Curses! I've been tagged!

Julie tagged me specifically for a 'ten things you don't know about me' meme. Usually I ignore any of them which say 'I tag you all in general if you haven't done this' because, frankly, I don't like being lumped in with the mob. But Julie must know this, and in her super-sneaky fashion she called me out. Bitch.

Okay, so ten things you may (but hopefully don't) know about me...

1. My sister and I share the same birthday 3 years apart. Yes, I realize some of you already know this. Sue me.

2. In my youth, I collected postcards. There was a time when I didn't travel much, and I craved seeing postcards from exotic locales. I also almost religiously bought a postcard, no matter where we visited. I finally quit around high school, when I figured out it was kind of lame. I also collected stamps for awhile.

3. You can still find usenet posts I made and IRC logs that mention me dating back to 1993.

4. In high school and college, I competed on speech teams. In high school I primarily did acting competitions, in college I used to enter "pentathalon" competions, for which I did Extemporaneous speaking, Impromptu speaking (yes, they are different), Informative speaking, Persuasive speaking, Rhetorical Criticism and Dramatic Duet acting. I'd always drop my weakest one for the Pentath. I went to Nationals one year for Persuasive speech and for Dramatic Duet acting.

5. When I was six years old, I won best costume in the Pumpkin Princess Pageant in Morton, Illinois, pumpkin capital of the world. My grandmother made me a saloon girl costume for the western themed festival. My sister won the same award two years later for her Little Bo Peep costume.

6. I can write backwards and upside down. (and I'm left handed) This is how I used to write notes to my best friend in high school. We also had our own heiroglypic code we used for notes.

7. I once had to fetch a newspaper for Gene Siskel. I was working on a radio program in Orlando on which he was a guest, and they needed a paper to look up the film listings. I went out in the rain to get one from a machine. I think of all famous people I have personally met, this is the only one I met who died not long after.

8. I once sang backup on a demo CD for a songwriter in Orlando. I sang lead on one song.

9. I have a lot of scars. If you read my right knee, left elbow and left knee in that order, my scars spell "OIL".

10. This tenth thing...well, I'm going to be cryptic. There's some...'stuff' happening. Good stuff. Very very good stuff. But I'm far from a point where I can talk about it. I promise that when the time comes, I will have quite a story to tell. So for now this continues to be 'something you don't know about me.' But you will know. You will know.