40 things about me

Okay, like many other bloggers recently, I've been tagged. Samantha got me yesterday. I have to write 40 things about me and include a recent photo. Then I'm supposed to tag three others to do the same. Let's see...

First the photo...it's not so great and it's from last year, but I really don't have too many recent pictures of me. At least this one has Taz in it, too. That makes it on topic for this blog, right?
I was tempted to write 40 things about Taz, since my life isn't that exciting and, well, this is supposed to be a dog training blog, but I think that might be cheating a bit...so here goes...

1. When I was 16, I was arrested for shoplifting a packet of Reece’s Pieces. I was handcuffed to the wall at the police station and had to go to court with a lawyer and everything. I have never been tempted to steal anything since.
2. I used to do a lot of whitewater kayaking. I loved the feeling of paddling down the river, but it always scared the sh*t out of me.
3. When I was five, I fell off a swing set backwards and upside down. I landed in tall bushes and wound up with a concussion. I cried hysterically, and, finding nobody coming out of the house to see what was the matter, I stopped crying and went to find my mom in the house. Whereupon I immediately started crying again, so I could have a proper fuss made over me.
4. I lived in the UK for a couple of years and would live there again in a heartbeat.
5. My hair is pin straight, and, except for a few years in the eighties when I thought I wanted curls, I’ve had the same haircut since I was four.
6. I get terrible motion sickness, even in a sea kayak, though I’ve always known spending lots of time in kayaks is way worth the discomfort.
7. I have haggled for a wooden monkey in Morocco.
8. I was a vegetarian for about fifteen years. Well, that’s not true. I was a vegetarian for about ten years and then also ate fish for the following five. I started eating meat again a couple of years ago, when I was at a stockdog clinic and the host barbecued such a tasty lamb that I sampled some. And that was that.
9. I used to listen to heavy metal, and my favorite band was Iron Maiden. I’ve since broadened my musical horizons considerably, but I can still rock out to “Run to the Hills.”
10. I’m really pretty shy.
11. One day, I’d like to live on a little hobby farm and have sheep and goats and chickens.
12. I went to Russia when it was still “behind the Iron Curtain.”
13. I love spending time on a trail with good friends and dogs. I went hiking for the first time when I was in my late twenties and going to grad school in Oregon.
14. My first car was a Pontiac Sunbird, with a broken passenger door and a kickass stereo. It stalled and died every time I drove through a puddle containing more than two inches of water. It finally committed suicide for good on a highway in the Bronx.
15. I am pretty impulsive. I got a tattoo before they were cool because someone told me he thought I’d never have the guts to do it (and since I obviously could be manipulated pretty easily, I’m thankful I only got a tattoo—but in my defense, I was pretty young).
16. I took Spanish for four years in school and was completely unable to communicate with the locals when I was in Baja.
17. I think working sheep with a dog is the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to learn how to do.
18. I found my first dog, Sophie, locked and abandoned in the bathroom of a city park, after teaching a kayaking class on the Willamette River.
19. I fell off a horse once in Wales.
20. I met a stranger on a train to Edinburgh and then stayed with her in her parents’ house for a few days. It was the first, and last, time I ever ate haggis.
21. I miss everyone in New York terribly!
22. I used to ride my bike nearly everywhere I went when I lived in Oregon. I wish I still did that...
23. I think Neil Young is a genius.
24. Due to its predominantly Jewish and Italian demographic makeup, my hometown of Massapequa is known locally as “Matzoh Pizza.”
25. I miss the ocean, but I would never want to give up the mountains.
26. I once was terrorized by a big mean cat I was watching while apartment sitting in NYC; if we tried to leave the loft bed, he would launch himself at us spitting with claws and teeth everywhere. We stayed up there for three days before making our escape.
27. My snowboard is pink.
28. I miss my sister every single day.
29. I still watch “The Real World” sometimes. This may not be too surprising, given that my cousin Jen and I once watched videos on MTV (back when they actually played videos) from sunup to sundown without leaving the house all day.
30. I was told (and I believed) my Sophiedawg was a purebred lab when I first got her. Um, no. She’s so not. She’s also not a Chihuahua, despite the results of her DNA test results.
31. I interned as a production assistant at the McLaughlin show on CNBC when I was in college and got my friend Kevin booked as a guest.
32. For a little while, I was also a freelance floor manager and a camera operator at CNBC.
33. I wish I could spend more time with my nephews, Eric and Tommy, who are the greatest kids on the planet...um, along with my friends’ son Michael...and, well, I don’t know them very well yet but I am sure my newest cousins Lucas and Amelia are, too.
34. I was fired twice: once because I ditched my shift at Pergament’s to go play in Manhattan when I was a teenager and once when I dumped ketchup all over some hapless woman’s shirt when I was a waitress at the Ivy in London.
35. I got my first Macintosh computer in 1993 and have never owned any other kind.
36. I love sushi, Italian food, Indian food, and Mexican food. And French toast. With real maple syrup. Mmmm.
37. Sometimes I say ridiculous things I would never normally say because I am afraid I’m not holding up my end of the conversation (see #10).
38. I have zero musical talent. I couldn’t even master the recorder in third grade. No wonder I can’t whistle.
39. I used to work in a word factory in Cambridge, Mass. It was a horrible, horrible job. Remember, Kate?
40. I’ve driven across the country from coast to coast three times and halfway across and back dozens of times. I love road trips!

Okay, phew. That wasn't so hard. Now it's my turn to tag three people. How about Robin, Jodi, and Maddy?