I'm back and Six Things About Me

Okay, I'm back. The weekend was fantastic and I'm more or less recovered.

Last week before I left, dear sweet Malicious Intent tagged me with a meme. As with all memes I grumbled but since she did such a wonderful job of keeping my plan for world domination on track while I was gone I felt it only right to give it an honest effort.

So I need to list six non-important things/habits/quirks about myself. Here goes.

1. I have a small level of OCD. I don’t wash my hands 36 times or lock and unlock the door five times in a row or anything like that but there are certain things that I’m a little compulsive about. I hate having sticky hands. As a kid I refused to eat cotton candy and candy apples because they made me sticky. Still won’t eat candy apples. I have to have the bed made a certain way before I get into it. I like to have my clothes folded a certain way – that’s actually more of a practical one because they fit in the closet and dresser better if they are all folded the same way – okay maybe it’s not so practical. Things I use all the time, like my keys, must have a place where they always live and I must always put them there when I’m not using them. That’s actually because I can’t remember shit and if I don’t put them in the same place all the time I’d have no idea where the hell they were. If pictures are crooked I have to straighten them. Stuff like that. Of course, given this information you’d think I’d be neater. Nope. Just picky about certain things.

2. I like beer AND wine. I prefer dark beers and don’t particularly care for “light” beer. It’s like making love in a canoe – fucking close to water. I like coffee AND tea. Coffee with cream and sugar, tea black with one sugar. Hard alcohol of choice is vodka though I do also like rum. After an unfortunate incident right after graduating high school involving seven shots, seven beers, porcelain, and no memory of the preceding 10 hours before waking up – I have never been able to tolerate whiskey. Until recently that is, when I discovered Irish whiskey and realized that not all whiskey is the same. That stuff I can drink neat. Smooth. Pie rather than cake (but I usually won’t turn down either). Chocolate rather than gummy, chewy candy. And I’m a cat person that owns two dogs. The older dog is rather cat-like in many respects. The puppy, not so much…yet.

3. I hate it when I’m asked “What is your favorite ____ (fill in the blank)? My interests are many and they vary as much as my moods. Except in very rare instances, I’m hard pressed to name a favorite movie, book, color, whatever. Ask me again in five minutes and the answer will change. One of the few things I can name a favorite of – flowers. Daffodils. The great big, bright yellow ones make me smile.

4. Closed-minded people piss me off. It must be incredibly comforting for them walking around being certain that they know the mind of God or that they can answer with certainty the questions that no one can possibly know the answers to. I hope they’ll excuse me if I choose to remain open to possibilities.

5. I love Traditional Irish music. The old instrumental “chunes” with simple melodies of the type played by Irish musicians sitting in the corner of a dark pub surrounded by pint glasses filled to varied levels with dark beer. I was researching some ancient Irish mythology several years ago and stumbled across this particular genre of music and the instruments used to play it. I’ve been listening to it and learning to play the Irish whistle off and on (more off than on lately) ever since. The music that can be produced by a $4 instrument in the hands of someone that knows what they’re doing just amazes me.

6. I’m a registered Republican. Most people start out liberal when they’re young and get more conservative over the years. I did that backwards. Actually, I’m pretty middle of the road and tend to straddle the moderate fence moving from one side to the other depending on the issue. I don’t care much for the extremists on either side. They tend to fall into the category mentioned in number 4 above. Being some weird form of Taoist Pagan, I believe in balance. I’m hoping that if we can get everybody to run over to the Port side of the ship this time around we can start to get it upright before it capsizes.

Rules of the game:
1) Link to the person that tagged you.
2) Post the rules on your blog.
3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

#1 through #3 are taken care of. I'm not going to do #4 or #5. Sorry MI, I don't always play by the rules. If anybody else reading this would like to play...feel free.