Finally--Eight Random Things

I sucessfully achieved escape velocity at around midnight last night and am now officially on vacation! Now I can respond to the several of you who tagged me days and days ago for the eight random things meme.

Eight Random Things

1. I can't remember the rules to card games. Except for War, you will have to tell me how to play again every time. There is a card playing gene in my family tree that seems to get passed down in the ON or OFF position. For me it is definetly OFF. My Dad is a duplicate bridge fanatic and was quite the poker player in his youth. One of my great-grandmothers reportedly died of a heart attack after a very successful night of card playing. Me, I'm lucky if I can get through a round of gin rummy without embarassing myself.

2. I can wiggle my ears.

3. I sort of never graduated from high school. My family was living overseas and I'd attended three different high schools which all had very different programs. I had learned tons, but did not have a set of credits that added up to a diploma in any given system. So my parents hatched the brilliant plan that I should simply get my GED, tuck my SAT scores under my arm and apply to college for the next semester. I started college in January of what would, under normal circumstances, have been my Senior year in an American high school.

4. This scheme only worked because my Dad had been college buddies with the man who had become Director of Admissions at their alma mater, (which would become my alma mater as well.) So although I usually am only too willing to jump on the bandwagon when criticisms of our current president start flying, when folks start talking about how he only got into the college he got into because of who his parents knew, I keep my mouth shut.

5. I'm the oldest child in my family, but also the shortest. What's up with that?

6. There is also a neatness gene in my family tree that gets passed on in the ON or OFF position. For me it is OFF.

7. I have had twelve cats in my lifetime. I figured this out the other night when my daughter asked me how many cats I'd had. Here's to: CAT, Pussyfoots, Licorice, Gingham, Alexander, Ralph, Spider, Prince Later in the Week, Precious, Lilith, Elizabeth, and Balrog.

8. This list does not include the kittens of Licorice or Gingham who passed through the household quickly before going to new homes. It does not include various neighbor cats who were part of our lives during times when my family or I could not have a cat of our own: Orange Blossom and Black Cat in North Carolina, Marmalade from England or Souvlaki in Greece. It also doesn't include Schniklefritz and Shmuzel, my German Professor's cats who I lived with the summer I sublet her apartment while she was in Germany.

If you haven't already played this game, TAG! You're it.