I was tagged for the Virtual Cocktail Party that's raging around the 'net by the lovely Jill Asher over at Silicon Valley Moms Blog. Five things that you might not know about me:

1) I played drums as a elementary and junior high student. Never a drumset however. No, I had a single snare drum, two sticks and not a lot of talent. I liked to tell people that I was a drummer, but the reality is I pretty much sucked, and by high school, took up xylophone as a way to stay in the band. I sucked at those, too. In fact, one time our jazz band was scheduled to play in a festival and the director "forgot" to have the xylophone loaded with the rest of the equipment. I was clueless, and instead of just sitting quietly with my hands in my lap, I convinced a Yamaha representitive to loan me the latest model of vibraphone for my performance. The face on my director when he saw me standing on the stage with mallets in my hand and an AMPLIFIED instrument was priceless. He was not pleased.

2) Somewhere in my boxes of memorabilia, I have a photo of my 20-something self swinging on a playground swing. It was taken by my friend, Nicole. We were at a local park, and I was wearing one of the ridiculously short skirts I used to favor. At the top of the swing, I leaned over backwards, and Nicole captured the image of my long hair flying towards the earth, my beaming smile, and OH MY GOD my panties. My skirt had flipped up when I shot my legs skyward, and in the photo, I'm blissfully unaware, thinking of nothing other than being silly. One black and white shot capturing the essence of my soul.

3) I have occasionally staged tantrums to try to provoke a reaction from my husband and kids. The more dramatic and irrational I am, the more I laugh about it later when the dust settles. I consider this to be a major character flaw, and not particularly effective. I need to work on communicating without, say, jumping up and down and slamming doors. Or maybe everyone else just needs to DO WHAT I SAY THE FIRST TIME.

4) One time, when I was line dancing (I know) at a bar, I was wearing pumps (I know) and I was getting all fancy with my moves (I know!) I ended up doing a kick that launched my pump right off my foot and through the window of the DJ booth. No DJs were injured in the execution of that particular stunt. Wahoo!

5) I have a giant head. No really! My head is like a friggin cannonball. You don't want to get into a head-butting match with me because I will take you out with a single charge. This may or may not be related to the fact that I take all compliments as sincere, and more importantly, true. Even if that "you're so funny" was accompanied by an eyeroll and fingers-down-the-throat gesture, I hear the words and my head swells just a little bit more. This is why I'm knitting. So that eventually I can make a sweater that will fit easily over my giant noggin.