7 Unusual Facts You Probably Could Live a Lifetime Without

Rob Clack, a new (to me) blogger has tagged me to write seven unusual facts about myself. Given that I am almost too honest in this blog, I don't know if there's much left to tell about myself, but I shall try. Rob has had a far more unusual life than me by the way, so I feel quite out of my depth.

Fact 1: I had tuberculosis as a child apparently. For several years my sister, who also had it, and I had annual chest X-rays. My mother always told me that if I smoked, the scar tissue would open up and I would get TB again. The last time I had a chest X-ray, as an adult, I mentioned the scar tissue and was told there was no scar tissue. I did smoke briefly as a teen-ager, but I think my mother's brainwashing did the trick. But what happened to the scar tissue? Was there ever any scar tissue?

Fact 2: Still on the medical front, I had a severe allergic reaction when I was 25 to the antibiotic Macrodantin. At least I think it was Macrodantin. The only way to know for sure is to take Macrodantin again, and I don't ever want to endure a severe allergic reaction again. It started with a swollen knuckle on my right hand and an itchy spot on the inside of my left knee. By evening my hands had swollen to three times their size and I itched all over. By the end of the week I was swollen from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. I had several injections of adrenalin and Benadryl. When I went to the emergency room the first night the admitting nurse thought my boyfriend had beaten me up. The other nurses apparently hadn't seen an allergic reaction before and gathered round me poking my skin, which hurt a lot.

Fact 3: I inherited my dad's teeth. He has a gap the size of the Mississippi in the front. Mine was the size of the Suwannee but I was quite self-conscious about it and wore braces for 15 months to get rid of it. It's gone, but other smaller gaps opened up later. My teeth also are slightly discolored because I was given tetracycline when I was 4 (maybe for the TB?).

Fact 4: My feet grew half a size when I was pregnant with my daughter. I buy size 6 shoes in the UK and size 8 in the US, but I'm actually more like a 5 3/4 UK and 7 3/4 US.

Fact 5: Perhaps I shouldn't admit to this one. What the hay. When I was 17 I kissed soccer player Rodney Marsh. He was playing for the Tampa Bay Rowdys at the time. My friend was a big fan and had found out when his plane was landing. We rushed over to Tampa Airport and waited by the gate, which you could do in those days. A newspaper photographer came up to me and said he'd take my picture if I kissed Rodney. I did, and he did. Then he (the photographer, not Rodney, who was with his wife) tried to ask me out. I declined.

Fact 6: When I worked at a newspaper, I was given an opportunity to start my own special sports section, despite knowing not very much about sports. The special section never saw the light of day but I stayed in sports for a couple of years, much to the consternation of my fellow journalists and first husband. What I learned is that men value sports a lot, far more than they should be valued, and that sports, despite what these men think (and it is men only) is not rocket science.

Fact 7: When I was 9, I developed several nervous habits because I was moved to a private school and was academically behind everyone else (I was also a year younger). I would wake at 4 a.m. to finish homework I'd failed to complete the night before. I bit my nails. I bounced my knees all the time. And I started to pull my hair out -- literally. I had a bald spot the size of a silver dollar or £2 coin before too long. It was vanity that made me stop finally. People were starting to comment on the bald spot if I didn't manage to cover it with the rest of my hair. So I stopped all the nervous habits quite quickly.

Now to complete this I must tag seven people. They are Swearing Mother, softinthehead, j., aoj and the lurchers, -ann, queeny, and pantheist mom. I would like to get to know each of these bloggers better.