I've been having a little trouble with the writer's block lately. I'm blaming this entirely on The Incident, missing computers, formerly free time that is now taken up by dreaming of new and better ways to secure my house... (maaaybe... we could get a robot dog that barks at the basement door and bites the ankles of anyone who comes through... would the alarm company connect it to the alarm system? Do you think insurance will attach it to the claim form? What about a robot dog with a human brain?), and trying to figure out just what it is I owned so I can complete the stupid home owners' insurance claim forms (You know what else is missing? The PICASSO. And the STRADIVARIUS. And have you seen that bag of UNCUT DIAMONDS I had lying around? Better put that down on the form too.).

Sure I can get to a computer to post if I need to, but without one sitting there in front of me at fingertip access daily, it's hard to retain a thought long enough to turn it into a post when it's more convenient. I just got a new comptuer to use at home today, but it has Windows Vista on it and it looks like there's a steeper learning curve on that than I thought. Therefore, I'm just going to throw some crap against the blogoweb and see what sticks - or in other words: meme.

My variation on the Eight Random Things About Me meme.

Thirteen Things Random Things About Me I've Never Told Anyone

  1. I am at work listening to my iPod right now, which is set on shuffle. Michale Jackson's Thriller is playing. I'm embarrassed by this, but not embarrassed enough to reach over and click forward to the next random song. Also, chances are the next random song will be even more embarrassing than this one.
  2. I currently have a car with anti-lock breaks, but I've spent so many years driving cars without anti-lock breaks that I continually pump the breaks whenever I slide on the ice or have to stop quickly. One day, I'm sure it will cause me an accident, so I'm working on my lawsuit that claims I was addicted to pumping the breaks by irresponsible car companies who knew that their product would change but failed to do anything about it.
  3. I have an unnatural prejudice against corduroy. So much so that I hate those Don Freeman books, which is a shame because they are really cute.
  4. I cannot stand still while talking on the phone. It's annoying to others, but no more annoying than it is to me. Despite knowing this, I still cannot be stay in one place.
  5. When I post a blog entry at work, my browser there invariably changes the font from my standard Arial, to Verdana -- no matter how many times I specify that all of the font should be Arial. This bugs me to no end and I will often go home later and change the fonts on blog posts that have been up for days, once I notice this has happened. I'll probably do the same with this one.
  6. I've become an aunt for the first time (legitimately, not by marriage) and my brother and I recently exchanged several serious emails with the subject "Re: magic boobie cream." This kind of relationship is something I never would have guessed I'd have with my brother if you'd asked me when we were nine and twelve.
  7. I can type with one hand while rocking back and forth in a rocking chair, holding a squirming baby in the other. Don't believe me? Check out all the typos on this website over the past year.
  8. I have a brain tumor... which is not nearly as big a deal as it sounds. It's a pituitary adenoma that was accidentally discovered eight years ago. There's a much, much longer story to the "accidental discovery" part of that but you'd need a medical degree and a lawyer to hear the whole thing. Other than a handful of odd and unimportant sensory experiences, it doesn't really affect my life much.
  9. I don't really understand Technorati.
  10. Whenever I go up or down a flight of stairs, I obsessively count the steps. This is useful in perhaps my home, where it's helpful to know that there are thirteen steps to the basement when you're carrying a load of laundry and cannot see the floor, but it's probably not so important to know that there are ninety-eight steps on the Lincoln memorial.
  11. I have a latent fear about driving on bridges. Wait, let me qualify that. I'm okay driving across them, but when I'm in traffic and stopped on one, be it an overpass or an actual bridge, all I can think of is a hundred scenes from a hundred different movies where the bridge collapsed while all the cars were stopped on it like the Mothman Prophecies or the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Given that I drive across at least three bridges or overpasses on my daily commute, it gives me something to think about while going to work.
  12. I hate clowns. They don't scare me, but they do creep me out and not just because I read It by Stephen King. (Although that book certainly didn't help.)
  13. Looking over this list today, it seems obvious that I need to seek professional help. Good thing I work with a bunch of therapists.