Chinese Freeze Tag

My favorite story teller, Shelly, at This Eclectic Life tagged me with this Chinese Freeze Tag. I’m supposed to tell 10 interesting facts about myself, but then I get the fun of tagging 10 more of you! Now, who hasn't been tagged???? Can't mess this up like I did Thinking Blogger, which I still haven't fixed.

And I am starting and ending my list in a BIG way. Must be all those years of watching Leon act. Now if I could just remember to do that in my stories. No, don't skip the middle 8, some of them are funny.

1. (This one's for you, Leon) When we left the church after our wedding and tiny reception nearly 33 years ago, the last photo the photographer took was us in the car. I was slightly turned toward Leon with a look on my face that would have brought some men to their knees (and I don't mean what you were thinking, any of you). Yes, I was griping at him with a capital B over something. (And he didn't run away, still hasn't, go figure. Oh, that must be because I am not always like that!)

2. I have been so shy, I didn't even want to walk into a restaurant I have never been in before, even with Leon. (Try to stop me now, you snotty waiters. I'm ready for you.)

3. About the only time my brother and I got along as children, really got along, was the few times we played cowboys and Indians in our living room with mom's rattan tables turned on their sides as mountains and whatever. We get along better now.

4. When I was a little girl (like 5) I didn't wear a shirt or blouse and I have the photos to prove it -- it was Florida, after all.

5. When I moved to South Florida and was no longer working, I quit wearing a bra, didn't burn them, saved one or two, after all, age is age, no matter how endowed or not you are. But I have never wanted to impress anyone enough to suffer one again. Besides, I can see as much when y'all wear most bras as when you don't.
(Warning: Don't try this at home, unless you are in an environment without gravity. Do the astronauts wear them? I never thought to ask.)

6. I loved Latin in school, but they only offered it half a year and then dropped it. I hated French, liked Spanish, love sign language, but keep putting off learning it. (Yeah, I'm still procrastinating some.)

7. I am known in my writing class for my "one-sided conversation" stories, they came about partially because I couldn't remember the other half of the memoir conversation and didn't want to make it up. . . then it became fun!

7a. My favorite two-sided one was when I interviewed myself, as honestly as possible, even tried to take control of the interview when I was me and not me the interviewer. I had so much fun. . . but, sigh, my instructor, made the point that you can't interview yourself -- it is not the same, but, then she didn't know how honest the interview really was. . . but then she also said I was too argumentative, that interviewers aren't. Well, this one is. LOL.

8. Even as shy as I was I occasionally fought for my rights: like coming back to school after being sick in 7th grade, finding out the teacher had moved Phil, (oh yeah, major crush, I did have!) - and I had a poem due. So I wrote one that started:

Phil sat by some girls/and none had curls/and a desk did she lend/far away from her friend.

Oh yeah, it got worse from there. Hey, I got two rewards, although not the one I wanted! An A on the poem (minus I think) and a handwritten note from my English teacher to whom the poem was directed -- "We'll have to see what can be done about this distressing situation." Tee hee. And to think, my dad worked for her dad and she hired me a few years later as her son and daughter's babysitter. Guess I didn't scare her away with my poem.

8A. Years after I was married, we ran into Phil at a laundromat. What a shocker! I still had (have) the poem, so shared it with him. The three of us had a laugh over it!

9. I once thought a dolphin was a shark when sailing and got hysterical. Leon is still laughing to this day - and it was pre motherhood and our son is 29. I later went snorkeling (a few years ago). Everyone else had already gone way out on the reef. I got in the water to head for the reef, adjusted my mask and snorkel, looked down and saw a rather large sand shark swimming along the bottom not 20 feet to my left. I slowly turned around and swam in. . . slow. . . motion back to the stairs and then leaped up the stairs, saying (calmly, I was, after all, older), "I just saw a sand shark about 5 feet long. I will just stay on the boat."

The woman who was an employee (I am calling her that to keep from saying the B word with as much emphasis as it deserves.) She and the young captain both told me I hadn't seen a shark -- in THAT tone, you all know which tone. I may have been blonde and fifty-something and petite and "wearing" my headache, BUT, I did not spend 45 out of those 50 years, going to the piers where they caught sharks, going to Sea World to see them swim over me in the tunnel, watch documentaries, etc, and not know one when I saw one. . . and for you who also doubt since the dolphin story is fresh in your mind (you have an excuse -- they didn't know the dolphin incident):

The day I freaked on the sailboat (which was a Hobie 12', and low to the water, although a hard shell instead of a trampoline) the dolphin was not rolling like they do, it was cutting straight through the water, so I couldn't see it's snout, etc.

Back to the witch. (No, not me.) I was seasick, it was choppy, so I was barely holding my own, they had both insinuated I didn't know what I was talking about (the shark), and the witch told me to sit a certain way, which, when Leon FINALLY got back on the boat (they almost left without him, he was lost in his own world) that was the exact opposite of whatever I was supposed to have done to keep it from getting worse. I should have thrown up all over her. (OOPS, guess I a revealing a bit much of my other personality. Oh well. May as well go for broke. After all, I am who I chose to be. It only took me 57 years to fully get there. What's that advice we get as bloggers? Write in your own voice. Did they mean our complete voice?)

10. I believe in the Golden Rule, and find it fascinating nearly every known religion has a version of it. I also believe man created religions to soothe themselves; therefore, for the most part, whatever religion a person truly believes in is the right religion for that person.

In other words, I believe there is One God, who was brilliant enough to recognize humans do not, will not, and should not, all think alike. If we did, we would not be human, because humans think and reason based on the information they have and by instinct. It is spirituality that is the key, religions were created to aid us in finding and keeping that spiritual bond.

~~~

Now, the hard part for me, since I hate to impose on people -- so, I will say it with authority and hope they fall for it: Chinese Freeze Tag, you are tagged:

Shelby at Time with Shelby (after your exams), Rose at Rose Dewey Knickers (after you've written your chapters), Chris at Out and about (yes, after your novel, too), Juliet at Crafty Green Poet (in your spare time from helping educate us all on the earth, our earth), and Remiman at Under the Microscope after your holiday, and Matty at Running on Empty when your grandchildren are ignoring you (wait, they adore you, they don't ignore you). Brian at Truth is Freedom (when you finish your novel), Nancy at Soliloquay after you find Only the Good again, and Rose DesRochers at Outside My Window (when you can fit it in your busy schedule that would exhaust me), and Leon, here at Tumbled Words (Well, Leon, you said you were going to blog, and you are listed as a participating blog partner -- and besides, you know I am too chicken to tag strangers and besides you have to take a break sometime.)

And for the record, I'm exhausted trying to tag all these people. . . Maybe we should have all tags require tagging 3 or less. . .