Seven fascinating tidbits

Well, the fabulous novelist Katie Morton tagged me for that seven things meme, which, amazingly, I haven't done yet even though I've seen it everywhere. So, seven random things about me:

1. I can't whistle or wink or raise one eyebrow at a time. My facial muscles are deficient, apparently.

2. I hardly ever cry. But when I do, it's usually about really small, apparently inconsequential things. Probably I'm really crying about all the big stuff that I didn't cry about at the time that all adds up. Something about the last straw breaking the camel's back, or something.

3. I love to look at apartment listings and houses for sale all over the world and imagine living in those places. I am dying to own a house and completely furnish it and decorate it, possibly with professional help. I only wish that sort of project were in our budget.

4. I really like my job, but after this, I don't want to work in public health again. I like it in theory but in practice it just doesn't engage me that much. I love the writing and the editing, and those are the aspects I want to stick with.

5. You know how some people are addicted to shoes? Well, I'm addicted to sweaters. It might be because my feet are size 11 and it's difficult to find cute shoes in that size (although it's gotten much easier over the past few years), but I absolutely love sweaters. I can never own enough.

6. I have a scar under my right nostril from where I fell off my bike when I was six and a piece of gravel went up my nose. It required stitches inside my nose, which was so difficult and slow for the doctor to do in such a tiny, child-size nostril that the Novocaine wore off partway through and the next time he poked the needle in, it was incredibly painful. Originally they told me I was going to need plastic surgery to remove the scar, but it pretty much faded on its own. It's almost unnoticeable now, although for a few years in elementary school, it was more prominent and people were constantly telling me that I needed to wipe my nose.

7. One of my pet peeves is when people pronounce the word "idea" as though it has an R on the end. I realize that my readers are from all over the country (and world, to some extent) and that therefore some of you probably pronounce that word that way. If so, my apologies--I don't mean to offend. I don't mind hearing it once or twice, but somehow Torsten picked up that pronunciation (probably when he was living in England), and it drives me absolutely crazy when he says it. Whenever he says "idear," I always shout, "IDEA!"