I just discovered that I've been tagged by Tarah. Because I tend to be an open book anyway, these tags are always a little difficult for me. I mean, what's left to blather? Haven't I already told you prying people EVERYTHING there is to know about me? Hmmm...

Now, if you're tagged, here's what you do:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people (as always, the number is just a guideline!)
4. Please pass it on for fun...I know you all will do better than me...I just don't get to read all that many blogs anymore...I'm tagging:
Maralee (don't you think this would be a good start to a blog, my dear?!)
my sissy (you obviously need a kick in the pants!)
Tarah (your first six were so good I'm making you do it again!)
Ms. Battlestation (your recent addition is stealing ALL your attention!)

Now, for the six (these aren't "rolling on the floor" type confessions, but I hope you'll find them kinda cute)...
1. When Aaron and I were dating, there came a point when I decided it would be best if I broke up with him. We spent probably two hours crying and "discussing" and were unable to find common ground. But, he did convince me that breaking up wasn't really necessary and that we should just "separate" for 2 weeks. I left his house with a red, puffy face and a heavy heart. I climbed into my car to drive home and burst into another bout of tears (the silly is coming...). I threw my folded arms onto the steering wheel and lowered my crying head....until my forehead hit the horn! I went into one of those awful crying-laughing jags while he peeked his face through the curtains to see what I was honking at! I was embarassed, upset, confused (about whether to run in and tell him all about it and hopefully share a laugh and patch everything up?), humored, and frustrated (that I couldn't run in and fix it all). It still makes me giggle thinking about it. :)

2. The next day my sissy called to cheer me up (having heard from Mom) and we wound up spending about an hour on the phone--laughing about the honk and a dozen other funny stories. As soon as I hung up, the phone started ringing. I answered with the laughter still in my voice. Ooops! It was a suddenly-confused Aaron on the other end--he'd been trying to get through for the last hour to check on me (contrary to said 2-week separation) and was expecting to reach me in a very different state!

3. In the fifth grade, under the suggestion of my sissy's teacher, we swapped classes (the only time we tried to pull the twin-switch thing). Because Mr. Boeve (rhymes with "boobie") was in on it, the school day was pretty much shot in his class where I was a kind of a star. Mrs. McMillen, however, obviously went on with class as usual, only wondering why "Rachel" was being so chatty this particular day (sissy was always on the spot for this). Finally, Mrs. M asked "Rachel" to read a passage of something or other. My sis and I sound a lot alike, but have different reading rythms and the ruse was up. Fortunately, Mr B was able to take the heat!

4. Also in the fifth grade, on Valentine's Day, I wrote "UR Cute" (or some such thing) on one boy's card and purposely didn't sign it. He was smarter than me, though, and used the process of elimination to determine exactly who his secret admirer was! Blush!

5. In college my favorite parts of the newspaper were the classifieds and the obits. There was some facinating stuff there, if you knew how to read between the lines. Fertile ground for my fanciful imagination!

6. After college, I spent a year as a campus ministry intern. For that year, I lived with 9 other gals in a huge historic house. My friend Angela and I were cooking partners and once a week we planned and prepared a meal for the rest of the household. I have always had a habit of speaking to inanimate objects (a habit which Punk now shares with me) and frequently encouraged our meals to come together in a pleasant way by calling the various ingredients and tools "Little Buddy" (as in, "Come on, Little Buddy!") Finally, one day, Angela said, "If you keep calling me 'Little Buddy', I'm going to start calling you, 'Big Mama'!" It was also from Angela that I learned that, whereas it was acceptable in my family to "nudge" someone out of the way in the kitchen by physically moving into the spot that they were occupying, this was not how the rest of the world functioned (perhaps rather than speaking to the deaf-mute kitchen utensils and shoving the fellow human being, one might get better results by kindly addressing the fellow human being and pushing around the utensils...Big Mama!).