The Six Random Things Meme

Thanks to Liberality, I have been tagged with the meme that is making the rounds in recent days: The Six Random Things Meme. Here are the rules:

The Rules
1. Link to the person who tagged you. That would be Liberality!
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

OK, so here are six random things about me:

1. When I'm commenting on blogs, I smile. DH looks at me and says "What on earth are you grinning about while you're typing?" And I get indignant and say "I'm not 'grinning.' I'm smiling. Because I'm TALKING to someone, that's why!" (As Lisa would say!)

2. Everybody who knows me personally knows this about me, but some of you out in the blogworld may not know it yet. I am always late for everything. I started as early as age five when I distinctly remember walking into kindergarten late and having one of my little friends call me a "late bird." I probably take after my mother, whom I always remember sitting there drinking her coffee and having a cigarette while my father had his coat and hat on, pacing, waiting for her to be ready to leave for wherever they were going.

I've been a "late bird" all my life and not likely to change now. I have tried, believe me. At work I used to get chastised for being late and I'd try to reform myself and rush to get there on time. It would work for maybe a week or two but then I'd start to slip. I finally decided being on time was impossible to achieve. Sure, I can do it once or twice (for a particular meeting or to catch a plane, for instance). But not on a regular basis.

For one thing, it was dangerous. I'd be rushing to get there and would run red lights or have to slam on my brakes at the last minute. I also always ended up working late hours because that is when my brain kicks in and I get most of my work done. I am not a big believer in working insane hours at work. Let others get promotions and become Directors and whatnot; my holy grail is the mythical "work-life balance" people talk about. I work a full day's work and more when I'm there, but I come in late and leave late, and check e-mails from home. Finally, my current boss understands me and doesn't care when I get there as long as I'm getting my job done. Thank goodness, I can finally be me! (It also helps that I am now old enough to retire so I have nothing to lose!)

3. I am an antique car buff. I've always been interested in history and old things, so it figures I'd like old cars too. I particularly love cars from the 1930's like the Cord and the Auburn (see here for some nice pictures), but I like the 60's "muscle cars" too.

I used to own a 1955 DeSoto (that's a story for another day). It was being kept at my mother's house in the garage there - but when Mom moved to the senior citizens apartment building down the street from us two years ago, we sold it.

4. As you probably realize, I care a lot about animals, wildlife and nature. I would love to have a whole bunch of cats and more than one dog, but it just isn't feasible right now. For one thing I can't imagine having more than one dog in bed with us; Diva takes up most of the bed as it is! Plus it would be tough to walk more than one Pit Bull Terrier at a time, much as we'd like to rescue another of Diva's kind.

When I was a kid our family usually had several cats; the most we had at once was four. But they were indoor-outdoor cats so they managed to stake out their own territories and they all got along OK. I'm not sure Baxter would appreciate having another cat in his domain. Maybe someday we'll adopt a couple of cats together and see how that goes.

5. I am a dedicated Star Trek fan, mostly of the Original Series. I have seen every one of those episodes so many times I could probably recite them verbatim. The reason I like the Original Series, no matter how hokey it sometimes was, is how idealistic the stories were, and how Star Trek's creator, Gene Roddenberry, was trying to influence the present with his vision of the future. Star Trek had officers of all races and backgrounds on the show (including the half-Human Vulcan Mr. Spock), and the stories all had a message. When my mother was moving and I was cleaning out my old bedroom I found a notebook where I had written down what I thought the "moral" of each episode of Star Trek was!

6. DH and I have had only one microwave oven for the past 24 years. It was a General Electric model given to me by the marketing department of my job as a gift for our upcoming wedding. It still had a dial instead of digital controls. It died last night and we had to go buy a new one today. It's another GE, but we had to come into the 21st century and get one with digital controls. Oh well, I'm sure we'll get used to it.

So that's my six random things. It's going to be hard to tag six people who haven't already gotten this meme so I'll just tag a few:

Annette at Just My Little Piece of the World
TheMom at Attentive Aphorist
Deb at Drivin' 55

Have fun everyone!