Tagged, like a wildebeest on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom...

Okay, so apparently there's this "tagging" thing making the rounds on the blogosphere, where you post "You've been tagged" on someone's blog, and then they have to post 8 interesting things about themselves.

And wouldn't you know it, I've been tagged.

Normally, I'm one of those people who detests chain letters or "pass it on" emails of any sort, even when they come from a dear friend. Heck, even when they come from my own mother, I get annoyed. I know my mother loves me, so why must she feel compelled to forward me every "Here's an angel wishing you joy" email she comes across? (Especially when these overtly religious epistles of love and harmony inevitably carry dire warnings of death and dismemberment if I don't forward it to 10 friends by sundown?) It drives me crazy.

Normally. But not this time.

This time, I must confess, I am so pathetically happy to have been included in this merry-go-round membership of cyberspace shenanigans, I'm actually going to respond. What's more: I'll probably go and tag someone else.

If you're reading this because you've been tagged, don't feel obligated to keep passing it on, because nothing bad will happen to you if you don't.

But I hope you'll pass it on anyway, because.....why the heck not?


So without further ado, here are 8 interesting things about myself.....

1. I hate chain letters, and ALWAYS break the chain. Bwah ha ha ha ha!

2. I chose Journalism as my major in college. The deciding factor: it was the only major that did NOT require Calculus.

3. The first concert I ever attended was Jay Black & the Americans at Belmont Racetrack in the early 1970s.

4. In an attempt to earn extra credit in Social Studies, I volunteered to be in a gubernatorial mock election debate for my 6th grade class in Brooklyn, circa 1978. I chose to argue for the incumbent, Governor Hugh Carey. Instead of going to the library and flipping through newspapers to do my research, I let my fingers do the walking and called his campaign headquarters. I told them I was representing the governor in an upcoming debate and needed to know where he stood on some of the issues. I was put on hold for a moment, and the next voice I heard said, "Carey, here." The campaign worker had put me directly through to the Governor of New York. I was 11 years old.

5. I've been stuck on #5 for about 20 minutes now, no lie.

6. I almost died giving birth the first time. I did it again less than 2 years later, just to prove I could do it WITHOUT losing half the blood in my body.

7. I can' t carry a tune, even if it's strapped to my back.

8. I truly believe, with all of my heart, that there is no problem so big that it cannot be solved with sufficient quantities of chocolate.