I don’t usually participate in bloggy memes, but two folks I like and respect (Aaron Shear and Aaron Pratt) have invited me to take part in a viral “Tell five things about yourself that few people likely know about” thingy.  So I will

1) I’m more introverted than folks suspect.
Though most folks see me as oft-smiling and reasonably social, I actually quite dislike large crowds, and am especially unfond of very large, loud parties.  I’ve gotten better at meeting people and making conversation, but I still much prefer small social gatherings (birthday parties, movie nights with 5-20 people I am comfortable with, long dinners with a handful of friends, and so on).  I also quite value my alone time… to read, think, rest, etc.

2) I have perfect pitch.
This is probably more entertaining or jealousy-inducing in you fellow musicians, but… yes, I can tell you what key a piece is in or what a particular chord is just by listening.  This isn’t useful in most circumstances, and in fact, it somewhat hampered my classical piano sightreading since I’d always try to play popular classical pieces by ear.  My evil-but-brilliant piano teacher thus forced me to study more obscure classical pieces that I wasn’t likely to have heard before .  My perfect pitch, however, did come in handy when…

3) I ran my own singing telegram business in high school.
Due to a mixture of good behavior and amazingly trusting administrators, I was able to form and lead a group of about 12 fellow high school students in daily practices and quasi-guerilla singing-birthday-telegramming… during class time .  If I remember correctly, we charged something like $2 or $3 per song (including delightfully PrintShop’d personalized card), and also were regularly asked to sing the national anthem at many high school games.  I think we raised a couple thousand bucks (yes, that was a lot of songs over two years!), which we donated in its entirety to the school in the form of a music CD library for checkout .  And in case you’re curious, I personally arranged all the Mozart-quality pieces, including “A Muppets Birthday,” “Mexican Hat Dance Birthday,” “And Why Not?” and several other astoundingly brilliant (but brief!) compositions.

4) I joined the Northwestern Novice Crew (rowing) team out of peer pressure.
I lived in a super-awesome dorm at NU ("Willard WOO!") even as an upperclassman, and a bunch of adorably cute freshmen girls persuaded their favorite Big Bro to join the crew team with them.  I lasted a month or two before sanity caught up with me (5am practices in the freezing cold on the river?  Willingly?!), and bowed out only after I fainted during practice.  Turns out I had been weakened by the flu, but I figured it was a “sign” anyway.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, all the froshies who egged me into joining the team quit well before I did .

5) I can put each foot behind my head (but not at the same time).
This is even before I tried yoga.  Imagine how flexible I’ll get after a few more pilates and yoga classes!

* * *

And now, to tag five other lucky winners, in no particular order…
- Erica Joy Baker
- Graham Waldon
- Bountiful (and increasingly Big!) Bee
- Ryan Schultz
- Doctor Awesome

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