I've been tagged, and I didn't even have to run.

I've been tagged, which apparently is like my least favorite playground game (next to Red Rover) brought to life online. I'm OK with it though, because no one can tell how out of breath I am (unlike when we play tag outside).

Here you go, Internet. Five random things about Erin. And I'm calling no tag-backs now.

No. 1: I have a rare form of obsessive compulsive disorder.
I don't think they even invented it yet. It's the "get really, really excited about one thing, and don't let go and do it a million times, then throw it down after a bit and don't touch it again" kind. Luckily, I'm not really that way with people. But it is kind of difficult; I go through phases, and then they're just over, just like that. I'll eat Apple Jacks 176 days in a row, then not touch them for years. I'll listen to one CD for six months, then never be able to go back and listen to it again.

No. 2: Secret (only it's not anymore, since I'm telling you) guilty pleasure: Watching shows such as "Three Wishes" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
OK, now, come on, I don't sit there and like, TiVo them (I don't have a TiVo), but I can't stop looking when I see it's on. It's not like I sit there and go "awww"; I pick on them, and go "Oh, I am SO sure that really happened, I am SO sure," but the truth is, I cry at the end. Almost every time. And I hate myself for it a little bit.

No. 3: I carry around scraps of paper with cryptic notes on them.
They're story ideas. I write short stories. I'll get a good idea, usually when it's not convenient for me to brainstorm and write, and write "Garage door: neon sign with blue burnt out: his great aunt," on a napkin or gum wrapper, which makes perfect sense to me at the time. Later, I go "man, that was dumb." I end up using only the parts I can read.

No. 4: I can't do math. Like, at all. And that's why I'm here.
I failed elementary algebra. I just can't do it. So I went to the University of Toledo instead of Bowling Green State University, because UT doesn't require any math above elementary algebra for journalists. I'm a journalist partly because I was an education major and then a psych major, and they both required calculus. I go to extreme lengths to not do math.

No. 5: I read Joyce Carol Oates.
A deep dark secret in itself, it is not. But I do it for two reasons: 1. She's pretty good. And I could live to be 87 and not have all her short stories, plays and novels read by the time I'm 45; 2. I feel smarter when I can pick out all the places and things she uses all the time -- rivers, towns, landmarks, she's big on recycling.

You asked for it. That's the scary truth about Erin.

And, I'm going to do a general tag. Mainly because I don't know too many people yet. Yet. So, uh, tag.