Aetiology

Blogging will probably be light this week; while I was in Ohio a week ago for a happy event, this weekend was much the opposite, and I'll be out of town part of the week at a memorial service. In the meantime, though, I got tagged (twice!) with a meme that I've already seen pop up recently on Scienceblogs, and since it's Kate's first meme ever, well, how can I refuse?

The rules: to make it short and sweet, the meme just asks for 8 random facts, then I'm supposed to tag 8 others. I'll comply with the first; for the latter, anyone who's not been hit already, feel free to consider yourself tagged. Here goes...

1). I love roller coasters, so growing up not too far from Cedar Point was a bonus.

2). I purchased 3 houses before my 31st birthday, and they're getting progressively older. The first was built in 1947; the second in 1904, and my current house in 1867. Soon I'll have to move to Europe just to keep my buying pattern intact.

3). My uncle worked at a slaughterhouse when I was a kid. He used to get me all kinds of cow and pig organs to take to class for show 'n' tell in elementary school.

4). The first concert I ever went to was Barbara Mandrell, when I was maybe 8 years old. She kissed my little sister in the autograph line.

5). I had a huge crush on E.T.'s Henry Thomas for most of childhood.

6). My mom is a huge Gone with the Wind fan, but Tara wasn't her first choice for a girl name. I was supposed to be Melanie, but that's a peril of having a giant family--a cousin was born shortly before me, and her parents (my dad's brother and wife) named her Melanie. Tara was the back-up.

7). I decided to go to Yale sight unseen, having never even traveled to any of the northeastern states before. A month prior to moving off to college, a friend and I decided a road trip to New Haven was a brilliant idea. However, being lost in New York City (where 4 painted lanes on the road magically morphed into 6 lanes of traffic), and then driving along the Bronx Expressway and getting into New Haven in the wee hours of the morning for 2 18-year-olds from the sticks in Ohio, well, not so brilliant. Somehow we survived and even made it home in one piece.

8). It was hard as hell for me to come up with 8 things here, so I'll end with the fact that my roomate in college noted that of our circle of friends, I was "the boring one."