Tagged

A few weeks ago, Sully tagged me for a meme. Since I've been living the lazy blogger life for the past little while, I left it on the backburner till "there was time" to write. (As those of you who visit here know, there hasn't been a lot of that lately)

(By the way - thank you to Sully not only for introducing us to the generous use of parentheses (aren't they great?!) and also the very sweet shout-out in his last post. If you don't read his blog, please go over to visit - you never know what you'll find there, but it's always fabulous!)


Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog; some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


HERE ARE THE SEVEN FACTS!


#1 My favourite reality show is "Britain's Got Talent"
I blame YouTube for this completely. Once, when visiting one of my favourite blogs, I found a video of Paul Potts, the winner of the 2007 series. His voice is incredible: After that, I started clicking on the "Related Videos" and completely fell in love with the show. Even this year's series was fantastic, with yet another winner who was very deserving. They don't compete for money - instead it's to perform in the Royal Variety, which means in front of the Queen or Prince Charles.

Here's this year's winner:



I dare anybody to visit YouTube and not get addicted to watching these amazingly talented people. It's a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. (If you're not outside in your bathing suit playing in the puddles). (Also their accents are totally awesome to listen to - it's makes me miss Britain a lot.)



#2 I still have one of my baby teeth.
There's no real explanation for this one. Just a weird fact about me that not many people know. On the subject of teeth, I can also say that my wisdom teeth were pulled when I was 18 because of a condition my father developed that they worried it could be genetic, and that the dentist who recommended braces for "cosmetic reasons" was so right and I was so wrong. I thought it was ridiculously vain to have braces just for straighter teeth. So I didn't. Dumbass girl.


#3 I'm addicted to salt.
Like, really, really addicted. So much that I can eat a handful of pickles and then move on to garlic-stuffed olives without needing a drink of water. Since I started my Lifestyle Change and focus on fat, sugar, and sodium in my foods, I've become even more aware of this addiction. Most women would pick chocolate over dill pickle chips if they were given the choice. Me? I'd eat the whole bag of chips then have some olives for dessert. Newly included in this addition is Frank's Red Hot Sauce - the hot wings flavour. Jeremy and I go through a bottle of this every two weeks, dipping every possible variation of chicken, but also shrimp, grilled veggies, and even (once when I'd been drinking) a buttered piece of bread. Oh so delicious!

#4 I know all of the words to The Gambler by Kenny Rogers
This is just one of many... When people would come out to visit during high school they were always amazed at my recollection of song lyrics. Most of the music my brother and I heard growing up were from the 50s and 60s, which means we can karaoke "Rockin' Robin", Joy to the World" and the long version of "American Pie" just as well as today's Top 40 stuff. It's definitely made for some fun car and boat rides...

I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I also know all of the words to this one:


#5 Total strangers tell me their life stories.
(I don't know why this is - maybe it's because I smile at everybody. But no matter where I go, somebody talks to me.)
This has been both a gift and a curse, depending on the stranger. For some, the "strange" in "stranger" describes them perfectly. Just yesterday a man came over to talk to me while I was setting up my station for a large community event. He shook my hand, introduced himself, then started talking about completely random things. Random, but very, very personal things. Like was I married (although he didn't appear to be hitting on me. I think he was just curious.) Like how his ex-girlfriend wasn't a fit mother (wasn't clear if this was his child) and people were telling him she should go for custody of a little girl whose name he didn't use. Then it was on to his job, which also wasn't clear except for something about driving people around. Not sure if he drives a taxi or an ambulance, as his stories could have fit either. I just smiled politely, made comments like "oh wow" or "hmm, that's interesting", and hoped he'd go away. After about 20 minutes of talking, he said it was time to "go and help some of the guys".
The other side of this has led to many interesting meetings with people from all over the world. Maybe it's that I've got a familiar face or something, but they just start talking to me. Many of my current friendships have started because of this, so it's definitely something I'm proud of. It also means that no matter where I travel, I can look forward to fascinating conversations.



#6 My name is written at the top of the Eiffel Tower.If you ever climb to the third floor of the Eiffel Tower, you'll see hundreds of names scrawled around the viewing deck. We wrote ours near the sign for Toronto (there are signs all around the top telling how far you are from various major cities), since it was the closest Canadian city to both London and Sudbury. (I also wrote "M.P. & J.G" on another section, just cause I'm a romantic that way.)

In the spirit of randomness, here is my favourite picture of the Eiffel Tower at night.

And the incredible view:




#7 I swam across my lake. The "looong way", which my Dad thinks is somewhere around 1.5km.*
If you look at the far left hand side of this picture, the other side of the lake is just past there. I couldn't find a better picture to demonstrate the distance, but will definitely be trying when we're up in two weeks.


* I had to add this because I actually did that this summer.


And the tags go to (mostly blogs that are newly discovered, in the spirit of discovering more)

Suldog's talented cousin, David
Matt, at Burning Sky
Jennifer, from Down River Drivel (love, love, love the title of this blog!)
Hilary, at The Smitten Image (maybe if we ask her nicely, she'll include some pictures. She's amazing at those)
The amazing (and way more mature and grown-up than most grown-ups. Although her mom's a pretty terrific grown-up, perhaps explaining her wonderfulness) Twinkie
The Urban Cowgirl (who is a person I would love to meet & share a pint with)
Tamara (a fellow Canadian who's just simply terrific)


That's all for now!