>I’ve also heard the Chinese saying, both a blessing and a curse, translated as “May you live in interesting times.” We certainly live in interesting times, and it’s not always positive. but am I interesting enough to fulfill this meme? I’ll give it a whirl.

The Good Flea tagged me with the “Seven random things about you” meme. I know I’ve done one similar to this before, so I’ll do my best to think of new and exciting — well, new things, anyway — that readers of Compost Happens may not already know. Here are the basic rules:

Link to the person who tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 facts about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I blog in three places: Here at Compost Happens, A Mother’s Garden of Verses (poetry), and on the new group blog Mid-Century Modern Moms.
2. I can eat stale popcorn for breakfast, if there’s coffee to go with it.
3. I love to bake. One of my life goals is to learn to bake bread — without the breadmaker machine. Gadgets are great for me, a full-time teacher, because I can feed the family and still get all my schoolwork done. The breadmaker and the crockpot are my saving grace. But there are times when I pour the flour and yeast into the breakmaker, push the button and think, “I’m cheating, really. It would be so satisfying to knead this myself.” But who has the time? Maybe next summer.
4. I enjoy watching the stat counter on Compost Happens. It’s not like watching an odometer click, scheduling maintenance and oil changes, and wondering how long it will last. Watching the stat counter is more like watching a child grow. I might just celebrate when it hits 20,000. I predict that might happen next summer sometime. Party!
5. I’m a morning person. I enjoy getting up before the rest of the family, getting my coffeepot going, feeding the rabbits, and enjoying the quiet. It gives me thinking time and a little computer time without having to fend off the other Internet addict, er, computer users in the household.
6. If I hadn’t been a teacher, I might have been a nurse. In fact, I had applied to a local college of nursing and was meeting with an advisor when I made my decision to instead expand my teaching license to include regular elementary. The rest, as they say, is history. I still satisfy my interests in that area by keeping my first aid and CPR up to date and by training as a public health volunteer.
7. If I ever leave teaching (don’t worry, family, it’s not likely) I would like to write. Even now, I’d like to write more. I published a professional article a few months ago, applied for a grant for the first time (didn’t get it, I’ll try another source later), and realized that I miss the process of forming thoughts and putting words on paper. That said, I offered to help my principal work on a large grant application. We’ll see if she takes me up on it.

So…do I live in interesting times? In a world view, yes. In my own household and blogging world? Only time will tell. Heck, it’s an election year. Anything can happen.
As for tags — so many bloggers, so little time! I’ll leave the tag area open to anyone interested. Let me know if you post this one; I’ll put up a link.