tagged!

This is the second time I've been tagged by a blogger. Nate from the Precious Metal Buddhist blog tagged me -- check out his blog for Buddhist news, good stuff! The first rule is post the rules so here they are:

• Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random or weird things about yourself.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs
• Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I think my life is pretty boring (other than going to India!), but here goes:

1. I read the Encyclopedia Britannica. yes, really. When I was a kid my parents bought a set and one day I just picked up the first volume starting with "A" and read right on through to "Z". Not word for word -- I mean, there WERE some subjects I was not interested in -- but I did read most it. I loved to read, what can I say?

2. I wrote lots of poetry when I was in high school and college and was named one of Illinois' best high school poets. Also won awards for my poetry in college and my poems always appeared in my schools' literary journals.

3. My claim to fame is OMing with Beat Poet and Buddhist Allen Ginsberg when I was in junior college, about 1973. How he wound up at a city college in a non-descript neighborhood on the south side of Chicago I'll never know, but he came to a do a poetry reading and he read from his famous "Howl". As a young poet, I was mesmerized . After the reading, he led us in chanting OM and other vedic chants and afterward someone yelled "hey, let's go to our house for a party!" -- remember this was back in the good old hippie days and stuff like that happened all the time -- so we did, me, Allen, and everyone else.

I remember the packed apartment, the loud music, and the haze of marijuana smoke...and Allen Ginsberg looking so small and scared behind his big glasses as he sat on a stool in the kitchen surrounded by half the party, everyone hanging on his every word.

4. I moved out of my house when I was 18 and never looked back. got an apartment, found a roommate, and supported myself all through junior college and private university on work-study jobs and grants. My roommate and I lived on food stamps and I was turned down for welfare (public aid as it's called now) because I had $100 in my checking account. I ate lots of government cheese back in the day -- my roommate and I used to wait in line for government food handouts -- and didn't mind a bit.

5. When I was a sophomore in high school I was in a riot. Sly and the Family were supposed to play a free concert in Grant Park in Chicago and they never showed. Sly was known for not showing up for concerts, so when the crowd figured out he was a no-show people got a little hot under the collars and started to riot, throwing garbage cans and port-o-potties around. I watched people ripping off the instruments that were up on stage. The infamous Chicago police -- you may remember them bashing in hippies' heads during the 1968 Democratic Convention -- showed up and my friends and I outran the cops. Tear gas doesn't smell good, y'all...stay away from riots, if you can...

6. I worked for lawyers for 20 years. I quit after 20 years, then got a certificate in horticulture and had my own garden design business. I still design gardens touched with the Spirit Wild. Then my first yoga teacher encouraged me to teach, and the rest is history.

I've reinvented myself twice since the age of 45. I truly believe that all things happen for a reason and that there are no coincidences. It's never too late to do what you want to do. live your bliss. follow your heart. and do not die an unlived life.

7. I dropped out of college for financial reasons in 1976, never finishing my degree. I returned to college in 1990 -- 14 years later and in my late 30s -- finishing my BA in English and graduating Magna Cum Laude. The same poem that won a writing award when I was in junior college 15 years earlier won another writing award when I was in my 30s -- proving that good poetry is timeless...;)

I'm tagging:

Bindi from Bindifry's Itty Bitty Brain Basket

Tracy from A Lotus Girl

Yogamum from Yoga Gumbo

YogaSuzi from Yoga Like Salt

Fran from FranIAm

Gartenfische from De Die in Diem

Sirensongs from Feringhee: The India Diaries

If anyone I've tagged doesn't want to play, that's cool. This is only the second time I've been tagged in the blogosphere -- tagging is the thing to do I guess and I won't respond to all tags. I don't even know the definition of a "meme". I understand if you don't want to talk about yourself, because I don't either (says the blogger.) It took me 6 months to write anything about myself for my own website.