You Make Me Smile! And 8 Random Facts

That great gal over at Climate of Our Future says I make her smile! :) Thanks for the award, Deborah. Now YOU made ME smile! I, in turn nominate the following people for the SMILE award! You all make me smile for different reasons, all wonderful: you're fun, charming, hilarious & sometimes ridiculous, satirical, clever, sweet and entertaining:

Jean-Luc, Karen, Rino, Melanie, and Mimi.



Mark over at Brain Broadcast also tagged me with the 8 random facts meme. So here goes:

1. I play a mean set of drums. When I was a kid I used to think that I'd be a fireman (I just loved the hats) and a singer/drummer in a rock and roll band. Well, I didn't go for the fire and brimstone career (opting for a career in environmental sciences with a sideline in writing) but I do play the drums with an ad hock band. We won't be cutting any CDs but it's great fun.
2. My husband and I first met on a blind date. Well, not really...when we did meet (on a blind date through a dating agency) we found out that we'd actually met earlier at an environmental trade show. Neither of us had been overly impressed with the other: he thought I was cute but very disorganized and I thought he was a bit of a nerd and too quiet. When we met on the date, we both had to laugh about it and it went from there... :)


3. I'm a cat-person. No, not like catwoman...I guess, I prefer cats to dogs for company. I find them more complicated, complex, unpredictable if not more dangerous, and downright more interesting. Despite this, I find that with every cat I've owned (okay, we co-own each other), I've tried to turn them into a dog. I did so enjoy dressing up my dog in clothes and taking his picture when I was a kid...some habits die hard, I guess.


4. I grew up with five languages in my house and didn't learn English until I went to school. That might explain a lot about why I'm still poor at spelling and make up words (which is okay since I write science-fiction!). My father spoke Romanian with us (so we would inherit his language) even though my parents spoke German to each other (my mother's native tongue); my brother and sister and I spoke French with our friends in the French neighbourhood that we lived in. I only learned English out of need when we were sent to an English Protestant school.


5. I enjoy cycling. The terrain where I live is ideal for it, being flat country roads under mostly sunny skies. I'd love to do more touring and have a desire someday to ride across Canada, tour Italy, France and Great Britain. It's an excellent way to see any country.


6. I switched out of my university program on registration day. Not only that but I switched out from fine arts into science. I was enrolled and received an early registration for fine arts courses (I was initially intending to become a commercial artist) when the environmentalist bug bit me and told me to go into science where I could make a difference. It was a scramble but I managed to get all the courses I needed for the core biology program. All my electives were...you guessed it...in the arts, though!
7. I hate liver. It's one of the few foods I dislike but there you go. I'll even eat raw oysters. But liver has an awful smell that I can't get past my nose. A good friend thought she could get me to like it by drenching it in butter and garlic. It almost worked. My husband likes liver so everytime he goes out of town, he orders it (because it sure isn't being cooked in MY house!)
8. I met Ray Bradbury. It was at a writer's conference in Palm Springs and I'd gone solely to meet him. When I came face to face with him all I could get out was "You're my hero!" to which he laughed rather uneasily and said something self-efacing. It was worth the trip to hear his rowsing and inspirational speach about writing.

Oh, and because I believe in the baker's dozen, here is one more random fact about me (and it serves as a segway to a joke I just love): I'm an environmental consultant. Here's the joke:
A consultant, driving along a country road, stops to let a bunch of sheep cross the road. When he sees the shepherd, he asks him, "You have a lot of sheep there; If I can tell you exactly how many sheep you have would you give me one?"
The shepherd shrugs and answers with a quizzical smile, "Sure."
The consultant gets out his laptop and downloads his satellite imagery, google earth and a bunch of other software then proceeds to calculate this and that. After much deliberation and the shepherd patiently waiting, the consultant looks up and says proudly, "You have exactly 328 sheep."
The shepherd looks amazed. "Wow."
The consultant says, "So, can I have my sheep?"
"Sure," the shepherd answers. "By the way, if I can tell you what you do for a living can I have my sheep back?" The consultant agrees. "You're a consultant," says the shepherd.
The consultant is amazed. "WOW! How did you know that?"
"First, you came here uninvited, then you told me something I already knew, using fancy technological equipment when all you needed was your eyes." Then he added, "So, can I have my dog back?"
(chuckle...chuckle...)
Here are five people I tag for the random fact meme: Bob, Ilker, Charlotte, Kitem, and Your Translator.