By now you’ve all seen or written the “9 or 8 or 7 or 5 Things About Me on Facebook,” where you’re supposed to list random things about yourself that most people don’t know. Then after you do so you’re supposed to tag more people and they tag you once they post. Well I got tagged this week for my “9 Things” and I thought I’d expand the list a bit for my blog. Here goes:

1. I got fired the day before my 23^rd birthday. Turns out this led me to my decade career with Belk, which led me to Raleigh!
2. I was a Virginia Tech Cadet for two years. During that time I was an Army Cadet Ranger where I wrestled another female Ranger for my beret and learned how to shoot an M-16 and clean it—I was a pretty accurate shot!
3. When I lived in Myrtle Beach I became a certified scuba diver and on my second dive I experienced a horrible nose bleed.
4. As a kid, every Monday I had to get allergy shots in my arm and my mom would give me a thermos of apple juice and Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies for the drive over to the doctor’s. I’m not a fan of apple juice or Chips Ahoy to this day.
5. My mom was pretty crafty when me and my brother were younger. I’ll never forget the ghost costumes she made when I was in the 4^th grade. They had hoods like we were junior members of the KKK—maybe that’s why that Halloween didn’t go over so well in our neighborhood.
6. In my 20s I finished two marathons, 1 half marathon and won awards for a ton of 10Ks. I had a lot of time back then. I’ve also won two NaNoWriMo’s, which means I wrote two 50,000-word novels in November. I did the challenge, but they were terribly written.
7. I danced ballet from age 3 to age 12 and more than anything I loved the recitals. I also played the flute for three years and my favorite pieces were the theme from “Masterpiece Theater” and “Leia’s Theme” from Star Wars. I still love themes—my current ring tone is the theme from Game of Thones.
8. When I lived in Charleston my nickname was “Ozzy.” I crewed on several racing sailboats and during my last year there I appeared every Saturday morning on their AM Talk radio station to dish about the local sailing races.
9. In high school I collected Star Wars and GI Joe comic books—I was also a big fan of the War of the Worlds TV show. I met Richard Chaves, the actor who played Lt. Col Paul Ironhorse at a Star Trek Convention and cried for days when his character was killed off in the first episode of the second season. I wrote a strongly worded letter to the producer and got a signed autograph photo of the new characters with a brief explanation about “taking creative liberties.” It still hurts.
10. I started driving when I was 21 because my parents had only one car and didn’t want me to damage it. Now I knew enough to get my driver’s license at 17, but I didn’t practice at all, so after college when I relearned how to drive was one of the scariest times of my life for not only just me but everyone in Charleston County.
11. I’m named after my grandmother Alice who is French. She was born in 1895 and survived WWI and WWII losing many people she loved. She was 78 when she first became a grandmother, when I was born. I’m so glad I had a chance to know this woman who wasn’t such a good mother to my mom, but a caring grandmother to me.
12. I used to be a Young Republican.
13. Famous people I’ve met: Russell Simmons, Wolfgang Puck, George W. Bush, Rob Thomas of “Matchbox Twenty,” Todd Bridges of Diff’rent Strokes, Richard Chaves of Predator and War of the Worlds, George Allen, former governor of Virginia, Homer Hickam of Rocket Boys and October Sky, and Steve Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers. I saw but didn’t meet Joe Biden, Helen Thomas, George Takai, Ricardo Montalban, Al Roker, and John McCain. If you noticed, there’s a lot of Republicans on this list!