The Meme of (approx.) Eight. . .

Ok, it's been five days now since I've returned from my whirlwind six-week trip to Israel to get my younger son married, and I'm just about over jet lag; the reason I'm tired now, is my own fault--I stayed up very late last night Google-chatting with my older son's girlfriend in Tel-Aviv (now, that's a good reason to be up late.)

I promised that my next post--this one--would be responding to Elie's tag to write the Meme of Eight, and I try to keep my word, even about the little things--so here goes--the rules of the game come first:
"Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog."
Here are my facts:
1) I have two names, a first and a middle which I don't use, which are Hebrew. The English spelling of my first name exactly corresponds to it's Hebrew spelling.

2) I was born and raised in Queens, New York, and went to a well-known (in Orthodox Jewish circles) school in Manhattan.

3) My first spoken language at home until perhaps age three, was Hebrew.

4) As a child, I was very shy and withdrawn socially, but was very outgoing at home and with extended family.

5) I was very artistic when I was younger: I drew, sang, and danced, but didn't dance in public. I was in a choir, though--starting with "The Ramaz Chorus" in elementary school--because that was a group activity, so I wasn't afraid to do it ( I never soloed, though.) As far as drawing goes, my mother saved in a notebook my very first drawings from when I was one-and-a-half years old. When I was a bit older than that, I drew cartoons--with whole story lines and characters--to entertain myself and my sister when we were little. I would spend hours just lying on the bed and drawing. I used to call it, "drawing a story."

6) Like Elie, I have always been easily distracted by sound; I think I probably have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), but it was not common to send kids for 'special needs' testing when I was young, so it was never diagnosed.

7) Just so you don't think I did only sedentary activities, I was somewhat athletic and loved to run; our school didn't have a track team, but I was a fast runner, although not the fastest.
For fun, I used to wear my "Eisenhower jacket" (boy, does that date me!)--which I nicknamed 'flappy ears' because of its long, pointy collar which flapped in the wind-- and run around the block where I lived, just to feel like I was flying!

8) I love hatzilim* and falafel* --they are among my all-time favorite foods. I could eat hatzilim three times a day!

9) I CAN'T STOP!!!* I love the former-American-now-Israeli rock group Shlock Rock who changed rock song lyrics to Jewish themes. I used to play their albums as I ran errands with my kids in the car when they were little--the songs made you proud to be Jewish! They played at our son's wedding, and they were great! (no, they didn't pay me for this unsolicited promotion.)

*Please don't shoot me, I know it's the Meme of Eight (math was never my strong suit!)
I'm tagging the following fellow-bloggers, although after checking several blogs I see that many of my originial choices already were tagged a while ago. As a result, I am only tagging 6 and not 8 as the "rules" require (but I've already broken them once, so, what the hey). I look forward to reading their responses:

Bagel Blogger

Baka Diary

West Bank Mama

Jerusalem Joe

Jameel

triLcat

*hatzilim = eggplant

*falafel = falafel (-doesn't everybody know falafel??)