7 random things about me

OK, I was tagged by Kyle at Rather-Be-Shopping and plonkee to list seven things about myself.  I’ll make that my Saturday post instead of my usual link roundup.  Well, at the risk of exposing my superhero identity, here they are, divided into two categories:

Amusing:
1. I had a morbid fear of macaroni and cheese until I was a college student because my dad jokingly told me it was made from worms when I was a little kid (and felt bad about saying that ever since). I still feel uneasy sometimes when I see it.
2. When I was 10, I wrote a letter to ABC when they canceled the original Battlestar Galactica. I thought if I wrote a compelling enough letter, they might reconsider. They didn’t, but maybe an old copy of my letter made it into the hands of the SciFi channel years later.

3. I don’t care how ridiculous people may think they are, I admire Brad and Angelina for taking on so many kids. This may make me seem like a silly person in some ways, but I think they are great.

4. I cannot add 8 and 5. Seriously. Despite a mathematics degree, I have to mentally rearrange the numbers to 9 and 4 or 8 plus 4 plus 1, etc. When I see those two numbers added together, I cannot mentally make the number 13 appear in my head. That is the only such combination that I can’t add (or subtract or anything else).

5. I stridently denied Maynard Jackson, the Democratic mayor of Atlanta, from entering a Democratic Party benefit where I was a volunteer once – because he didn’t have a benefit invitation. I lived in Athens (right outside Atlanta) at the time, so I probably should have had a rough idea who he was… considering he had been mayor for about 10 years at that point. He was exceptionally good natured about it, and laughingly introduced me around all night as a stickler for the rules.

Not So Amusing:
6. I have a problem with authority, and it’s caused me a lot of trouble through the years, particularly at work. I think it’s because deep down I think there’s no way ANYONE could be smart enough to tell me what to do, and that’s a ridiculous conceit on my part. Plus saying being so “against” anything is a pretty strong negative emotion, and I am trying to get rid of that.

7. I seldom dream, but when I do they are often bad nightmares, which always makes me a little bit nervous about what’s roiling around in my psyche. Most involve something like monsters or aliens enslaving my family or just people in general, and my violent reactions to this. It began when I was very young. Dream interpretation says two things about this: first, the aliens/monsters represent my fear of the unknown. Second, violence supposedly shows resistance (either internal or external) to change. I suspect it’s my own internal mental and emotional resistance to change.  The trick will be to work with these nightmares, not against them.

And although I always enjoy these tagging memes, I’ll let this part of the chain end with me and not spread it further. I actually plan on trying to create one of my own soon…

But feel free if you read this to consider it an open-ended tag to the blogoverse if you want!