Tagged . . . Twice

It all started with a seemingly innocent email from fellow writer Marsha Ward about a blog and some people being tagged—whatever that meant. Curious, I investigated and discovered that my friend Tristi Pinkston had "tagged" Marsha in her blog.

The game is simple: When you're tagged, you tell the world five things about yourself that most people don't know.

So I learned five things about Marsha (ouch on the mountain climb, by the way), and headed to Tristi's blog (glad you made it to your wedding day). That's where I discovered that she had been tagged by Jeff Savage (remind me never to fly on a plane with you), who, it turns out had tagged me a couple of days prior.

Being as I've spent the last two weeks with one or two children sick at all times and a weekend when I could scarcely stand up because I was sick myself, I didn't get around to reading my friends' blogs.

Thus I didn't know I had been tagged, or even what that meant until about two hours ago. (Sorry, Jeff!)

So here I am, two days after Jeff officially tagged me, now tagged by Julie Wright as well. Since I'm unaware of any official tagging rule book, I'm going to list five things about myself instead of ten and hope no one calls a foul.

#1. I dressed up as a rapper in high school for a drill team routine.
A fellow teammate, Konnie, did, too. In drill team there were various categories for competition: the typical dance category (I don't recall it having a fancy name), military (my favorite), prop, and novelty. This was for the novelty category, a dance to the song, "Ugly," which was popular around 1990 ("U-G-L-Y, you're ugly." Ring a bell?) Most of the team dressed up in really ugly clothes, including matching green shirts. Half wore in fat suits, and everyone had hair and makeup that would frighten a small child, including teeth blackened out, the whole bit. Then Konnie and I "rapped" and danced in front. We got frighteningly high marks with the routine. The most fun part, though, was performing it for at pep rally before a game with our rival high school. It wasn't a coincidence that the girls' shirts were green (our rivals' color). And instead of spelling out "ugly" in two rows on their backsides like they usually did, the team spelled out our rivals’ mascot, "bulldogs." Silly, yes. But fun.

#2. I met my husband doing the cha cha.
Technically it began when my prom date tried to teach some cha cha steps to me that he had learned out a book. Not particularly exact, but it hooked me. By the time I entered college, I couldn't wait to take ballroom dance. I made it onto one of the summer teams and then wanted to be on the cha cha routine, which we had in-team tryouts for. (Anyone who didn't make the 6-couple cha cha had to be on the Triple Swing dance; ick.) At the end of one practice, I thought that my last partner of the day led well and that we worked really smoothly together. That's my first memory of Rob. We tried out for the routine together, managed to be partners, and by the time we had our first date two months later, we were already great friends.

#3. I love to knit.
To be honest, I hated it when I first learned, but a few projects into the process, I managed to stop holding the needles as if I had to strangle them and discovered that knitting is great fun. Around age 12 I discovered that it helps me to destress and calm down. I tend to be a bit too busy to knit much anymore, but I still manage one decent project a year for my kids, rotating between them. This year it's my 9-year-old's turn. She's requested a light blue jacket with a hood and a big purple S on the back. Her word is my command. And the S is almost done.

#4. I hate shrimp.
Go figure. I have no idea why. But aside from your basic fish (salmon, trout, halibut), I just can't wrap my taste buds around sea food of any kind. It grosses me out. Lobster? Are you kidding me? It's a giant cockroach (scientifically, too; ew). My favorite fish ever: Dad's rainbow trout from the Provo River (or even better, the High Uintahs), skinned, and gently fried in his special flour coating. Sprinkle on a little lemon pepper and let your eyeballs roll back. Oh, yeah.

#5. I know little to nothing about chocolate.
Okay, so as the one of the founding sisters and producers of the Utah Chocolate Show, I'm hesitant to admit this one. I am an expert on EATING chocolate. Does that count? Truthfully, I entered the production end as the copywriter, then doing sales, then PR, and my role continued to morph. Early on show attendees would stop me and ask some involved chocolate question, and I’d get the deer in the headlights look. I still have to pass on the tougher questions to the experts, but I've tried to learn about chocolate over the years, and I really have made progress. I can now make chocolate-dipped strawberries and pretzels and tulip cups. I know what "tempering" means, even if I can't DO it, and I can even give pretty decent advice on what type and brand of chocolate for a few projects. Since one of my jobs is writing a weekly e-letter for show attendees and chocolate lovers, I've had to do research and learn. I've gleaned things I never knew I didn't know. What’s chocolate viscocity? I know (now). You're horribly impressed, right?

And for the fun part: tagging the next victims. So many of my blogging friends are already tagged, that this may be a bit tricky.

Let's go with:

Emmelyn Freitas, a great actress and friend. We’ve known one another long enough that we both have plenty of stories to blackmail the other with. But even longer than our friendship has been that of our fathers’, who are long-time fishing buddies, which goes right back to my #4.

Katie Parker, fellow LDStorymaker and book reviewer.

Linda Paulson Adams, another LDStorymaker. I almost said she was an author, but that’s redundant.

Dave McClellan, husband of my friend Erin, he’s one freaking talented artist.

I know I'm one short. Go ahead; throw a flag!