Tag, I'm It!

Okay, so Beth from Fake Plastic tagged me to participate in the 8 Random Things About Me meme. I figured this would be a nice reprieve from my usual postings about plastic bags. And as Beth mentioned in her comment, this could even be fun. So, to participate in this meme, the first thing I'm supposed to do is post the rules:

1) Post these rules before you give your facts

2) List 8 random facts about yourself

3) At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them

4) Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they've been tagged.

And now, here are 8 random things about me:

1. I have Batrachophobia. This means that I am terrified (absolutely terrified!!) of frogs. I've been deathly afraid of frogs since I was a child, thanks to my brother who would chase me around with buckets of frogs. This is how I learned to ride a bike--my brother chasing me with a fricken frog and me hopping on the bike trying to flee from him in horror. Of course, I didn't realize I had developed a phobia until I was in high school. To my chagrin, this phobia lingered on into college. It's actually the reason why I'm a psychologist and not a pediatrician. When I was a biology/pre-med student at the University of Georgia, I was told that I had to dissect a frog in my biology lab. Too embarrassed to tell the teaching assistant about my phobia, I withdrew from the course and changed my major to psychology. Please, please don't tell me that frogs are harmless. I already know that--that's the thing with phobics--all rationality goes out the window.

2. When I was three-years-old, I dreamed that I would grow up to become Wonder Woman. That, of course, never happened. But I still love watching episodes of Wonder Women to this day.

3. I was born in Puerto Rico, but raised in the South. When I was two-years-old, my family moved to Texas. We also lived in Kentucky for a couple of years, and by the time I was ten-years-old, we moved to Georgia. As a result, whenever I speak Spanish, I sound like a "gringo" (i.e., an American). I don't have a Puerto Rican accent at all. In fact, I learned how to speak Spanish in high school. (My father didn't want us to speak Spanish at home.) To be honest, speaking Spanish is a mixed blessing. I'm glad I can speak Spanish with my relatives, but I don't like speaking Spanish with other people. I guess I've been teased one too many times. I've lost count as to the number of times people have told me I'm not a "real" Puerto Rican.

4. I'm the oldest out of five children. I have two brothers (Raphael & Joel) and two sisters (Erica & Rachelle). Rachelle is the only sibling who lives in Puerto Rico. The rest of the bunch live in Georgia. And they all work at Mood Lounge, which is located in Buckhead (Atlanta). My brother Raphy is the general manager, Erica is a bartender, and Joel is a bar back. I'm so jealous--I wish I could join the gang and work with them at Mood. :0)

5. I'm turning 30 on October 4th! I've really not felt any dread about reaching this birthday milestone. In fact, I'm looking forward to celebrating the big 3-0 with my friends here in South Bend! One anticipated highlight will be dancing the waltz with my dance instructor, Dan O'Day. Because everyone who attends these dance parties will be watching us, I've been very motivated to learn how to dance the waltz accurately and gracefully!!

6. I got braces put on my teeth two-months ago. (And I've been bitter about this ever since!) But here's the rub: Not only do I have to wear these braces for two years, next summer I'm having surgery to "correct" my jaw. In other words, my lower jaw will be broken! I'm meeting with the oral surgeon soon--he'll be able to tell me whether I'll need to have my jaws wired shut after the surgery or not. I think it's a two-month recovery period. Not fun, that's for sure. As you can imagine, I'm already planning for my hiatus next summer.

7. I don't have a middle name. All my other siblings do, but not me. I guess my father figured that naming his first-born daughter after a Beatles song should suffice. And come to think of it, my first and last name is French. Verges in polite French conversation has two meanings: orchard. And penis. Please don't ask me about the penis reference. To make matters worse, my second last name is De Jesus. Go figure.

8. I played the clarinet (and the bass clarinet) in the school band. Yes, I was a band geek! :0) To this day, I'm grateful for the experience. My music background has come in handy with my dance lessons; I can hear the rhythm, the strong and soft beats, quite easily. Maybe one day, I'll play the clarinet again.

Ok, now I'm tagging:

Closet Environmentalist
Blue Monster
Experimentaholic
Merry Meghan
Modern Day Shmoozing
One Bulb at a Time

(I know I should have tagged eight blogs, but I could only think of six!!)