Tagged: Six Strange Things

Katie Schwartz tagged me with "six strange things about myself."

1. I eat non-breakfast foods for breakfast.

When I was about 14, I was overweight. I started reading up on health. I found out that it was best to eat a big breakfast, and eat progressively lighter meals as the day goes on. I am not wild about breakfast foods, so I began eating dinner leftovers for breakfast. Now I just prepare myself dinner food for breakfast. It's a little more complicated since I found out that I have celiac disease (a genetic allergy to wheat), but I still eat well. Fried rice (made with brown rice), spaghetti (with special non-wheat noodles), chicken with broccoli, chili with cheese and onions, broiled salmon with rice and vegetables, and black beans, brown rice and chicken are some breakfasts I've had recently. Most all of them slathered in various hot sauces.



2. I have trouble getting rid of paperwork.

This is one that my wife just loves. I think it goes back to my custody fight with my ex-girlfriend. I saved everything, including reciepts, because I almost always ended up needing them eventually. I'm working on getting rid of this trait. And my wife is (usually) a patient woman.

3. I am blessed and cursed with the ability to always and forever remember faces.

This can be good-- in my waitering job, for instance. People love being recognized as regulars, particularly if they bring friends in-- they feel like bigshots. It can help your income. On the other hand, I will be walking down the street and see someone and know that I know them, but have no idea where I met them. Even on television-- two people in a couple of commericials. One turned out to be a guy I worked with (I mentioned this before in a previous post) and one is a regular at the restaurant-- he's in that commercial where the couple bring the faucet in and ask the architect to design a house around it. I also saw him in a movie-- "The Girl in the Cafe," looked him up on the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) and found that he played Col. Dietrich, the German officer who gets melted at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. What's really funny about that is that he's a very nice guy.

4. I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.

Oh, wait, that wasn't me. That was Johnny Cash. My mistake.

4. I was a very good archer when I was younger.

I had an archery class when I was in high school, and got pretty damned good at it. I considered taking it up as a hobby. I was also a pretty good shot with a gun. My father took me target shooting once in a while when I was a kid.


5. I pick up languages easily.

I learned German when I was a teenager, and can still speak and read it. My best friend, who is German, told me that when I've had a few drinks, I speak German without an accent. That seems appropriate somehow. I learned Spanish in about six months.

6. I hate grading papers.

In that case, being a teacher was probably not the best profession to go into. I didn't realize it until I became a teacher. And probably part of why I'm changing professions eventually.

Since I have a feeling a lot of people have been tagged already, I'm going to limit it to three: Alasdair, Flannery, and Dale.