Six Random Things

Brent Logan tagged me, so here is my response according to the following official rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Write 6 random things about yourself.
• Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post.
• Let each person know he/she has been tagged.
• Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Here are six random facts about me you can't learn in my Facebook profile:

1. The first album I bought for myself was Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water. I still love that album, and can still play that song on the piano (at least I could the last time I sat at a piano).
2. When I was a kid, I took piano lessons. In junior high, I decided I wanted to become a concert pianist and asked my teacher to pile it on. In the next year, we discovered that not only do I have small hands (a hindrance for piano playing), but every finger is double jointed, making them weak. My pitch isn't perfect, and I can't play well by ear (apparently those things go together). She told me I could make a living as a concert pianist, but I would never be great. I made my first career change in that moment. I wanted to do something where I could be great. I never took another piano lesson, either.
3. In high school, I was selected to complete a senior honors art program through a competitive selection process. I designed a project in textile arts to learn to weave and design fabric. But when it came time to sign my registration, my mother insisted that no girl should graduate from high school who couldn't type and take shorthand (I graduated in 1977, and she was stuck in 1957). After a heated battle that I lost, I dropped chemistry and the honors art program to take them. Typing turned out to be a great idea. Shorthand... not so much.
4. I was in the first audience to see Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of The Third Kind on the day it opened. I saw it more than 20 times in the theatre. Back in the day, you were either a Star Wars person or a Close Encounters person. I didn't find my inner Jedi geek until they re-released Star Wars a few months before Empire Strikes Back.
5. My dad (who didn't protect me from the typing and shorthand fiasco), was a somewhat famous research physicist who worked in solid state physics. His team did the fundamental science research that led to the development of solar batteries in the early 1960s, among other things, at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Most of his work was directly for NASA and he loved astronomy. I have fond memories of him showing me the heavens from the telescope in our backyard in Ohio when I was very young. I've been a backyard astronomer ever since. After I moved to Arizona, I bought a telescope and he got to see the stars under the Arizona dark skies.
6. After a stint as a consultant who flew to work every other week, I decided to use my frequent flyer miles to visit Australia. When that ticket fell through at the last minute, I took the three weeks off work and traveled through Arizona and New Mexico without an itinerary. I spent a week with the Hopi and was deeply moved by my time on Second Mesa and Third Mesa. It was the first time I had more time off work than a week and two weekends, and during this time I decided to go into business for myself. I came back to my routine with a new objective and passion, and started my company 9 months later. I've never looked back, and it's been 13 years.

I'm tagging the following people:

• Rhonda Bracey
• Elizabeth Bunsen
• African Kelli
• Jodi
• Nick
• Roger Willilams
  

I can't wait to see what I learn about your backstories!