Hello There, I'm Deidra.

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a post with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 10 people to be tagged. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

A certain Sunny Insomniac in "Somewhere Sweltering, Texas" has decided that my blog is worthy to be tagged in this lovely little game!  (Thank you!)  Wanna know more about me?  Too bad, I'm doing it anyway.  :)

1~ I had surgery for a cataract when I was five.  For those of you who don't know, a cataract is something in your eye that makes your vision go all fuzzy.  Most of the time, it's really old people that get it.  Seriously, go to google and type it in.  It'll take you to websites with picures of smiling elders everywhere.  (Don't ask me why they're smiling.  I guess they got the surgery too.)  Basically, they somehow removed the natural lens in my eye and replaced it with a glass one.  (If you want to know how that's done, you can look that up on google, too, but it's not for people who are queasy a.k.a. those who dislike eyeball violence.)  If you happen to look at me at just the right moment, when we both happen to be positioned certain ways in respect to the source of light, you'll see my eye glowing like a cat's eye does at night.  That's from the reflection of light in the glass. 

2~ I can't keep a bedroom clean for anything.  At this point, I think I can't function in anything that's not a mess.  I've been trying to clean and organize my room lately, but when it comes time to find a place for something, I stand up, put my hands on my hips, and stare at it with a sputtering, frying brain in the hope that it'll decide the best place for itself on its own and go there quietly just because I'm that intimidating.

3~ I've always been into fantasy.  As kids, my brother and I read Baby Unicorn and Baby Dragon about a gazillion times.  As a college student, Lord of the Rings has a special place in my heart and I still like to read books with new takes on mythical creatures.  I especially love Tolkein's depiction of elves.  This doesn't make me someone who goes to Excalibur conventions dressed as a goblin or whatever; I just like fantasy stories.

4~ When I was a kid, my favorite doll of all time was Polly.  The "patches" on the pattern of her dress made me think that she was always a poor little orphan girl in my imagination, looking for love in the strangers she met on the street.  I think she always found it eventually.  Why else would she always be smiling? 

Poor old Polly's put up with some abuse over the years.  Her face is always dirty now, even though you can still see her original freckles underneath.  I think her neck is technically "broken", because you can feel what I assume to be styrofoam moving around inside of her bonnet.  Her injuries are the true signs of love...at least for a childhood doll!

5~ I've always been crazy about chicken.  My mom used to say that I would either get completely sick of chicken one day and never want to look at it again or turn into a chicken myself.  I still eat chicken all the time in place of hamburgers or whatever when I eat fast food.  And I haven't found any feathers yet.  Maybe I should start keeping an eye out for that.

6~ I was in marching band through part of middle school and all of high school.  I played flute (my original instrument) at first.  I know the flute is ridiculously girly, but hey, what can I say?  I first picked it because I thought it had a beautiful sound, and I couldn't abandon it just because most of the girls who play flute are ditsy and earn us all a bad stereotype.  I ended up changing over to the synthesizer (a.k.a. electronic keyboard) for most of the time I was there.  (Before you ask, the synth player stands in the pit, which is front-sideline percussion, so you can stop wondering how one marches with a keyboard strapped across their chest.)   I know marching band sounds really corny, but honestly, ours was a pretty awesome to be in.  We had some really cool people, and we pushed hard to bring the competition.

7~ I wish I could draw, but I'm no good at it.  The same goes for dancing.  I'm learning to live without being able to beast either one of those.

8~ I took tap dance and gymnastics classes for five years.  Go ahead.  Laugh at the irony.

9~ I'll go a long way to keep my word.  If I tell you I'm going to be somewhere, I'll be there.  If I'm not there for any reason, I'll call if at all possible to tell you why.  It bothers me when someone says they're going to be somewhere and they mysteriously aren't, so it's valuable to me to be able to say I'm dependable for that kind of thing.  I always imagine people waiting and crushed with dissapointment if I'm not where I say I'm going to be.  That's because I've been the crushed person waiting more than once.

10~ I love Doctor Who.  It's a sci-fi British television show that my brother introduced me to.  Science fiction?  Yes, please.  British accents?  Heck yes!  Isn't every girl a sucker for an accent?

11~ My hair likes to lie flat, but I like to muss it up a little at the top to make it kind of fluffy.  Think very slightly emo-inspired.  This leads to a lot of spray fights in front of the mirror and some rather interesting hair days sometimes.  Also, it's naturally straight, which would be fine with me, except that sleeping on it usually messes up that little compromise and causes it to do this weird little flip-in-on-one-side, flip-out-on-the-other thing that I've come to detest.  I know that it's all a little superficial, but my hair is the one thing that has to look at least okay.  I can get up in the morning and throw on any old jeans and a t-shirt...in fact, I usually do.  It's just that when I feel like my hair looks really bad, it makes me feel unattractive, but when I think it looks good or at least okay, I'm fine with anything else being less than beautiful.  I'm really not that girly.  Don't judge me!

12~ When I was younger, I was one of those scrawny girls.  I didn't even have a little belly pudge to worry about.  All that changed when I hit...well, I guess it must have been puberty.  All I know is that one day, I woke up to find that when I wasn't looking, some curves invaded.  The most noticeable thing was the hips.  I was like, "wait, what?  Now I have to actually turn sideways to get through tight spaces!"  I was so used to being scrawny and straight up and down, like a stick, that it took a long time for me to think of myself as someone with any curves at all.  And with the more womanly curves came the belly pudge.  I have a little bit of fat there, but shhh, don't tell anyone!  I try to hide it.  The dang thing doesn't want to go away.  Probably because I rather enjoy eating.

13~ I'm most comfortable sitting down when I can put my feet up.  Recliners, big chairs, and couches are my friends.  I've also been known to curl up in a kitten-like ball sometimes.  One of my friends once looked at me when I was doing that and said that it must be uncomfortable, but at that point I was already asleep.

14~ I participated in NaNoWriMo this past November for the first time.  (For anyone who wants to know what that is, try this "about" page on the NaNo site.)  I didn't win, but I got close and I learned a lot, which is why I decided to do it in the first place.  I plan to try again this year.

15~ I'm still learning to drive a stick shift, and I'm getting quite a bit better at it.  Until I'm a boss at it, my brother is driving the straight-shift car that was meant for me, while I drive the automatic meant for him.  He named the car that I drive Luke, so naturally I named the one that he drives Leia.

16~ I used to think that I needed quite a lot of sleep to operate, but college set me straight on that.  I can stay up for a long time and run on no sleep if I want to, especially if it's for being with my friends.  For instance, I haven't gone to bed tonight and I've been looking over every few minutes to see the progress on the sunrise happening outside the door right now.  Don't worry!  I'll probably sleep half the day away when I go home. 

17~ Obviously, I really like writing.  I'm also a pretty good singer can can never resist singing along with a song I know.

18~ I like to dip brownies in ranch sauce.  No, stop...don't make that face!  People always have a bad reaction to that little tidbit of information.  So did one of my friends the first time I told her that.  Then she tried it, and now she likes it.  So there.

19~ I believe that the media has given almost everyone unrealistic ideas about love.  In our culture, it actually takes work to figure out that love won't make everything in your life perfect just because you've found someone you're obsessed with.  I believe that real love is something more realistic and more identifiable than that, which makes it that much more wonderful.

20~ Since I said all that, I guess I should also tell you that I'm single.  I'm pretty sure my life could get ridiculously complicated right now if I wasn't!  My view on dating is that if it happens, it happens, and if it doesn't, it doesn't. 

21~ I wear contacts.  I still like the idea of getting purple ones someday, just for special occasions.  And yes, "special occasions" might even mean your average trip to Wal-Mart if I'm feeling particularly crazy.

22~ If I paint my fingernails, my favorite color for it is definitely blue.  The same goes for toenails.

23~ I broke both the bones in my leg in seventh grade, so the doctor put in nine screws and two plates to help it heal right.  They leave those in, and I have two fairly impressive scars just above my ankle on each side as an added bonus.  Mom wanted me to put lotion on them to help them heal better, but I wanted some awesome scars to tell stories about, so I never really used the stuff.  She still doesn't know that's the reason.

24~ Although I listen to a variety of music, I used to listen to more alternative, which can be angstier than my newer favorites.  Nowadays, I love just about anything with a really good beat, which is working to my advantage right now because the popular music seems to be geared toward dance-type songs like the feel-good stuff by Kesha and Lady Gaga.  I'm a happier person in general than I used to be and I honestly think that's the reason for my changed taste in music.

25~ I picked up an application today (well, technically yesterday now) for a really nice restaurant in town.  I had someone tell me that they could put in a really good word for me there, and since it seems like you have to know the right people to have any hope of getting a job anymore, I hope this connection translates into a job.  Here's hoping!

Whew!  Coming up with 25 random things is a lot harder than it looks.  I had fun, though.  And I like reading them, so who are our next contestants?

I'm tagging:
Kaely at I couldn't sleep...
Hannah Mae at Hello life, glad you're here
Amanda at It's Blogworthy
Kappa no He at Kappa No He
Caitlin at The Christian Psycho

That's all I've got for now.  I don't have a whole lot more blogger friends than that, and the ones I do have either wouldn't be interested or have already been tagged in this game.

You know a little bit more about me now!  Wasn't that fun?