Meme to the 7th

I have found my USB cable, but I won't have time to upload the pics until the weekend, and also, it's Friday, and I am really busy at work, so all I had time for was this meme. I was tagged for it by my old CT knitting buddy Jennsquared. So, here are seven random things about me:

1. When I'm using scissors, I tend to subconsciously stick my tongue out of the corner of my mouth and chew on it in the same rhythm I'm using to cut. Taz just loooves to tease me about this.

2. Unlike so many knitters (and, evidently, so many women in general), I am NOT a chocoholic. While I do enjoy good chocolate, more often than not, I prefer the chewy fruity candies instead of a chocolate bar, or a nice creme brulee over a dense chocolate torte.

3. I love being able to identify the plants and animals around me. A typical hike with me is peppered with exclamations of "Oh, look at the mountain laurel over there!" and "Look out for that stinging nettle!" and "I wonder what kind of turtle that is?" I was completely nonplussed when I made friends in Chile who had grown up in rural areas but didn't even know the names of some of the most common hedgerow plants, or when I was in India, and no one in Taz's family could tell me why there weren't any seagulls in Bombay, even though it's right on the Arabian Sea.

4. I love school supplies. Even though we have plenty of pens and pencils in the house, I am seriously considering going out this weekend to buy a new notebook and writing implements for my Hindi class that starts on Monday.

5. I used to hate cilantro so much that it made me nauseous just to smell it, but overexposure to it while living in South America cured me of that. Now I adore it!

6. Sewing machines scare me. Not in a nightmarish "they're alive!" sort of way; I'm just afraid that if I try to sew something with one, the machine will go out of control and sew zigzags all over the fabric and ruin everything.

7. The books in our house are arranged by category (fiction, poetry, religion, cooking, reference, etc.), and are alphabetical by author and title within each category. Yes, that is because I was the one who unpacked the books. It may be anal, but it sure makes it easy to find a book when you need it!

As for who I'm going to tag, I don't want to force anyone to do a meme if they don't want to, but if you feel like it, and you don't have anything better to blog about, consider yourself tagged. Happy Friday!