Tag, I'm It...

Oh, sure, tag me when my poor computer is down and I have to use this anachronistic piece of crap that can't even keep up with my typing... :) Here are the seven "interesting" things about me:

1. I LOVE superheros and action thrillers. Among my top favorite movies of all time are the new Spidermans (especially number 2), Batman Begins (mmm, Christian Bale..., yay next one, The Dark Knight, comes out next year!), X-men, the list goes on and on. I don't know what it is about me--I like a lot of so-called "guy" things: building computers, working with my hands, hard music, action movies, etc. The one thing I do not like is sports (other than a passing interest in tennis due to my tennis-playing husband). And I love crafting. So make of it what you will...

2. As a kid and later in high school, I did the swim team thing. Both times I received the venerable Most Improved trophy. At the time, I fully realized that there was no where to go but up anyway, but hey, at least I got the muscles to show for it!

Hmmm, apparently I'm not a very interesting person, at least to me.

3. Apparently to gain admission into Derek's dad's side of the family, you have to pass a hazing ritual. I am proud to say that I am the only one that passed this test. Derek's dad flew me out to Chicago/Detroit to meet the Parents during the engagement period. As we were driving from Chicago to Detroit, we made a quick (I thought) spontaneous stop at the Jackson Dairy. Ever so casually, they brought up this "contest" (more like death-sentence) that Derek's dad had been having with the Scouts he led. Little did I know this was something my brother-in-law had also gone through. It was like this: whoever ate the whole thing of this giant banana split or brownie sunday "won" (still not sure what the prize was? respect?...). You guessed it, I ate the whole brownie and didn't BARF it all up! (Just to help the mental picture, I was only 106lbs and thin as a rail at the time.) I did have to lay down in the parking lot on the asphalt for a bit and groaned the whole bumpy 45 minutes to our lodgings. Oh, and I didn't eat again for like 24 hours. But, hey, I passed! I got to marry Derek!

4. Okay, I'll come clean on this one. I am a very crude person. I'm so sorry if this has dropped your estimation of me. Derek says that since I was a girls and missed all the 7th-grade locker room humor I am catching up. Maybe with interest. Without going into details, I'll just say that Dumb & Dumber is one of my favorite all time movies and yes, I am the kid that laughed really hard when someone accidentally farted in school.... I can only blame it on my redneck dad. :) Love ya, Pop!

5. My first job was as a Courtesy Clerk at Slaveway, oops, I mean Safeway. Yes, I was one of those kids that asked if "Plastic was okay?" and the helped all the little old ladies out to their cars. Truth be told, I didn't mind the job too much, though it was a lot of hard work, especially for a sleep-deprived senior in high school with 8 classes + seminary. I still can't believe my parents let me keep the job. They must have been really desperate to get me out of the house. The store I worked at was right next to the mall where the gangs hung-out and drive-by shootings were a monthly occurrence. And I usually worked the 8-11pm shift getting carts out in the dark parking lot...

6. I love cats. As a kid, we had several cats at any time in the family, and I mean IN THE FAMILY. My parent's first set of cats that I remember were Adam & Hoss (their brother, Little Joe, died as a kitten), a couple of male tabbies, one short hair, the other long, all named after the erstwhile show "Bonanza". The first cat that I really claimed as my own (with my sister, Steph) was Ben (another Bonanza victim). I found him at our church in Winston-Salem, NC at a wedding and he was so hungry he ate wedding cake (dogs eat anything, cats typically do not). My sister and I loved that cat even as he ballooned to nearly 20 lbs. Not too long after we lost Ben to a wild animal attack, we found Bitsy (why did we let my mom keep coming up with these names?), who was pregnant and later had Bonnie on the bed I was sleeping in (while my brother was at Scout Camp). Lucky for Bonnie she was a girl--my mom wanted to name her Barnabas after the vampire in Dark Shadows if a boy. (I don't care how cool of a vampire anyone is, Barnabas is a death-sentence-name). Bitsy has since gone to the great Catnip Covered Mansion in the sky, but her legacy lives on in Bonnie, the oldest "kitten" I know.

7. My pride and joy car in college (okay, it was still my parents) was Horse, an early '80's Datsun station wagon, maroon with "wood" paneling and a trunk that didn't lock (good thing since I had a tendency to lock myself out all the time). The week Derek and I married, Horse kicked the hubcap and we stopped to take some pictures of me with it at the scrap shop. I miss you Horse!!

Bonus: While Derek and I were engaged, we went on a trip up to Lava Hot-Springs with my dad and sibs. We had a fun time camping that night, then drove to the pool the next morning. The water was sinfully warm and we were having a good time until my dad and brothers and FUTURE HUSBAND dared the rest of us to go off the highest platform dive. That thing was as tall as the Empire State Building. I contemplated the second-highest, but my manly ego wouldn't let me back down. Too bad no one told me to cross my legs and go in straight. I ended up breaking my tail bone just from the impact of the water. Let's just say the injury was bad enough I was afraid I might not be able to have children (note the irony here) or even walk again. Eeek. I weakly swam to the side of the pool and never let those boys live it down. Don't dare Maren to do things! Let that be a lesson to you all!

Okay, now that you are on Maren-overload, here are the people I am tagging next. Sorry, I think I can only come up with 6: Steph, Lynn, the obligatory husband, Mary Harper, Amelia, and Andrea B. Sorry family, you guys get to take the brunt of this one.... Just write down 7 or so interesting things about yourself, then tag 7 or so people. Make sure you put links in your post to their sites and don't forget to tell them you've tagged them!
Maren