I’m trying to move the mindset of 45-year old into the space of a child’s game–tag.  I’ve been "tagged" by fellow blogger, Debbie Call, to answer the following question:

What are five things that most people don’t know about me?

• I have several childhood nicknames that my siblings still continue to use with me. One of those nicknames is one my sister and I use with each other, Bertha. Actually the full nickname is Bertha Butt. It was born out of an exchange I overheard when I was volunteering as a high school kid at a center for mildly retarded people. I know that’s probably not PC these days, so someone help me with the name for people with lower than normal IQs.  A resident went up to one of the football jocks who was also volunteering and said squarely in his face, "How are you doing, Bertha Butt?" and then walked away.  The football jock was speechless. Even then, I collected stories and this one made the rounds of my family. The name Bertha has stuck with me ever since.

• I have earned the title, Hoagie Queen. In college, I organized a sorority fundraiser centered around making hoagies (think Subway without the freshness and variety) and selling them during Superbowl half-time. My sorority sisters and I left the warm confines of our living area, in January, in Chicago, to carry bags of cellophane-wrapped hoagies to dorms, in search of customers. Even the coolest of my sorority sisters were relegated to being an overstuffed bag lady. What made it even worse was that most students had already arranged their own parties, pizza deliveries, and the like to coincide with half-time. (BTW–back then, people actually got up during half-time because commercials were just commercials, not major productions). Very few hoagies were sold. Which meant my sorority sisters and I toted our bags home, nearly full, and had more hoagies than we knew what to do with.  I remember standing up the next week at a formal meeting of my sisters, and as the treasurer for the house, reporting that we had made all of $51.02.  Friends joked for the rest of the year that hoagies could be found underneath my bed.  Thus, the name, Hoagie Queen.

• I have a checkered career as a flutist.  Actually, it started out just fine in my school years, up through the first year of college.  In high school, I played in orchestras, concert bands, marching bands, jazz bands, and any city and state youth groups I could qualify for. I went to music camp in the summer. Until one day, at Northwestern, the band director turned to me and asked me to play a note. He asked if I was sharp or flat.  I guessed right.  But I quit playing in groups after that semester, citing the heavy workload of taking organic chemistry and calculus and physics. I played again when I was in my twenties, in a band at Bell Labs. We practiced during lunch. During that decade, I was asked to perform at a family member’s wedding, with too little rehearsal time and an unfamiliar piece of music.  I ended the piece six measures ahead of the piano accompaniment, making me lose my taste for playing for another ten years.   And now in my forties, I play in a community band near my home. No one asks me if I’m flat or sharp. No one minds if I come in at the wrong place. For the first time, I truly enjoy playing with others without worrying about performing.

The tag game says to write about five things. I’m afraid if I keep going, I’d be asking my readers to indulge me in ever increasing dribble about embarrassing moments in my life. Somehow, the other stuff that people don’t know about me is just not that interesting. So I’ll end it here.

Now that I’ve been "it", the game continues. I’m tagging Deb Cooperman, William Arruda, Andrea Lee, and Hanna Cooper.

By the way, whoever created this game is a genius. Not only does this make visible our connections to other bloggers, but it generates traffic and interest for everyone all the way around. Brilliant!