Playing Tag

It's happened, y'all! I got tagged by mopeychick! Woo!

(ahem)

I'm still new at this and so am thrilled to be asked to join the team, as it were. Being as how I was never one of the first picked at ANYTHING as a youngster (just try my life sometime, it was awkward until I was 19), I'm glad to take a turn at this game of "tag," even through I hated tag as a kid because I wasn't fast or agile. See? Again with the tales of sad childhood.

Let's change lanes, shall we, and speed onward toward 5 things that are interesting about me that you don't know, in vivid color.

1) I have sung at the National Cathedral. I was in a quartet with some other kids from my church choir. The sound of our voices ringing around the enormous stone sanctuary gave me goosebumps, and still do if I think about it enough.

2) I was asked to join the tennis team in high school. I know, for someone who claims no physical skills whatsoever, it seems a bit odd. However, I liked playing tennis and filled many a summer vacation day with hitting the ol' ball over the net with my friend Dana Bosworth. The sheer amount of HOURS we played demanded we improve, and apparently it was enough so that in the tennis rotation in PE the coach spotted me and asked if I'd like to join. I said I was in marching band. Gah.

3) I was a lifeguard and pool operator during college. I ran a 1-guard operation at a swanky condo in Crystal City, and rode the Metro to get there. It was me in my sweats and sunscreen and all the government workers in their suits and ties on the train. I got such a horrific sunburn my first day out that I couldn't wear anything but my swimsuit for several days.

4) I know a couple of the guys in the Dave Matthews Band, from way back in college and after grad school. I hung out with Butch Taylor and Carter Beaufort when they were in "Secrets," a jazz fusion group that should, by it's own rights, be hugely popular. Dudes rocked serious axes. Also, got to know Tim Reynolds a little bit in my bar days; he and "TR3" played at the bar I worked in and did the Charlottesville circuit when I lived there, and I used to love going to see them. The bass player did a song called "Don't drink and drive" that was hip-hop before we knew what hip-hop was. No, I never met Dave himself, though I suspect I might have been in the same vicinity as him when I lived in C-ville.

5) I was a radio announcer in Florida. Or did I already mention this?

Well, there you go. 5 things about me that you might not have known. I'm not saying they're interesting, just that they are part of who I was, and consequently a piece of who I am today.

You know, now that I'm on a roll here I could throw a couple more things on the pile of "it's all about ME!" but will refrain. Except to say that I might be the only former drum and bugle corps member you know who also used to be a professional puppeteer.

Really.