Of Course I Write Romance Novels.

Oh, blog tags… I always wanted to be tagged by someone, and it never seemed to happen. Then, not that long ago, I discovered that my friend Alyssa Goodnight had tagged me a LONG time ago (here, back in October ’06) — too long ago, really, for me to ride that wave.

Then I just found that the lovely Laurie Cosbey tagged me nearly two months ago, and I had no idea. That’s how far my head’s been stuck up my… Well, you know.

So, Laurie’s tag is for listing six random things about me. Of course, being a word knurd and a statistician’s daughter too, my first thought is — But how can I make sure they’re really random? So I’ll just spew out the first six About Mes that come to my brain. Here goes:

1. I grew up doing probability problems at the dinner table with my statistician father. I hated math growing up, because I was two years ahead in it in school, and probably shouldn’t have been. So I took my last math class, pre-calculus, in 10th grade, and was so happy to be free of that source of stress. (My college had unusual requirements that allowed me to avoid math completely.) Now I love math. When I play music with my band, I plot out the song in my head in numbers and geometrical patterns.

2. I don’t want to frequent Starbucks for political reasons (Austin has always had lots of independent coffee shops, and their numbers are dwindling big-time), and I didn’t frequent them for a long time. And yet, lately, well…their coffee is just! so! good! Someday my politics will align with my tastebuds.

3. I tell my dogs I love them about 64 times a day. (That’s probably pretty accurate.) I tell Erik about 10 times a day, not because I love him any less, but because he speaks English and would probably get pretty sick of it if I upped the daily “I love you”s to 64.

4. I’ve been jogging for about 9 years; I “like” to jog (in theory); I want to be a jogger; and yet, it never gets any easier. I still rip my heart and lungs out to jog a 3-mile stretch, 2 or 3 times a week.

5. I just finished reading Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty, and loved it. Now I want to go devour the sequels.

6. Hmm, maybe I should try to make this a good one… But then it’s not random! Um… Well, OK, here’s one that YOU will probably think is random, even if it didn’t come to me randomly: I’ve watched Dirty Dancing 134 times that I’ve counted, and countless other times besides. (I stopped counting at 134 because it started seeming just a wee bit ridiculous.) I’ve been in love with Patrick Swayze since I was about eight and he was in that great TV miniseries, North and South. I had this really incredible sexual fantasy about him back then; you know what it was? I’d eat dinner and get ready for bed…I’d walk upstairs to my room, and open the door…and there Patrick would be, lying on my bed, fully clothed, his head propped up on his hand…and he’d smile and say hello. WHEW. That was a hot fantasy, when I was eight! About as hot as I could handle!

That’s my six. That last one was hardly random, since it pretty much defines me as a person (heh — and how lucky am I that Erik isn’t at all threatened by my Patrick-love?). Anyway, Now I tag

Alyssa Goodnight

Heather Foeh

Lexi Connor

Michelle McGinnis

Nicole Reillan

and Bianca Regan

because all those women are going to be well-known and -loved authors someday. Two of them — Alyssa and Bianca — are well on their way already, via the self-publishing route.

The rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you — me!

• Post the rules on your blog

• Write six random things about yourself

• Tag six random bloggers by linking to their blogs

• Leave comments on their sites to let them know they’ve been tagged

• Let your tagger know when your entry is up

Can’t wait to read everyone’s not-necessarily-random things!

Love, Catherine