Dolphin’s Dock

1. It makes me nervous when I am getting off the elevator on the same floor as a woman I don’t know. The reason is because I’m enough of a gentleman to let her go first but that, by definition, puts me walking behind her and I’m sympathetic to the fact that having a strange man walk directly behind you down a long empty hallway can be uncomfortable for many women. It’s a conundrum because I feel like I’m being rude either way.
2. Before I was old enough to work for pay, I got a volunteer job operating the Touch Tank at the Virginia Living Museum. Few “junior volunteers” (those under the age of 16) got to work in positions that interact directly with the guests, but they let me in one because it was what I wanted and the interviewer noted that I was quite “articulate.” Ironically, when she told me as much, I had to ask her what the word “articulate” meant…
3. I used to be very “warm-blooded.” It could be 32 degrees and I might have a single blanket on me but my foot would be kicked out. In the last year or so, I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t handle being in so much as short sleeves if it’s under 72. This is a bit of a problem since my wardrobe has very little with long sleeves in it. Right now I’m sitting in my office with the heat on high, still wearing my jacket.
4. I could swim before I could walk. My mother is mildly afraid of the water so she was determined that her children would not be. I was put in swimming lessons as early as they’d take me, and my mother still has a clipping from the local paper with a photo of me swimming, unassisted, at an age still counted in months.
5. I’m allergic to red wine. Oh, how I hate being allergic to red wine. For awhile I would get the random splotches of dry inflamed skin on various places of my body and I couldn’t figure out why. I went several months without drinking any alcohol (not for any purpose, I just only drink socially and wasn’t in any situations where I was drinking for that time frame), and noticed I hadn’t had any outbreaks of the dry skin splotches. Later I had a single glass of red wine and woke up with a huge patch of dry irritated skin ON MY FACE. I haven’t had a glass of red wine since and haven’t the skin splotches since, but I do miss my red wine.
6. I must sleep naked. It’s COLD in our house at night lately, but I just pile on the blankets and hit the sack in the buff. When I’ve tried to wear something to bed in the past, I find I’m able to get to sleep but I somehow wiggle out of whatever I’ve got on in the middle of the night anyhow, so why fight the inevitable? Interestingly, I also cannot sleep uncovered, and a sheet won’t do; I need at least a comforter, over at least my “swimsuit area,” so I guess you could say I always sleep naked, but never exposed.
7. I used to often say that were I to ever need contacts (knock on wood, my eyesight is still great unassisted), I’d get the kind that make your eyes look like cat eyes and wear them everyday as my normal contact lenses. I still think I would, except that I’ve read they wreck your peripheral vision which wouldn’t be so hot for every day use. Still I think it’d be great especially if I could find them in normal eye colors so when people looked at me they’d recognize that something was different but hopefully it wouldn’t be immediately obvious. It’s be a good conversation piece.

Ok, I should tag others, but I’m gonna fall back on my standard open tagging method. If you read this and want to participate, do so, then leave a comment and I’ll add a link to your post here.

The icon should scale up to 512px just great (though seriously, who here has 512×512 icons on their screen?). In case any windows users are interested for whatever reason (maybe you could place a bookmark on your desktop and change it’s icon), I’m including it both in the Mac ICNS format and the Windows ICO format. You can use/share them freely, just please don’t sell them.

Netflix Icon (ICNS) | Netflix Icon (ICO)

If your father went to college before you started
If your father finished college before you started
If your mother went to college before you started
If your mother finished college before you started
If you have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
If your family was the same or higher class than your high school teachers¹
If you had a computer at home when you were growing up
If you had your own computer at home when you were growing up²
If you had more than 50 books at home when you were growing up
If you had more than 500 books at home when you were growing up³
If were read children’s books by a parent when you were growing up
If you ever had lessons of any kind as a child or a teen
If you had more than two kinds of lessons as a child or a teen⁴
If the people in the media who dress and talk like you were portrayed positively
If you had a credit card with your name on it before college
If you had or will have less than $5000 in student loans when you graduate
If you had or will have no student loans when you graduate
If you went to a private high school
If you went to summer camp ⁵
If you had a private tutor
(US students only) If you have been to Europe more than once as a child or teen
(International question) If you have been to the US more than once as a child or teen
If your family vacations involved staying at hotels rather than KOA or at relatives homes
If all of your clothing has been new
If your parents gave you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
If there was original art in your house as a child or teen
If you had a phone in your room
If your parent owned their own house or apartment when you were a child or teen
If you had your own room as a child or teen
If you participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
If you had your own cell phone in High School
If you had your own TV as a child or teen
If you opened a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
If you have ever flown anywhere on a commercial airline
If you ever went on a cruise with your family
If your parents took you to museums and art galleries as a child or teen
If you were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

1) Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2) Share 7 facts about yourself.
3) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4) Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

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1) I hate calling people. I don’t mind talking on the phone (though I’m not big into that either), but for some reason I get all panicky when I have to make a call. Even with people I know. Every weekend a conversation like this is heard in my house:

Me: What do you want to do tonight?
TheBoyfriend™: I don’t know why don’t you call So-and-So and see if they want to get together?
Me: Uhh, yeah, well… Let me check and see if they are on IM.

2) I have the most extreme “Hitchhiker’s Thumb” I’ve ever seen. I can extend my thumb backwards at the joint to a full 90° angle. I used to occasionally entertain myself as a child by slamming my hand down on the table in front of others, then squealing as though I’d broke my thumb prominently displaying my reverse-bent thumb as evidence.

3) My skin crawls when I hear someone mispronounce “coupon.” It’s “koo-pon” not “Q-pon.” It stems back to my freshman year in high school in which the English teacher had a list of words you were not allowed to mispronounce in her class. I think that I’ve since seen that both pronunciations are now considered acceptable, but I still cringe at “Q-pon.”

4) I know an insane amount of useless trivia. I know everybody says that but I’m well known for it among my friends. The funny thing is that it’s all stuck in my head and I can’t pull it forth on demand, only when something I hear reminds me of a strange fact. At that point I feel absolutely compelled to share it with the room.

5) I’m always the youngest in the room. Ok, so not always but I do tend to always have older friends. My senior year in high school sucked because nearly all my friends had graduated by the time, I started my senior year. Hasn’t changed. Almost all my friends are 2-10 years older than me.

6) I have no enamel on my teeth. As an infant I contracted spinal meningitis. I’m glad I don’t remember if because I’m told at it’s worst, blood began to seep from the pores in my hands. Anyways, the medication they gave me saved my life at the expense of causing my teeth to develop without enamel.

7) I like making desserts. I don’t like to cook “food-food,” but I will bake pies, cakes, cookies, etc. The strange thing is I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and so I really don’t particularly care to EAT my creations, just to make them. I’m always excited when I’m invited to a party or something and need to bring a dessert. I make a mean cheesecake and at our recent Halloween party I made up my own thing by baking sugar cookies, adding a dollop of vanilla pudding and sprinkling it was hand-picked raspberries. They were a BIG hit.

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Ok, I’m supposed to tag seven others, but honestly the only people I read regularly are the folks on my blogroll (just because of times sake, not because there aren’t plenty of other quality blogs out there), and two of them have already done it, I’m pretty sure two won’t, so I’ll just leave it open for anybody. If you do it as a result of seeing this post, leave a comment and I’ll link to you in this post.