eight more cups for the lab

The Cat tagged me. If tagged, and you accept, these are the rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Here are my eight random items for my owner's manual:

1. I haven't eaten bacon in more than a month.
2. Perhaps not coincidentally, I have lost around 10 lb. in the past 5 weeks.
3. I learned something astounding yesterday. I am not fat. For quite a while, I have carried around the assumption that I was, and that the people who told me that I am not were either being kind but misleading for some emotional purpose or were flat-out lying in order to deceive. Either way, I didn't believe them, and I had sort of ungraciously "accepted" my unacceptability. I was at The Gap yesterday, moodily browsing (see below), when it first hit me: I am not so different from everybody else. The women that I thought were better proportioned? They were looking for the same sizes that I was. It was revolutionary. I suppose that it shouldn't have been, and that this is only evidence of my profound (and perverse) ego, but it shook me. The notion followed me from store to store, and the resulting tremors are still with me. Who'd've thought it?
4. I change my toenail polish every three days. It has been Creative Nail Design "Burgundy Foil" for the last round. As of this evening it is OPI "Lincoln Park After Dark."
5. If you read this blog through a feed, you may have noticed over the last few days that a number of items have been re-posted. I'm cleaning up some privacy issues (it's on everybody's mind right now, I guess!) and adding some labels where I felt the urge. This will go on for a while, as time permits, so either ignore or enjoy the blasts from the past.
6. One of my very favorite memories is walking my former spouse's cousin's beagle at family gatherings. I'm not such a "dog person" but that was an unmitigated joy.
7. I'm going on an anti-swearing campaign. The habit is becoming quite unreasonable at times. And it's all personal: if I swear at work (trust me, it happens more than I'd care to admit) I'll put a quarter in a jar. If I say a derivation of the word "fuck," I'll put in 50 cents. The sad part is that there's a home component: if I swear when I'm alone (at home or in the car) (le sigh) the cost is double--per offense. The only penalty-free zone is the blog. Consider yourselves warned!
   Oh, and I haven't quite decided what to do with the money. I'm thinking that if I go "donation free" for a week, I get it back. Seem fair?
8. You have to know that something's just not right in your life when happy people make you either sad or angry. I'm not talking about those perky people who don't seem to let anything get them down; pretty much everybody wants to slap the smile off their faces once in a while. But I am at a point where multi-sex laughing gangs of preteens on bike rides, or men snuffling their babies, or couples sneaking kisses in The Gap, make me want to:
   
   • hurl;
   • cry; or
   • punch the living daylights out of them.
   This is not functional behavior. This is the sort of thing that makes an otherwise-sane person seek out solitary activities, for her own safety and the safety of others.

[I'm supposed to tag eight people at this point. In all honesty, I just don't feel like it. The majority of people that I would've tagged have already been so marked, and any others that I might mention would likely decline (if they would respond at all). How's this: if you read this and have the desire to do this little survey of yourself, then you should consider yourself tagged. You should even leave a comment here and prehaps I'll go back and edit out this last paragraph to appear more like a team player. Fair enough?]