6 Habits/Facts Tag

I've been tagged by Crystal! It looked like a fun use of time, so here goes:

The rules: Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people.

Fact/Habit 1: I'm a champion for the underdog. Actually, let me re-phrase that: I love the underdog. If Phill and I watch a game, I always root for the team who's not expected to win, or hasn't won in ages, etc....some of my favorite neighbors are the weirdest ones, and my favorite people are the least expected ones. I find it really satisfying to get to know someone who doesn't look interesting (sort of an underdog, you might say), and find out the interesting things about them. (Because there is something interesting about everyone.)

Fact/Habit 2: I like stories. I like to read them, I like to make them. Sometimes I imagine an entire story about a stranger, just to spice up the dusty corners of my mind. (And sometimes I do it to make me feel better if someone was highly unpleasant...."Let's see....today she was making cookies for a party and they burned, and her hair wouldn't do that cute curl she likes it to do, and her dog pooped on the couch." And thus a comforting story is born. Sometimes.) I write in my mind an awful lot. I wake up and mentally write. I see something interesting and mentally write. I'm inspired and I have to make something of it.

Fact/Habit 3: I love (doing) photography. I like the way light makes ordinary things turn into art, or how something extraordinary becomes even more interesting when it's frozen into a picture. I love people, and so I love pictures of people, especially strange people. (And here we see the underdog fascination popping up again.)

Fact/Habit 4: I always sneeze once when I take my first bite of anything chocolate--ice cream and pudding, to be specific.

Fact/Habit 5: I like to challenge myself. Well, more specifically, I like the satisfaction of meeting a challenge head-on and succeeding. I would like to do the 2008 St.George Marathon. Just to finish it. Just to say I did. (Actually, Phill has agreed to do it with me. So it's a deal! St.George 2008!) And on this note, I like labor--yes, I mean labor to birth a child. I realize I've just said something really weird and possibly earth-shaking. But it's the truth. For me to explain why I like it would take up probably two pages. It certainly has a lot to do with the second sentence of this paragraph. But if you want to know more, I'll happily tell you (in an email, where I feel free to take up more space & time).

Fact/Habit 6: I love being a mother! I love the way my boys say "Mama". I really do relish this so-called domestic life, but it's not always domestic--it's wild and chaotic and unexpected and exciting and a hundred other things at any given time. It's hard and it's rewarding, it's demanding and it's fulfilling. I will never say "I'm just a mom." And I won't even say "I'm a stay-at-home mom." I may need/want to work one day, or I may not. What does it matter? I'm a MOM! And stay at home? Are you kidding? I'm at Wal-Mart or the gym or the library or the doctor's or the school 70% of the time.

Extra #7: I realized, in reading over this, that I seem to have painted myself in a rather favorable light. Which is fine, but let it be known, I have plenty of gross habits/icky facts about myself. But why would I post them here? :)

Extra #8: I talk like a man when I want my kids to pay attention to me. Believe me, there's logic to this: the kids tune out my mommy voice. They hear it so much, day in, day out, that when they hear any other voice, their little ears open up!

Christine, Abby, Anna, Heidi, Camilla, Melissa, and Jenn: Tag! You're it.