oh my gosh, I've been tagged!

Much to my surprise, if not outright shock, I've been tagged for a meme by Aspergertopia. To my knowledge, this is the first time I've ever been tagged. Although, honestly, it may have happened before and I just never realized it because I'm not very good at keeping up with reading other folks' blogs. I try my darnedest to just do what I feel like I need to do here, and I check in occasionally with a few other folks when I get a few minutes. And tonight, I had a few minutes, and said "gee, wonder what's happening over at Aspergertopia" and voila, stumbled upon the fact that I've been tagged. I nearly fell off my chair. Thanks for the opportunity and giving me my first tag -- I find it more than a little funny (and fun!) that it comes as a result of your first tag as well. One of those cosmic karma things, I guess!

Of course, now that I've been tagged, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself! I suppose answering the meme would be a start. Of course, just my luck, I'm supposed to describe 5 strengths about my writing. And given that I don't really consider myself a writer (which I just wrote about earlier today), that proves to be a bit of a challenge. But, here goes anyway:

1. I don't think too much. I mean, really, when I sit down to write a blog entry, I often just open up the blank form without a thought in my head. Then I toss up a few photos, and just start writing about them. This is important, because when I DO think too much, I don't necessarily make a lot of sense. I can start with an issue I feel very strongly about, then feel the moral responsibility to try to be less judgemental and see things from another perspective, and then I'm all confused and sound like I'm trying to talk myself out of what I said in the first place.

2. I remember I have an audience. That's pretty new for me, by the way. I used to just blog along happily oblivious to the fact that anyone might actually READ my drivel, then be totally floored by the fact that somebody left me a comment. Like, somebody is actually OUT THERE??? (Sort of like how I felt discovering I'd been tagged for this meme....) But anyway, I try to keep in mind that some details of my life probably aren't things someone else might want to read while shoveling a bowl of cereal into their mouths at 5 am, desperately trying to get in some blogging time before the kids wake up. Plus, my Mom reads this. Hi Mom!

3. I don't read many other blogs. How can that possibly be a strength??? Well, it's one way to ensure that my material is original....

4. I'm not afraid to make mistakes. Which is great when it comes to boldly laying my thoughts out there for all to see. Not so great when it comes to the fact that I often neglect to spellcheck before I hit "publish post". But at least picking apart my common spelling errors gives my friends and relatives something to chat about between dinner and dessert. (Or is that desert?)

5. I like to "play", any game, any time. Not sure if that helps my writing, but if anyone else cares to tag me for anything, and I happen to see it, you can be sure I'll jump in and write a post about it, even if I'm struggling to come up with enough material to fulfill the criteria.

Ok, so now the truly problematic part: I'm supposed to tag 5 other people. Seeing as pretty much every blog I've read within the past week has already been tagged, it's leaving me, well, no options. I can make up answers to a meme when I'm not qualified to answer it. I can't generate bloggers that don't exist. So if there are any folks out there in the blogosphere who have not already been tagged, you can consider your tagged! That probably still leaves me about 4 people short....