Tagged, Tagged, Tagged!


I feel like such a popular person! Not only was I tagged for this, but I was tagged by three different people. Everyone wants to know 8 random facts about me!


So here's what's up.

1. As a participant in this, I'm supposed to start with 8 random facts about myself.
2. I am also supposed to post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Then I am supposed to tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.


So here goes:

1. For a long time, I had an army jacket with the nametag "Weird" on it. It was a personal favorite of mine, and I was sad to give it up when I'd outgrown it. I found it at a thrift store, complete with the name "Weir" - and it was too easy to add a "D" to it.


2. I didn't have a nickname until I was in college, and then I was known as Goat. I got this name in my early days of pledging the fraternity because a) I had a goatee (which my then-girlfriend, who went to Indiana U, originally thought was cool - but when she saw it after a month's growth, she thought it was ugly); and b) because when we pledges were planning a pledge prank, I "ate" the evidence (the paper on which we'd written the specifics of the plan - I didn't really eat it; I just chewed the paper up). Oh, we never did that prank, and I shaved the goatee off after a month.


3. If I had been bolder as a child, I might never have started playing soccer. I was out with my neighbors and their mom was signing them up for t-ball. She asked if I'd like to play, and I responded "No" because I didn't think my parents would let me. Some three or four years later, when other friends asked if I'd join their soccer team, I decided I would - and a helpful factor was that I knew the person who was in charge (his son was a friend of my brother). That's the only reason that I had enough courage to approach him about joining.


4. I have played soccer on various levels: recreational, co-ed, travel, all-star, junior varsity (we had one JV game when I was a freshman), varsity, local club, college club (we played other college teams), intramural, indoor, pick-up (sometimes at a high level - I've been onpick-up teams that have beaten college teams), and even semi-pro (I played with the Charlotte Eagles when they travelled to Wilmore for an indoor tournament, and they needed a keeper, so I filled in).


5. Soccer isn't the only sport I've played. My first (organized) sport was cross-country, which I ran until I quit as a sophomore after a run-in with the coach. I played intramural basketball in 6th grade and in college (I led my 6th grade team in scoring, once scoring half our points in a thrilling 5-4 heartbreaker). I tried out wrestling and wasn't much good at it but tried really hard until I got hurt in practice. I ran track from 6th through 12th grade (quitting during my senior year) - at one time or another (in meets) I did the 200, 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 3200, 4x100 relay, 4x200 relay, 4x400 relay, 4x800 relay, distance medley relay, 110 hurdles, long jump, and shot put. I liked the 1600 run best. In the fraternity, I played intramural volleyball, football, floor hockey, basketball, and softball (I also played on a co-ed church-league softball team one year).


Now I run (anything from 5K to the occasional marathon - what's next?), play (mostly) pick-up soccer, and play noon basketball (since my jammed finger finally healed, I've gotten back on the court - I make up for my lousy shooting by making bad passes).


6. My family is funny about numbers (I won't even get into my brother's obsession with the number 4), but my favorite number is 10. I have loved that number ever since I heard of Pelé. When I couldn't wear #10, I would settle for another number, but my number had to be a double-digit odd number. I felt like I had good seasons when I wore numbers that fit my criteria, and bad seasons when I wore even numbers.


7. I am a morning person (and, no, I don't like coffee). I figured this out (the morning person part) when I was in college, of all places - I decided to get my life in order and become more disciplined (ha!) as a junior, and I scheduled morning classes... and loved it! The coffee part? Well, I have had coffee I liked about 3-4 times (once was at a wedding, where there was so much sugar and chocolate in the coffee that it hardly counted, once was at the 35-and-under gathering at Annual Conference this year, I might have liked it in Russia - I can't remember exactly, but if I did, it was only because there was a sludge of sugar in it. I do know that I wished it had been tea, which I learned to drink as black as coffee and with that same sugar sludge in it. The "maybe" 4th time was with my German professor Peter Lutz Lehmann, and I think it was that I wished I liked it. He said that Germans drank coffee to be creative and tea to be analytic - or maybe it was the other way around - and I wanted to like it, I really did...


8. I get rather OCD about writing. This could have taken me 5 minutes, but as it was, it took me over an hour. I wrote and rewrote almost every sentance. Some of them multiple times. All for a simple blog entry about 8 random facts about me.


Now for the tagging part...
I tag Heath, Dan, Adam (aka FBF), Nate, Deneice (when she gets back from Indiana), Todd, and Judy (you can expand it to 13 if you want). Remember that family obsession with numbers? I'm all-but ready to add people I don't even know just to make 8. But I'm stubborn enough to leave it at 7... but if I didn't tag you, you might be the lucky (?) number 8!