Tag, I’m it!

Chili tagged me for a meme. Actually, I like being tagged for stuff like this. Most of the ones I come across are fun to do, and they make posting much less taxing on my brain when life is, as it is now, full. Here it is…

A - Available/Single? Not even a little. I have been thoroughly blissful as a married man for the past 12½ years. No, really. It’s been that good.

B - Best Friend? Number one on the list is Wifeness. The number two slot is reserved for all those who are, by conscious decision or happenstance connection, members of the Wayfarer Community.

C- Cake or Pie? The right cake (rich chocolate, with peanut butter frosting) wins over all possibilities for pie. Pie, however, has a great many contenders in the top ten. Blueberry comes in at number two, then apple, pumpkin, pecan and several varieties of cream pies. Cheesecake (technically a torte, which is a type of cake) is in the middle of the list somewhere.

D - Drink Of Choice? Coffee. See #4 on this list.

E - Essential Item You Use Everyday? #2 on that same list, my laptop, pops into my head first. Of course, #4 (the Internet) goes with that.

F - Favorite Color? Years ago, it was blue, but it has changed. I think it’s black now.

G - Gummy Bears Or Worms? It was tradition in my high school to stick gummy bears to the monitor of the computers in the lab to document who finished the most programming projects. Gummy worms are fish food.

H - Hometown? I’m a Navy brat, so I moved all over as a child. I spent most of my teenage years on a small farm in Topsfield, ME., but my family moved west from there shortly after I graduated from college and I have no other connection to the place. The place I’ve lived that most qualified as “home” was the Seacoast area of New Hampshire (Portsmouth and Exeter, specifically).

I - Indulgence? Eating out. For a long time, the quick fix was fast food. Now that I’m working to lose weight, it’s Subway or Panera. When there’s time to savor, I love to go to someplace that does food just a little differently than I’ve ever had it before. I really love to have my culinary palate widened in that way.

J - January Or February? Both are winter months, so they’re the last two months of the year on the list (July is #1). Of the two, January is currently the better because my school goes on intersession break for three weeks in January, so I get to do lots of fun things that aren’t part of my regular teaching duties. February has a week of vacation, it’s true, but it’s just to f***ing cold for me.

K - Kids & Their Names? Two. SiSi is 5½ and NiNi is 3½. Both are incredibly cute, and I am blessed to be their papa.

L - Life Is Incomplete Without? Time alone, new experiences, laughter, My family, the Wayfarer Community, my students.

M - Marriage date? New Year’s Eve, 1994.

N- Number Of Siblings? One brother, five years my junior. He makes me laugh, but we’ve never been terribly close.

O - Oranges Or Apples? I eat apples during the day because they’re convenient and not so messy, but they don’t stay with me very long. I’ll burn through an apple teaching in less than an hour. An orange lasts much longer, but it’s hard to take time out to peel them and deal with the mess when I only get to properly sit down once during a six hour teaching day

P - Phobias/Fears? Hmmm… Bugs crawling on me freaks me out. Psychological terror makes me lose sleep (Silence of the Lambs still makes me sweat).

Q - Favorite Quote? It changes. I think right now it’s, “Golly! That’s amazing!” (said in the falsetto voice of the big fish in Finding Nemo who hears about Marlin’s adventures).

R - Reason to Smile? Watching my girls do their kid thing, interacting with my students in the halls between classes and IMing with my wife when we’re sitting in the same room.

S - Season? Summer is waaaaay in front. Then comes Spring and Fall. Winter can kiss my ass.

T - Tag 3 or 4 people? I don’t know who hasn’t already been tagged, but I’ll do Suzanne, Kizz and SAHM

U - Unknown Fact About Me: Wow! Something that NO ONE knows?? Well, I’ll share this, because it’s on my mind. One of my greatest worries in the world is that I will spend my life working to be a really good teacher but, because of my conviction to do exactly that, I will never get there.

V - Vegetable you don’t like? Brussel Sprouts are about the only one.

W - Worst Habit? Putting things not important ahead of things that are.

X - X-rays You’ve Had? I’ve had several in my life. Most recently, I had one of my left hand to rule out a fracture or joint cause for a problem in my pinkie. I bruised the bone somehow about a month ago and it swelled up to the point that I couldn’t bend it. There was no obvious reason for it, but it is still tender even now.

Y - Your Favorite Food? I eat according to the mood I’m in most of the time, and I have a lot of foods that I like. Anything that can be grilled is high on the list right now because we are officially into grilling season at Wayfarer House. I use a charcoal grill to mix natural charcoal (none of that Kingsford stuff in my grill) with maple from our big tree out back to give all manner of meat a rich, smoky flavor. We had ribs the other day that were simply mouth-watering!

Z - Zodiac Sign? I’m a Leo, through and through, but my moon sign (Pisces) and rising sign (Capricorn) do a great job of tempering and complementing the less agreeable traits of my most central zodiac type.