A Phobic Horse, A Gaggle of Geese, And Other Things about "MeMe."

I have been included in a new game of tag entitled "MeMe." I was tagged by Dandelion Dayz. We have connected over the last few days through Lysa's from Proverbs 31. So, what follows will be totally random and useless information, though I hope it makes you smile . . . .

The rules for this meme are: (1) Link to the person that tagged you. (2) Post the rules on your blog. (3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. (4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. (5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.


1. I am full of useless information. Honestly, I may be a bookworm but I am not really a nerd. I have to monkey around with things on the computer before they acutally work and usually then it is pure luck. Still, I have purely useless information that comes out at random times. It's as if it rattles around in my head and then someone says something and it just pops out. Some items include:

• People aren't really allergic to cat hair or dander. Those with cat allergies are rolling their eyes. They are actually allergic to a protien in cat salivia. But given that cats clean themselves with their tongues, their salivia is on their fur, so . . . . Does knowing that make anyone less allergic?



• Just as a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square so a dolphin is a whale but a whale is not dolphin. Dolphins are also one of the only sea creatures that can kill a shark. They do this by ramming them in the gills. (When I was 10 I wanted to be a dolphinologist. I knew there were archeologists and geologists, so I came up with dolphinologist.)



• If you have a lighted match and blow out a burning candle and hold the burning match in the candle's smoke, the fire will jump back down on the wick. This makes a great magic trick! The smoke contains bits of wax and wick and the flame burns/jumps back down there.



• I can name the 13 original colonies/states in the order in which they ratified the constitution.



• Ben Franklin wanted the national bird to be the turkey rather than the Bald Eagle.



• Just as a bunch of puppies is a litter, a bunch of penguins is called a parcel, a bunch of kittens is a kindle, a bunch of geese is a gaggle. These are things you need to know (acording to the book I studied) to get into graduate school!

2. I got stuck in an elevator once. Actually, it was technically a "lift" since I was in England at the time. (Oh, another bit of useless trivia: Margaret Thatcher's birth place was Grantham, England. That's where I was going to school at the time through the University of Evansville's British Campus Harlaxton.) Luckily, it was one of the really old time lifts that were more like a "cage." So, people could talk to us as they walked up the stairs around us.

3. The first word I ever purely sounded out and understood in Russian was the Russian word for ice cream! (What does that say about what I find important?) Without meaning to be irreverent, it was like the point in the Helen Keller movie where Teacher is spelling "water" and there is understanding. Suddenly, all those Russian letters had meaning! I got so excited, I'm sure the Russian student beside me thought I was nutts. I spent 6 weeks in Russian on one of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Global Projects. We did it as a cultural exchange. We taught English and they taught us Russian. We each had a Russian roommate and alternated between fun events and Bible studies in the evenings. It was a really stretching summer!

4. I am part of my church's worship team even though I can't sing or play a note! Well, actually, I'm on it because I can put together slides and run power point. Tonight we had worship practice. At one point the leader says to me, "We'll do verse 1, chorus, verse 2, 2nd chorus, bridge, verse 3, and then the 3rd verse. Okay?" To which I replied, "Was that Latin you were just speaking?" I like music, but I'm not musical. What is the bridge? So much for 3 years of piano and 4 years of violin. Not a note or chord stuck in my brain - unless you count chopsticks and the opening of the Star Wars Theme.

5. Due to the amount of things I accomplish, I give the illusion of being organized. The key word is illusion. This is a picture of my table (otherwise known as the mail depository). Please note that there are 3 baskets on the table that I recently bought to try and organize this mess. Those who don't know me well, drop hints that I should help others with their organization! And then, my friends know the truth. I recently called one asking for a phone number because I had put the church directory away and couldn't find it. She quipped, "So has your disorganization caught up with you?" No, it was my attempt at organization that did me in. I knew where it was when it was in a pile!

6. Yes you read the headline correctly. I rode a phobic horse. No one knew why, but Eddie, the horse I often took lessons on, had a phobia of concrete. If he had a saddle on and a tightened girth and stepped on concrete, he would literally fall down and think that he could not get up and thrash about on the ground until they got the saddle off. It was a scary thing, so I had to be careful where I rode him. And then I had a dog, Cassie, with anxiety so bad that the vet put her on anxiety medication. Interestingly, at the time, I was working on my counseling degree! I quipped a number of times, "A phobic hores, an anxious dog, . . . if I had a parakete it would have delusions of grandeur and think itself an eagle!"

Now, onto who I am tagging. I hope you will be good sports and play along:

Julie from Jewlz Sightings She is a new bloggy friend.

Heather from Mummblings of a Mommy Monk She is another new bloggy friend.

Laura at OKane Corral I visited her site this weekend and liked it. She seems very sweet.

Lelia at Write From the Heart Yet another bloggy friend. I was really touched by her post on Monday about a gift of love. You should check it out!

Anne from My Life As A Newlywed I think she'll give a creative response. She had just started college when I started getting to know her family, so I don't know her as well as the rest. But I do appreciate her heart. She is extremely organized. She did amazing things with VBS at the church for a few years -- including castle blocks painted on the walls. (We worship in a warehouse, so why not?)

Lastly, Lysa because I'm dieing to know what kind of gut ripping randomness she might think up.

Well, I'm off. Hope, you've enjoyed yourselves. Let me know if you try the candle trick or manage to work "parcel of penguins" into a conversation.