Seven of Jen

I could try to come up with some seven-related excuse for why it took me so long to respond to Shelli's tag (I was waiting for seven weeks! Uh, I wanted to post after you'd put up seven other posts. You get the idea...) but really, I'm just lame. Better late than never, though:

1. I have a lot of hangups about bathrooms, most of which make no sense individually OR as a collective. I won't* take food or drink -- even if in sealed containers -- into a bathroom. The air in a bathroom is tainted, you see. There are invisible cooties (not necessarily germs, just ick) in there. I make Cait wait outside public bathrooms holding any (closed containers of) food or drink I might be carrying. Similarly, I absolutely, absolutely cannot chew gum in a bathroom. It would definitely get contaminated -- it's sticky; the ickies would stick to it. On the other hand, I am a sitter, not a squatter (except in extreme circumstances), and, I admit, I do not wash my hands after using the bathroom 100% of the time. I know this makes no sense, but, there you have it.
2. I still have my baby blanket. I even kept it inside my pillowcase until rather recently (ahem, when we started hiring someone to clean the house a couple of times a month). You see, I don't know what to do with it. It was so important to me that it seems disrespectful to throw it away (I can't even imagine doing that without cringing) but I don't know what the alternative is. The best thing I've come up with so far is to take a hike to someplace nice, have a bonfire and, well, cremate it. But I haven't gotten around to it because it seems... weird.
3. Houseplants stress me out. They are living things, but I am not so good at keeping them that way. I feel horrible if they die. On the other hand, if they survive, they are a problem because they are an obligation that I can't let down. My brother, who has a supremely green thumb, has provided me with a large array of nearly unkillable plants, and now I have to keep them alive. Some of them are doing so well they have been split into multiple pots, meaning MORE responsibilities. And then what do you do when you decide you have to get rid of some because they are either poisonous or tempting (or both) to your toddler? Oh, the anxiety. (Luckily, I was able to give a bunch to a neighbor, so the stress level is manageable at present.)
4. I detest fennel, anise, and anything else redolent or even reminiscent of licorice.
5. I'm a geek from way back, and it's genetic (or, more accurately, nature AND nurture, since I get it from my steps, too). My dad worked in IT his entire career (since before there was even a term for IT); my stepdad teaches himself computer programming languages for fun, and my stepmom was a network analyst. I've had access to computers at home since the late 1970s. My high school was a math/science/computer magnet school, and it was there that I discovered the virtual world of online communication. Only back then it was dial-up modems (including the kind with rubber cups you set the telephone receiver in!!). 300 baud, 1200 baud. 4800 BPS was blazing fast! I logged a lot of time on local BBSes. Despite my early love of technology, I'm not a particularly early adapter. My dad beta-tested AOL in the early '90s and tried to get me hooked, but I was content with my bitnet account (!). A year later, I did take him up on the offer and moved on to AOL in its early stages (any Lesbian Friends vets out there?). I'm amused to recall that when one of my geeky friends tried to get me to check out the Web in '94 I thought it was silly because what more could I want than the self-contained world of AOL (on my b&w Mac)? Eventually, I recognized the wider possibilities of the Web and the rest is history.
6. As a result of #5, I have met and dated three people online in three different decades. Cait and I, however, did NOT meet online, but chat and e-mail were integral to the start of our relationship as we were several states apart.
7. I've fallen off the NoCocaCola wagon (again). Oh, hell, I never even got on it this time. And I really need to. Natalie has never had any soda (of course) but she reaches for it when she sees it and says "eh eh eh" in the universal toddler language for "I want that!" I hate even to write this, but the other day she reached into the recycling bin in our kitchen, plucked out an empty Coke bottle, put it to her lips and gleefully tipped it skyward. Ugh.

*Since Natalie's arrival I have had to violate this rule from time to time. Oh, the things parenthood will push you to do.

I think everyone has already done this meme, but in case you haven't, or in hopes that you can come up with seven other interesting little-known facts, I tag, jointly with Cait, in alphabetical order:
Art-Sweet
Bri
Em and/or Brooke
Estelle
Kelly & Sam