I've been tagged

I have the honor of being tagged by The Jewish Atheist via email. It's the 8 random facts meme. Here are the rules:

• We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them each a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

OK, that's the skinny. Now here the facts:

1. I have a MFA in sculpture from University of Illinois at Chicago, but I no longer make any sculpture. My sculpture was really big, and as I got older, my work became physically smaller. I paint; I draw; I make photographs; I write comedy; I write poetry; and I don't show it to anybody. From exhibiting extensively to hiding my work. Full circle.

2. I am phobic about spiders. I don't trust them - despite loving Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. They sneak up on you and bite you. They're scary. And I also loved the movie, Arachnophobia

3. On my first trip to Australia, back in 1993, the moment I stepped off the plane in Sydney, I felt like an arm had wrapped itself around my shoulder, with a hand placed over my heart. It felt like I was being protected. I was traveling alone; I was newly divorced; it was a big deal. At one point in my trip, I was on a camping trip in the top end of the Northern Territory. We were in Kakadu National Park, and we'd climbed to the top of Nourlangie Rock. Our guide, an Aboriginal man, was telling a story about his people's beliefs about the Rainbow Serpent. He said to me that all living things have a Rainbow Serpent, that it is the creative force in all living things. Rainbow wraps itself around everything, and with people Rainbow wraps around our shoulders and puts its head over our heart. I was sitting there, quietly listening. He looked me dead in the eye and said "You know what I'm talking about. Rainbow's wrapped around you, I can see him." You could have knocked me over with a feather.

4. As much as I hate housework, that's how much I love clean laundry. I love the smell, the feel of it when it comes out of the drier. I love everything about clean laundry, so it's the only bit of housecleaning I don't mind doing. When I was a young girl, I went to overnight camp at Camp Chickagami for Girls. We all had to be on a crew, and for three years, I was on the Laundry Crew. I loved it, just because of when it came back from the laundry and we had to sort it.

5. I have never, in my lifetime, voted for a Republican. If the Democrat is really bad, and there is no viable alternate person running from another party, I will not vote for the office rather than vote for a Republican.

6. I cannot carry a tune if it had handles. I love music, I love to sing, and people BEG me to not. Tone deaf would be a step up.

7. I also have two left feet. Not literally, like Gerry Fleck in Best in Show. But after years of ballet classes as a child, and jr. high mandatory dance classes, it was discovered that I have no sense of rythm, either. I can't dance. So, I love to entertain my son and daughter, both adults, by singing and dancing for them. They stare at me as if I was demented, with that look of "Are you SURE you gave birth to me?"

8. I love to bake bread. Kneading bread dough is theraputic, it makes me calm, it's like a meditation. I hate bread machines, as it takes the intimate process away. But actually putting together the right balance of ingredients, and then kneading it the right amount, and then letting it rise, and punching it down to rise again, and then a third time - and then the smell of it in the oven - nothing like it. (Except clean laundry.) It makes me feel at peace.

Okay,that's me. Now, who to tag?

1. Enigma at Watergate Summer

2. Naj at Neo Resistance

3. Intrepid Flame

4. Sumo

5. Peacechick Mary

6. Larry at Suzie-q

AND

7. Suzie-q herself

8. Annie at Cozie Shack

Whew.