Seven Things

Adina Sullivan over at How Do We Get From Here to There tagged me to do this Seven Things thing.  Having a moment to breathe, I decided to do it.

Here are the rules:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter and/or Plurk.

Here are my Seven Things

1. I first decided to be a teacher in elementary school when I took an extra copy of a worksheet home to store it safely until I became a teacher. When my parents finally told me to move all of my stuff once I graduated from college, that paper and a few others were still in pristine condition, complete with the purplish ink.
2. In college I was a history major, but I spent an equal amount of time (if not more) working as a photographer for the UCSD Guardian. I even did a couple internships at a couple of the smaller local papers.  I considered photojournalism as a career – everyday provided a vast array of great experiences where I got to see parts of the school and the local communities that I would have otherwise, both the high and low moments.  After going to a hit-and-run accident that involved a seven-year old on a bike and seeing the distraught parents, I decided that the I just couldn’t do it.  So I switched gears and turned my photography obsession into a hobby.
3. I have terrible organization skills.  It is a curse.  Drives my wife crazy.  Drives me crazy much of the time.  I have the desire, just not continuous ability to follow through.  Not to say that I don’t know where everything is – I know exactly what pile or folder to find everything!  Plus, I always get what needs to be done, done
4. I am a music freak.  I always have been.  I started with a tape and record collection, moved on to CDs, and now I fill my hard drive with mp3s, etc.  Back in college, that newspaper photographer position got me into just about every show I wanted to see.  That got me hooked on live recordings of shows, which only has made the collecting of music more intense.  Some of my favorite bands include U2, the Decemberists, the Cowboy Junkies, and the Grateful Dead.
5. I used to really want to spend some time traveling through Europe, but in the last few years I’ve really been more interested in Indian and Chinese history.  After working on the Story of India project, India currently sits at the top of my must-visit list.  It will take a few years still.
6. I have braces, again.  I had them when I was younger, but some severe TMJ pain has forced me once again to be metal mouth.  I could have worse problems.
7. My family is everything.  While the kids occasionally drive me crazy or keep me from getting any real sleep, they are my world.  My wife and I make an amazing team, don’t know where I would be without her support on a day-to-day basis.

Hmm.  Who do I tag?  I’ve been somewhat “out of the loop” for the last couple years, so I’m not going to tag anyone.  If you want to do it and haven’t been tagged, leave a comment.