Saturday, June 02, 2007

Pieces of Eight

It pays to surf around on the interwebs from time to time, hitting spots that because of the limited number of hours in each day that are afforded to us limit the usual range of motion in the ether.

In English, that means "I'm glad I took the time to websurf to my bloglisted buddies this weekend!" Why am I glad? Well, number one reason is that they're neat and interesting people who have neat and interesting things to say, and I enjoy the neatness and interestingness.

Also, sometimes they tag you. I like getting tagged, or so it would appear. I especially like getting tagged for stuff that is all.about.me., which as anyone knows is all I talk about here anyhow, so what better to tag me with than to ask me to tell you more about ME? Yay!!

This one's from Beth, who, while perfectly neurotic, is also a gifted writer and wild woman after my own heart. Visit her if you haven't; and tell her I told you to please.

Herein then, are 8 facts about me. Read 'em and weep with joy over how very interesting and neat your life is by comparison.

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1) Part of my large intestine was removed when I was almost 5 as a result of having Hirschprung's disease. The scar from the surgery is long and still visible, but it beats the snot out of the colostomy I would have had to have if the anastomosis hadn't healed correctly. I'm still grateful to be able to poop out my rectum rather than having the change bags.

2) Also, the organs in my lower abdomen are flipflopped from what most people have. I know, y'all, it's not like it's unexpected that half of me is backasswards, but really, my GUTS? How odd. The surgeon who did the cutting for my parital colectomy (see fact 1) thought this was kinda neat and interesting.

3) Perhaps as a result of my early exposure to hospitals and poop-related concerns, I have a fascination with all things gross. I used to read surgery journals all the time, LOVE pictures of gross stuff (though I draw the line at those zit-popping websites), think parasites are freaky-cool, and have yet to meet a tropical disease that didn't fascinate me. It is perhaps a good thing that I'm in the medical field now, because I can get my gross on without people thinking I'm too terribly "off."

4) I used to be quite the little singer and musician. I still sing, but only do so in my car or when I'm really happy. I would play my horn much more than the notatall I'm currently playing (which makes my horn sad, but that's a story for another day), but there's no really good opportunities for amateur French Horn players in the Triangle, unless I wanted to travel an hour to practice, which I do not. I don't have a piano, or would play that for fun, and maybe to re-train my brain to "think" with both hands. I'm hankering to learn the guitar too.

5) I don't use recipes to cook, yet I have a ton of cookbooks. I think they're good as general reference, but I don't typically consult them when in the kitchen. I go more by the "what color do I want this to taste like?" school of cookery, which might puzzle some people but makes sense to me. For example, sage and basil taste green, but not the same SHADE of green. Sage and thyme are more the same shade of green, and therefore can be used together. Tastes that are compatible are either near each other on the palette wheel (something like this, only not just for wine) or are on opposite sides of it, much like the way you'd pick colors on a color wheel. In case you were wondering, this "taste matching" is why sun-dried tomatoes and basil go together so well.

Just not LEMON basil and sub-dried tomatoes. That's mistake you don't want to make.

6) I could spend whole days on the computer wasting time. While this might not be that much of a shock for most of you, it puzzles many people I know. These are the same people that do things like "spring cleaning" and "laundry." In turn, those people puzzle ME.

7) I love dorks. All of them. All those gawky awkward brainy inventive creative talented odd duck kids who were teased because they didn't quite fit in or who were too smart or too geeky, who proceeded to grow up to be normal-ish people with families and jobs and hobbies and a good life are testament to how resilient people are. THOSE dorks are my kind of people.

8) Despite having been in college in the 80's I never did cocaine. Or LSD. Or shrooms. Or ecstacy. I stuck with booze and dope; two drugs I could titrate so that my reality got only as bizarre as I wanted it to be. Mostly. Unless the weed was really good, and then there was NO telling where I'd go after a cupla hits. And yes, I plan to tell my kids I smoked dope if they ask.

So, um, there! Eight things about me that may or may not be neat and/or interesting and that you might not have known.

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I'd love to tag a whole buncha people, and so will. Kenu, Renn, Wordnerd, SparkyDuck, Blitz, Biff, JC, The Only Daughter, AC, Mr Schprock, Trina, oh heck - ALL y'all! Come on! Divulge!

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