Lucky 7

I was tagged by MaddHatter to do the 7 meme, and while - as SJ noted elsewhere - this meme has incredible similarities to the old 8 meme, just shorter, someone else noted that there are way more than 7 strange things about any of us to list.

Rules:

• 1. Link to your tagger and post the rules.
• 2. Share 7 facts about yourself; some random, some weird.
• 3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names and link to them.
• 4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.

I'm tagging any commenter who doesn't have their own blog [examples: Rea, Special Ed, G, Mommy, etc.] and any contributor here who doesn't have their own blog [Hyrax, MordyS, Pobody's Nerfect, etc.]. Here we go:

• 1) I can't stand it when people put silverware on the 'wrong' side or in the wrong order. Forks on the left, knives and spoons on the right! Is that too much to ask!? Oh, and cups at the top right, too.
  
• 2) I'm obsessed with symmetry. Things need to be balanced [and preferably around a center point] or I'll go nuts, with the lone exceptions being allowing for artistic flair or some kind of practicality. If you'd see our living room, you'd notice wall units on either side of the doorway to the kitchen; comfy chairs across from one another; a long couch along the long wall and a shorter couch along the short wall; a tall lamp in opposing 'corners' and, since one is on one side of a couch, a short lamp on the other side; a computer desk and table that are of the same width along the other long wall; and another wall unit evening out the other corner. And when we open up the table, I turn the comfy chair so it 'looks' at the rest of the room, or I take it out.
• 3) I can't sit with my back to people. I think it stems from some kind of fear of getting stabbed or shot in the back. (Feel free to psychoanalyze at your leisure.) On a similar note, I have trouble walking away from someone with my back completely towards them; I take a slightly curved angle so I can be half-turned. Interestingly, the lone exception to this is when I'm playing football.
• 4) I'm not a big chocolate person [Ser would say here: You must be a big something person!], though I appreciate anything good that has chocolate in it or really good chocolate. My favorite desserts have always been (as far as I can recall) my mother's chocolate and coconut mounds; my mother's custard cake; and my mother's chocolate cake with white frosting for my birthday when I was a kid. And my own chocolate chip cookies, because nobody's are as good as mine [except sometimes people in my family, excluding Dad]. If you're wondering why we rarely have dessert here, it's because nothing is quite as good as those.
  
• 5) Shaking my leg keeps me calm, collected, and helps me think. When I don't do it, I interrupt people more, I don't think as clearly, and I'm just overall more nerve-wracked. Now will everyone please stop complaining!! I don't care if it shakes the whole room and makes you nauseous! In all seriousness, it lets out nervous energy. Interestingly, before football games in high school, I'd spend the morning consciously stopping myself from doing it - it would build up an adrenaline rush. By the time the game started, I was loaded with extra energy. Perhaps it was mostly psychological, but it certainly felt like a huge boost.
  
• 6) I have to be doing something with my hands at all times or I go nuts.
• 7) I used to be (and still am a bit) obsessed with the number 7 (not 77 or anything - just 7). Kenny Lofton used to be my favorite player because of it, and it bothered me greatly that John Elway had dared to wear it. Lofton's little cartoon when he came up to bat was a "Lucky 7", and I loved it. Favorite card: 7 of Diamonds.