Seven Is an Odd Number. Literally.

Several weeks ago Michael from over at Books on the Nightstand tagged me in a blog meme. I was so pleased that he tagged me! I only started reading book blogs a few months ago (it was around the time I started writing more about books here), and I’ve loved getting to know people in that world. Yarn, books, and geekery—it’s amazing how much overlap there is between people who love these things! Anyway, yes, I did say he tagged me several weeks ago. And it’s come to the point that not having answered that meme has me blocked against even thinking about writing anything else. So here we go!

1. When I was around eleven I accidentally shoplifted a bag of rubber bands from Woolworth. I was horrified when I noticed them in my hand half an hour later. So then I snuck them back into Woolworth, which was about the most stressful thing I did in my eleventh year.
2. The most stressful thing I did in my tenth year was to quit playing the violin. I’d started lessons when I was in fourth grade when we were living in Brooklyn. Then we moved to the suburbs of Albany, and I hated pretty much everything about our new town. (I never got over that.) One of the multitude of things that was totally different at my new school was the way they did music lessons. My wee pre-adolescent self channeled all the stress of moving and of culture shock into this one aspect of my life, and I literally lost sleep over it. I thought my parents wouldn’t let me quit. I thought I’d get into big trouble. But I knew I just. couldn’t. take it. anymore. Till one day I just completely melted down, and of course my parents understood, and I haven’t touched a violin since. It has occurred to me more than once to take violin lessons now.
3. That bit I have in my bio about liking the smell of clean laundry? That’s no joke. When I fold the laundry, I can’t help but smell random articles of clothing. Like stick-my-face-in-it-deeply-inhaling kind of smelling.
4. I am an atheist. I take great comfort in my non-belief, and in the things I do believe in. There is great stigma surrounding being a non-believer. The first time I ever applied the A-word to myself was in a psychology class in university. I might have announced I was pregnant with an alien baby for all the gasps and stares that resulted in our small seminar. My professor stopped and looked at me and probably didn’t shake his finger at me though I remember him doing it and he said, “That’s a very strong word, Kim. I’m sure you mean you’re agnostic; that you’re open to possibilities and know you could never know for sure.” He might have assumed I was insulting whatever his beliefs were, which I was not. Anyway, I was painfully embarrassed, and didn’t use the word again for several years. In my mid-twenties, I finally felt comfortable just coming out. I will always be culturally Jewish.
5. Ironically, the first thing I ever crocheted—and I didn’t know it was called crocheting at the time—was a yarmulke. I learned how to make it from my friend at camp when I was around fifteen. It was orange and lumpy.
6. During my linguistics studies in university I nearly failed a course in Old Norse. Oddly, I excelled in Sanskrit. I remember nothing of either.
7. Although my right side is certainly dominant, I’m quite comfortable doing lots of things left-handed. For example, I apply mascara to my right eye with my right hand and to my left eye with my left hand. I don’t bowl very often, but when I do I sometimes score higher when I bowl left-handed.

The Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules.
3. Write 7 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 7 people and link to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they were tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry has been published.

Now, I’ve fallen painfully, desperately behind in blog reading. So I really have no idea if this meme died weeks ago, or if every one of you has already done it. So I’m going to cop out and not tag seven people. But if you feel like sharing, leave a comment here and I’ll link to your blog.