I got tagged by Heather Brewer. I wasn’t sure what the hell this meant but, as she had been tagged by Erica Orloff, who had been tagged by Sara Hantz who in turn had been tagged by, well, you get the idea, this thing goes back a ways and so it seemed interesting enough to follow if only to figure out what it was. Bottom line, as I discovered, is to write five interesting or unique things about yourself.

Five?

Could I actually come up with five interesting or unique things about me?

Hmmmm. A challenge. I’m always up for a challenge.

1) I was, at the tender young age of 15, declared persona non grata in town-unspecified, state-unspecified, and forced to return to my father in Detroit, for spray painting “The South Shall Rise Again Cause Shit Floats” on a blank billboard in the middle of town-unspecified. I suppose some would think this act appalling, but the really appalling thing to my way of thinking is that my thinking at the time led me to believe that the local authorities would have no idea who committed the act, despite the fact that, as a displaced teen-aged, Detroit hoodlum, I stood out in this back-woods, southern town like a coffee stain on a white silk shirt.

2) Sex in one of those glass-walled elevators overlooking the atrium in Reunion Tower in Dallas, Texas. Nuff said.

3) My greatest fear is of being immobile, unable to ‘escape’, whatever escape happens to mean at the moment. If you follow this blog at all, you know I recently had my car repossessed by Exchange Bank (always like to say something nasty about them) (and, thanks to the friends I have at Backspace, I now have back). Despite all the other crap that was happening at that time, and there was a lot of other crap happening, this one act struck a blow far exceeding anything else. I’m a Detroit Boy. Without a car I am not mobile. Without mobility, I cannot escape. Escape is the Prime Directive.

4) I have a hard time letting go of things, even when those things begin to drag me down, staying with things long after I should have dropped them and moved on. For instance, I’m still hopelessly in love with a woman who left me over twenty years ago, probably for good reasons. Frankly, I’m in love with a time twenty-fiveish years ago and prefer it altogether more than the current time period. All that has come since pales by comparison to 79-84. Given one wish, I would go back to June of 1979 in less than a heartbeat. This is pathetic and makes my current social life suck big time.

5) I have grown less and less able to deal with other humans in face-to-face situations. Which is to say I’ve become even more of a loner than I’ve ever been. I can do the ‘Hi-how-are-ya’ thing at the grocery store or local cafe no problem. I can even carry the conversation for a few fumbling moments beyond that if need be. But if the time stretches beyond that, I’m lost. I feel like I’m suffocating. Crowds of people make me so nervous I can’t think. All I want to do is run. This is NOT a good thing.

Okay, so there are the five. I’m probably being more honest here than I should be, which I think is the point of this exercise. But than again, why should I care? I am what I am. Love it or leave it, as it were.

And, because I do not wish to carry this burden alone, I now tag Stella, AKA A. S. King, Mike Coombs, one of the fine editors at GUD, Rebecca del Rio, Lisa Burton and Carolyn Burns Bass.