8 - no 9 - Random Things

Amber tagged me for this meme. I think someone else (Heidi, maybe?) tagged me for either it or something similar a while back and I meant to get to it and never did. Hmm. So if it was you, I apologize!

Anyway, I'm really tired at the moment so this might not be completely coherent. If not, I apologize!

RULES - Post rules before giving the facts - Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves - People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules - At the end of the your blog you need to tag (hopefully) six people and list their names - Leave them a comment on their blog, telling them they have been tagged and not to forget to read your blog.

FACTS -

1.) I stay up until at least 3am most nights, and lately it has been closer to 5am. I'm obviously a night owl, but this is getting ridiculous! I haven't been sleeping late enough for it to be healthy. I'm sleep deprived and tiiiiiired. But for some reason, I am so much more productive late at night after everyone else would normally be in bed. I think I caught that bug from my mom.

2.) I'm an obsessive head scratcher. It's therapeutic for me, but once I scratch it, it starts itching. I'm also an obsessive hand washer. I don't wash them more often than recommended (after using the restroom, before eating or touching my face, etc) but my husband thinks I wash my hands too much. In the colder months, my hands get so dry they crack and get really painful.

3.) I like coming up with weird phrases that don't make sense. For example, I like to say "what the yahoo!??!?" and tonight I came up with, "well, that's one way to smoke a frog".

4.) Even though I've had years of voice training and have been told I can sing really well by several musicians, I have *horrible* stage fright and have a very hard time singing in front of people - even my closest family members. I guess that is a part of my social phobia. I also think it's really fun to purposefully sing a song out of tune like I have no idea what I'm doing. I once spent several days learning how to make my voice crack like country singers. I still can't do it anytime I want, but sometimes it works and it always makes me smile. If your voice doesn't do it naturally, it's sort of hard to get right! Especially when it flies against every bit of training you've ever had.

5.) I've written somewhere around 30 songs. Only one person has heard them all. It once was my dream to make a record, but I'm not sure I ever will at this point. I know my stuff is good enough, I just don't know that I'd spend the money to get it done. I had a musician/amateur producer (he has his own band and also works with ApologetiX sometimes - heard of them? - and supposedly co-produced "Cornerstone" by Day of Fire) tell me he wanted to produce a few of my songs for free, but that never materialized and probably won't ever now since he's about to move out of state. The worship team at our last church sang one of my songs one Sunday morning and that was a surreal experience for me. Seeing people worship the Lord to words and music He gave me was a feeling I can't describe.

6.) Speaking of feelings, if I could bottle up the feeling you get when you conquer a huge fear, I'd be rich. You know, like when you get through with a panic attack inducing dental appointment or visit your sick grandmother in the scary hospital not once but THREE times in a row and feel like if you can get through that you can conquer the world. If I could bottle it and sell it, I'd name it "iConquered". Would you buy it?

7.) I've had a lot of jobs I hated, but the worst one ever was a security checkpoint officer at the airport. Yes, all 5 ft 0 inches and 85 lbs of me scanned people and carry on luggage for weapons and other such illegal items. Of course, this was very pre-9/11/01 so things were quite different. I can't tell you how many times some smart aleck man would say, "shouldn't you be in junior high and not working at the airport"? I can't stand people like that. I always passed the random "catch the bomb" tests. They were scary though. The manager I had there was horrible. I couldn't stand her. The second worse job was at Hallmark. The manager there was really horrible too, and the owner was even worse. Evil, evil people. If I could bottle them and sell it, I'd call it "iSuck".

8.) I met my husband online via AOL instant messenger. He was in South Korea at the time, stationed there with the US Army. His profile said something about being a solider in the US Army and the Lord's army and it caught my eye, so I sent him a message. He used to say "outstanding!" with this silly accent all the time and I thought it was the cutest thing. He hasn't said that in soo long. When I was around 5, I told my dad I wanted to marry this famous person because he had the same last name as we did and I didn't want to change my last name. Nevermind the fact that this guy was old enough to be my dad and then some. After I met Dustin and got quite attached to him, I found out he had the same last name as me. It's not his blood relative name at all, it's the name of his step father's step father or uncle or next door neighbor or something that I can never remember. We met in person, my hubby and me, a few months after we met online and after I thought he died in a Monsoon or Tsunami or one of those other freaky sounding foreign weather issues. When I found out he wasn't dead, I freaked out and bawled and was never so happy in my life. We met in person, decided we were definitely in love, and married one year later to the day that we had met in person. We will celebrate our 7th anniversary in two months and two days.

and just because I'm now chatty...

9.) Our first date (and first kiss, but shhhh don't tell my parents) was the same day we met in person. He flew all the way down to Texas JUST to meet me and my family. He lived in PA and was back in the states for one month before he had to go back to Korea for another few months. On our first date, my car stalled on the way to the movie theater and we had to jump start it. Picture my handsome newly met in person man pushing the car while trying to explain to me how to pop the clutch. Sooo romantic, right? We saw The Bone Collector (again, sooo romantic!) and to this day, I can't tell you what that movie is about because I was too nervous to pay attention. I know it had bones, and I guess someone would collect them or something. Sick freak. He stayed at my parents' house for about 5 days, then went back to PA. Two weeks later, I flew up to PA for a week and spent Thanksgiving with his family. That was a very cold Thanksgiving. I was sick almost the whole time I was there. That is the last time I flew, and the only time I ever flew by myself. I don't ever want to fly again.

So, I guess that's it for now. I'm supposed to tag people, so umm, I guess I'll tag:

Jessica at Life as I See It
Jessica the Rock Chick
Kim Through the Looking Glass
Heidi at God's Grace in Practice
Sarah at My Peculiar World
Jennifer at Life in the Netherlands, and...
Amy at Confessions of a Supermom Dropout

Yeah, so that's 7. I've never been much for following rules. I apologize if any of you have already done this meme. I'm a little behind lately. Sorry. Blame it on my torch. And hey, it's not like you can't do 8 more things, right? ;o)