble in Quake back in the day.

So that's it! At this point, probably everyone has been tagged -- so please share a random fact or two about yourself in the comments :o)

Comments

[Nikki]

Happy Birthday!

[Julia]

Happy birthday, Ellen! Also I'm super jealous of your Wii. We wanted one so bad for Christmas but STILL can't find one around here. I love competitive games with the hubby! And I have lots of facts about myself on my 100 things blog, so I think I'm exempt from that, right?

[tto]

happy bday to a fellow cap! (mine is tomorrow!!!) :) p.s. i'm not all that down with the honeydew melon either...

[Emilt]

I'm sorry I'm seeing this late and have to wish you a BELATED happy birthday! You're hilarious! I love it :)

[Sharon]

Yes, yes you're exempt! I dont think there's anyone left in this game of blog tag. I'm also a Capricorn and a video game junkie. I hate violence and guns, but love violent shooting games. Go figure :)