8 Facts about Me

There is another meme going around. The 8 facts readers don’t know about you. I’ve been tagged by both the Mad Zionist and Ocean Guy to play. The rules of this meme are as follows:

1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.

So here goes:

1. I am a quasi-secret smoker of cigarettes. I started smoking young. I used cigarettes to replace food. It’s a very ballet thing to do but I have never ever smoked in front of my Father. I have successfully stopped smoking 5 times but always picked it up again. I am now attempting for the sixth time to quit. Here’s to Zyban.

2. When I was a little girl I really believed I was going to marry my uncle. People would ask my uncle when was he going to get married and he would always reply by saying he was waiting for me to grow up. I believed every word that came out of his mouth and I was absolutely devastated when he told he was getting married. When I learned at my grandfather’s funeral that my uncle’s 20 odd year marriage was over I was sad for him but secretly I was glad. I never liked that woman.

3. Today is my 45th birthday and I am far happier at 45 than I have ever been at any other time. Life is very good.

4. I have a great need to be alone for a few hours every day which is why I arise around 4am. Then I feed and change the cat's water, wash, and then say Tehillim every morning. Sometimes I cry when I read certain lines because I can hear the echo of my grandfather’s voice in my mind as my eyes run over the words. At first I did it to honour my dead but now I do it to feed my soul. As my grandfather would say, what is bred in the bone comes out in the flesh.

5. I resemble both my parents. When they were young sometimes people would mistake them for siblings though one was pale with dark hair and eyes while the other was dark skinned, blond and blue eyed. When I let myself tan my skin grows darker than my youngest son. Blond hair and blue eyes may be recessive gene traits but my blond hair-blue eyed genes are very strong. My youngest son is both blond with blue eyes even though his father is Jamaican Chinese. There must be a Cossack lurking somewhere in the gene pool and it seems it cannot be denied.

6. I don’t believe in astrology, psychics or fortune telling though I do own a set of tarot cards which are wrapped in silk and hidden up high in my house. It has been over 20 years or longer since I unwrapped those cards. When I was very young and broke, I use to take them with me to parties and read people’s fortunes for money. No one is more surprised with than me when I read others cards and what I said comes to pass. That being said, trust me in this - it’s all a fraud designed to take your money.

7. I have known both my father’s maternal and paternal grandparents but I had my children so late in life (according to my father’s sides standards) that they have really only known their grandparents.

8. This is for the Mad Zionist - I spent most of my early twenties living at 41 French Street in Buffalo, New York.

I am suppose to tag 8 people but I am not up to tagging any more people. Consider yourself tagged if you want to play. Tell them Kateland made you do it.