Tagged (so I'm a bit slow)

Thanks Natalie for tagging me - and sorry that I am just now getting around to doing it! I haven't been so good at posting lately, and its mostly out of laziness. I promise to remedy that though. Quite honestly, I think its because of the same reason you gave - you don't want to repeat anything from your 100 Things post, which took me an eternity to come up with. So, let's see if I can actually come up with 8 little things about myself that you may not already know.

1. I used to bite my fingernails. Badly. Watching the home videos of me playing the piano when I was little makes me sick to see how gross they were! Anyway, my dad told me he'd give me $10 if I stopped biting them when we lived in St. Louis, and I did it. But then I think I probably started again. In 9th grade, my best friend Marianne had these long beautiful fingernails and I wanted to be like her, so I started growing them out and painting them every Sunday night. That was in 1994 and I don't think there have been more than a few days since then that my nails haven't had some sort of polish on them. Believe it or not, I still love Wet 'N Wild nail polish - it stays on my nails better than OPI does. But I do love the names of OPI polishes the best.

2. I was really good at math in elementary school (ok until calculus that was still true). I was the champion in my Texas first grade class of "around the world." When we moved from Atlanta to St. Louis, my first day we were doing that go up to the chalkboard with another student and the teach gives you a mat problem to solve and whoever gets it first wins and challenges another student (just the more advanced version of "around the world" now that I think about it) ... I sat there quietly until my teacher finally asked if I wanted to take a turn. I was very shy, but went up. And smoked everyone in the class. Everyone wanted to be my friend after that. ha ha

3. My favorite cereal when I was younger was bran flakes. Yes, I know, I am weird. Kelloggs stopped making the kind that I like - either that or they have just repackaged them and I am not sure which ones are the ones that I like, so I have been afraid to try them out yet. So for now I'm sticking to Wheat Chex and Honey Nut Cheerios.

4. I can't sleep at night if my door is open. I think its from the days of learning about fire safety in elementary school, but I have to have my door closed - all the way - before I can go to bed at night.

5. I have had the same padlock that I use on my locker at the gym that I got when I started 7th grade. It still works and has a combination that no one could ever forget. I'll keep that part a secret though.

6. I have been in 36 of the 50 states in the United States. I'll reach 38 once Labor Day weekend arrives and I go on another trip...

7. I drink water almost always. An occasional glass of milk, but H20 is my drink of choice. Co-workers get mad at me when we go out to lunch and I always order water. I think I had my first "real" coke last summer when I was driving back from Pittsburgh (4 hrs away) and didn't leave until almost midnight. About a month later on another road trip, I discovered Diet Dr. Pepper, which has since become my drink of choice when I need caffeine. Granted, that's only when I'm on a road trip or something, but still ... I think its always have to have a go-to drink in when circumstances necessitate it!

8. I used to be really creative. I used to write stories when I was younger and have quite the imagination. Now that I have tried for a few days (so I started this posting almost a week ago) to come up with a list of 8 things about me that I could post on here, I realize that I am not so creative anymore. But I am ok with that.