Brandy at The Building Brows tagged me for this meme. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve done one of these. Here are five things people (probably) don’t know about me that I don’t mind sharing:

1. I played Mary Todd Lincoln in our 8th grade play, “The Blue and the Gray.” I wore my mom’s old prom dress with hoops, made by my grandmother. I was a nervous wreck practicing my speech — but when I got in front of the audience, it was mysteriously fun. I couldn’t see people’s faces because of the bright lights — and I felt … like I was … Mary Todd Lincoln. Weird.

2. I used to dream of going to the Olympics as a gymnast. Really dream. I came home from gymnastics practice every day with new bruises, covered in chalk from the bars. I loved having special friends who only knew me from the gym, separate from school. At school, I was painfully shy; at the gym, I was outgoing and fun. (It was like having my own private Terabithia, for those of you who get that.)

3. Our family owned a horse for three years named “The Bandit’s Delight.” My sister and I went riding every day after school at a stable a few miles from my house. (It’s now a subdivision). Bandit liked carrots and sugar cubes — and he’d tilt his head to the side and finish off a Coke, if we wanted to share with him. Those were very happy days for me and my sister. I still love the sweet smell of hay in a barn and the sound of rain on a tin roof.

4. I may or may not have a fake talent for clogging. Whenever I pretended to clog in college, it got all my dorm friends laughing. This led to my being nominated for the “Rodeo Queen” contest by my sorority. I actually had to go be interviewed for this role by the president of the agricultural fraternity, and the day of the rodeo, the five of us who were finalists were driven around the arena in the back of a pick-up truck. I wore a borrowed cowboy hat and boots. When they called my name, enough people whooped and hollered for me, so I received a silver tray engraved with my title, “Rodeo Queen.” My husband gets a kick out of calling me this.

5. I’ve eaten fugu before, the Japanese blowfish that, if prepared the wrong way, is so poisonous it can kill you. I ate some at a ryokan (Japanese hotel) with my homestay family on the island of Kyushu. It tasted good — and was very expensive. After we ate fugu, we played a rowdy card game of “Uno,” our favorite.

That’s my five. I’m tagging YOU because I don’t know who hasn’t done this yet. Thanks, Brandy!