Six Random Things about Myself

Annie tagged me for this one, so here goes. First off, the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you. (Done!)

2. Post the rules on your blog. (Being done!)

3. Write six random things about yourself. (See below.)

4. Tag sixish people at the end of your post. (I'll try, but Annie already tagged several that I would have, and since I'm not as into the whole blogging world as some people are, my contacts are limited.)

5. Let each person know he or she has been tagged. (See 4. above.)

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. (Okey-dokey.)

Now for the six random things about me.

1. I have won a couple of things in the Style Invitational humor contest run by The Washington Post. In fact, one of my entries was put on the list of the 10 best entries of all time about the time the Invitational changed editors from the Czar to the Empress. That one was an item for an underachiever's list of midlife goals: Win the respect and admiration of my dog. I won a pen for that one. I also won a t-shirt for a sonnet I wrote about Osama bin Laden, and bumper stickers for another underachiever's goal (End hunger in my aquarium.) and a statement in which each word starting with the letters spelling out the name of someone to whom the statement related. In the event that explanation doesn't make sense, here's my entry: "Gore elected! Oh really! Gore elected! Wait! Bring us Supreme help." More recently, I won a refrigerator magnet by coming up with a new and different definition for the word "alabaster," which I won't repeat here for fear I might offend someone.

2. I am deaf in my right ear. It's happened over the course of the last ten years, and the docs can't find a cause. They've ruled out the potentially nasty things such as a tumor as well as some of the not-so-nasty things such as genetics. I'm learning to cope with it. I have a single ear bud for my iPod (who would have thought they made such things!) and have learned to turn my body to localize sound. It's hard to echo-locate with only one working ear.

3. My feet are too wide for most women's dress shoes, which is fine with me. I hate heels and refuse to wear them. My dress shoes are Earth shoe MaryJanes (see blog photo).

4. I am not assertive enough, or so I have been told. I'm the person that the group usually doesn't consult when choosing a restaurant, movie, etc., because the view tends to be that I'll be flexible and go along with anything. Go too many times without asserting yourself, and look what it gets you. You're no longer asked for your opinion.

5. I am a disappointed Hillary supporter who most emphatically does NOT (did I write that loudly enough) support Sarah Palin. I bring this up because my boss was teasing me about this earlier. I've told my dear (and Canadian) husband that should the McCain-Palin ticket win, he will be encouraged to look for a new job in the Great White North.

6. While not as much of a loner as one of my sons, I am much more a loner than a social person. Read Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto, and you'll understand me better.

And since I'm somewhat of a loner, I shall now struggle with which six people to tag. I can think of more than six people whose blogs I read, but remember that whole not being assertive thing? I figure they might not like being tagged because I don't think I've ever seen some of them respond to any sort of meme going around. Seriously. It's sort of like the chain letters I court disaster with by breaking the chain. So I'm just gonna piggyback on Annie's tagging of Debi and Rich and think that maybe someone I know who has a blog will read this and decide to post their own random things. If they do, I hope they let me know.