Does anybody read these?

Six weird things about me...

So, I kinda-sorta got tagged. I was over at a friend's blog, and he said if we wanted to we could, but we didn't have to. Since I was getting ready to write about some of this stuff anyhow, I figured that I'd just tie it all together.

Six Weird Things About Me.

1. I have a few favorite foods that I love, and I am constantly on the lookout for the best version of these foods. These foods are: carrot cake, coleslaw and Reuben sandwiches. I am pretty sure I had the best carrot cake ever at work the other day. (The layer of cream cheese icing -- which had nuts -- was as thick as the cake. Wow!) The best coleslaw I've had comes from J. Alexander's. Normally O'Charley's is good, but when I had it a few weeks ago, it was subpar. Ironically, when I make coleslaw, I use the bagged sliced veggies and a jar of Marzetti original coleslaw dressing. I'm still on the quest for the perfect Reuben, and the best I've found so far are at Market Street down on 2nd Ave and at Deli Unique back in Detroit.

2. Before I got my fancy-schmancy overnight contact lenses, I wore my glasses to sleep every night. My vision is very bad, so if I didn't wear my glasses when I slept I couldn't find them in the morning. My eye doctor decided that wasn't safe if I would have a fire or other emergency, so he put me in 24-hour contacts. Even when I need to rest my eyes, I do it one at a time. So, I don't even have a pair of glasses right now. During allergy season (like this week), I kind of hate that. Well, that and when cute boys tell me they have a thing for girls with glasses -- I'm helpless!

3. I am currently writing a novel. Fiction writing is not my bag at all, but I have a book that I started almost a year ago. I haven't written much since I got a "real" job as a writer, but it's a work in progress. I hope this week to get a few more chapters out to the folks who are reading it right now, and I plan to dive back into it after the holidays. Oh, and it's dirty, which is really why I think it's weird. I hate romance novels, yet I'm writing one. Bizarre.

4. I am obsessed with good grammar and spelling. I guess I should be. I'm a journalist. I write to put food on my table. However, I am more of a nut about it than most people I know (including other writers). When the online dating craze came on the scene, a friend of mine told me I should try it out. I went online and looked at the abhorrent spelling and language usage in the profiles, and I totally gave up. Even if you are super hot and you can't spell, I can't ever read your e-mails and texts, so we're doomed anyhow. I also never use those crazy abbreviations in texts (Think "ur" instead of "your." Yikes.). I spell everything out. Is that its own weird thing?!?

5. I can only swim in water where I can see the bottom. I'm not Mark Spitz, but I can swim in a pool. Throw me in a lake, and I'd probably drown. If the water is muddy and I can't see the bottom, I can't swim. I will only get in lakes and oceans if I can touch the bottom. I do not get in rivers or creeks unless absolutely necessary. I think this all stems from the fact that I almost drowned when I was eight years old when my cousins and I snuck to the swimming hole.

6. I have 41 first cousins on my father's side, and only three (if you count my two step cousins) on my mom's side. My dad had 11 brothers and sisters, and many of them have big families. My oldest cousin, Donna, is my mom's age, and my youngest, Angelina, is three years old. (There's about a 25-year gap between my dad's oldest brother and his youngest brother.)

OK, those are some weird things that y'all probably didn't know. I guess I should tag some other people, but I'm going to follow Myke's lead and say if you want to, you can, but you don't have to do this.

posted by Laura at 12:42 AM