Well, I got so excited about being tagged in a meme, that The Junky's Wife decided to tag me again immediately. (I love hyperlinks!)

So, here we go (again):
1. Each player must post these rules first.
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.

I was having a hard time coming up with eight things about me. After all, don't you all know the most interesting things about me already? I'm married to someone of a different race, and my husband is a sex addict in recovery. I have two stunningly gorgeous and super intelligent kids, a maniacally destructive three-year-old daughter and an autistic six-year-old son. I was raised Catholic, but lean Buddhist now. I'm a vegetarian. I've had an abortion that I know was right and that still tears me apart.

But I figured I should come up with something new. So I asked Mark for help:

"I need to come up with things about me to tell my blog readers."
"Tell them you're beautiful."
"I need seven more things."
"Tell them you're beautiful eight times, because you're at least eight times as beautiful as anyone else."

He's a sex addict, so he says that to all the women. No, really, he does. But it's still sweet, isn't it?

So, I thought long and hard, and here's what I came up with (and some of these will be new even to Jay!):

1. I've studied several different foreign languages, some of them exotic, but I can't really remember how to speak any of them now. (If you don't use it, you lose it.)

2. Patterns of dark and light give me migraines.
   This means that I don't have any blinds in my house, only curtains. If I am seated across from you, I will always try to make sure that I am positioned with my back to windows, the sun or any other light sources. And I can't read blogs with white type on a black background.
3. I never wears socks, wool, dress shoes or pants.
   My son is not my son by accident; he has sensory issues and so do I. Wool is too scratchy, even lamb's wool; I'm all about cotton. My feet are almost perpetually too hot and socks feel too confining, so I never wear them. (I also sleep with my feet outside the covers.) My mother-in-law hates that I don't wear socks and passive-aggressively buys them for me as gifts. I have wide feet; I hate shoes that pinch my toes and I especially hate heels. I own three pairs of shoes: brown Birkenstock sandals, brown Merrell slides, and black Birkenstock sandals. Pants are also too confining, so I only wear skirts, except when I'm doing yoga.
4. Parenting is the longest I've ever stayed with one job.
   Over six years as a stay-at-home parent beats my previous record of five years working for a non-profit. In the ten years between college graduation and the birth of my son, I worked seven jobs (not counting temp or part-time jobs) at everything from non-profits to large multi-national corporations to startups. I worked in a different role and type of job for almost all of those. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I do like what I'm doing now more than anything I ever have in my life.
5. I write things on my hands.
   People seem to think this is strange, but I forget things if I don't. I jot down anything that comes up at odd or inconvenient times: sometimes I write "to do" lists, sometimes I write grocery lists, sometimes I write ideas for things to blog about. I have a pen in my glove compartment so I can write on my hand at red lights. The most recent thing I wrote on my hand was "bottle of ketchup and 24 juice boxes" after I signed up to bring those in to a party at my daughter's preschool. The teacher looked at me like I had bugs crawling out of my ears.
6. I suffer from souvenir regret.
   Whenever I go on a trip, I see some souvenir that I later desperately regret not buying. I wish I had purchased that little stuffed sheep I saw in a shop window. I long for that crazy little stuffed squirrel-looking animal I saw in a gift shop outside Tokyo, Japan; it clipped on to things and was ridiculously cute, the way things from Japan are. I miss a beautiful piece of framed silk embroidery. Had I purchased them, I'm sure they would have ended up given to the Salvation Army like most of the souvenirs I did bring home. My most treasured souvenirs are from trips I did not take: my husband brought me Pepsi Man action figures from some of his business trips Japan. I adore them, in spite of the fact that I don't drink Pepsi. Who can resist Pepsi Man when he "pops up Pepsi-Cola with shwaaa action." I only wish I had a Diet Pepsi Woman (Pepsi Man's girlfriend!) to go with them...
7. I've lost 25 pounds on the Shangri-La diet since February.
   I heard about this diet from someone on a discussion group I'm part of and it sounded like total bunk. (You drink sugar water or oil between meals, and it is supposed to act as an appetite suppressant.) This person pushes my buttons, so I decided I would test the diet. If it worked, I'd lose some unhealthy weight (three pregnancies combined with the stress of recent years left me 40 pounds overweight for my height), and if it didn't work, I'd have the satisfaction of proving her wrong. It was a win/win. So, I eliminated my two daily Cokes (not Pepsis) from my diet and replaced them with the equivalent amount of liquid and calories from sugar water. I've been less hungry and losing weight ever since. Damn her!
8. I hate to cook, but I love to bake.
   I desperately hate cooking. When my kitchen was being remodeled, I started paying a meal service. The kitchen is long done, but I'm still ordering meals. I love it. It's surprisingly economical. I don't ever want to eat my own cooking again! Now I can use my kitchen to do what I really love: make banana bread and apple pies and snickerdoodle cookies. I guess that leads me to thing 8.5: I have a wicked sweet tooth, one of the reasons I've been grateful for 7 (above)...

Ok, this is the hard part, since I've already tagged my most loyal readers. I don't know if I have 8 more, but here it goes:

1. Scout at Scout's Newcomer Daze because Junky's Wife didn't beat me to it this time.
2. Alan at Recovery Beach because he hasn't commented by lately and I miss him.
3. Danielle B. at The BiPolar Diaries because she's an old hand at all this mysterious meme and commenting stuff.
4. Kristi at Living Life in Texas because she narrowly missed the prolific commenter cutoff for the last meme.
5. Honey at Honey Letting Off Steam because she just posted 25 cool things about herself and I want to see if she can come up with 8 more.
6. McEwan from Whitterer on Autism because she won't have enough to do when she gets back from vacation.
7. Brian from Acid Reflux because he's so glamorous that I can't resist.
8. Bev at Asperger Square 8 because 8 is her favorite number.

I've gone outside of my comfort zone by tagging some infrequent commenters, so I don't know if I'll have the heart to be forward enough to go comment on your blogs and ask you to join, as requested by the rules. But as I said in the last meme, it's an honor just to tag you all.