Tag, I'm It!

Oh dear.......I've been tagged again. Actually, I was tagged a while ago by my friends up in Costa Mesa known as the White On Rice Couple. I'm finally giving in and posting this. Why do I find these thing so difficult to do? I don't know. I guess I'm not sure what to say about myself. I can talk for hours about Chinese Medicine. (I used to teach herbs and Oriental Medical Theory at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego.) But talk about me? Hmmm....That's different. Especially this time, because it's supposed to involve photos, and I think that the things about me I'd rather talk about don't photograph, because they aren't "things", per se. Like the fact that I love to travel.In fact, it's more than just "like to travel." It's more like genetically programmed to travel. I don't think they've found the gene for this one yet, but I'm sure it's there. My whole family is like this. We travel. And not just to another state to visit the family, though we do that too. It's more like getting a call from a brother asking "Wanna go to Vietnam?" "Actually, I hadn't thought of it, but now that you mention it.....why, yes, of course I'd love to go!" My parents were like this, and we've all grown into adults with the same necessity to see our world. My 2 brothers have been on all seven continents. I've only been to north, south and central America, Europe and Asia. I haven't yet made it to Africa or Australia, and missed a golden opportunity to go to Antarctica for cheap. Oh well....

Another thing I have a need to do is read. I've usually got 2 books going at once, as well as my subscription to The New Yorker. These are the last 2 books I read, and I keep dipping back into "Eat, Pray, Love", because I loved it so much. I also meditate twice a day. I sit for about 20-30 minutes in the morning, and then in the evenings I listen to these Holosync CDs. They're supposed to help your brain grow new neural pathways between the right and left hemispheres, as well as produce alpha, theta and delta brainwaves. I can't say that I understand that part, but it sounded appealing to me, so I went for it. Initially I got insomnia because I was just exploding with creative ideas. Now I can sleep at night. I have no idea what my brain waves are, but that's OK as long as I can sleep!Then, of course, there's journaling. I'm not consistent with it, but I'll write as often as I'm motivated to.....And last, but not least, there's the piano. When I was a kid, I had piano lessons. I'm not sure my mom planned the timing of them very well, because I took them for a while and then dropped them. Hormones kicked in, I guess, and the piano didn't seem particularly interesting anymore. But at this point in life, I've found a renewed interest in noodling around on this instrument. I'm positively autistic when it comes to reading music, but I have a good ear. So the trick for me is to memorize a piece. Once I've got it memorized, I can attempt to play it. Until then, it's a struggle finding each and every note. Funny how my fingers have their own memory. Re-learning Fur Elise, for instance, wasn't very difficult. My fingers remembered it fairly well. But learning something new? It takes months!Oh well. The only one who gets to suffer through that is my cat, Boo....Now do you see why I'm not much good at these memes? Anyway, here's the other part I hesitate to do, because I'm not sure how others view being tagged. But Since I'm obligated, I hereby tag the following 5 people:

1. Jaden over at Steamy Kitchen is beyond amazing. I don't know how she does it. She's a wife, a mom, a cooking teacher with a TV show and has a blog that makes me drool. Not only are her dishes to die for, but her writing makes me crack up!
2. Kevin, at Closet Cooking in Toronto posts on everything from sandwiches to kimchi, and makes my mouth water for each and every dish!
3. Coco over at Coco Cooks does everything from baking bread to dishing up tamales. And this on top of having a very busy work schedule!
4. One of my favorite people in the blogosphere, Mimi at French Kitchen in America, has a way of making you feel like you've been invited to sit down in her kitchen and share a meal, a glass of wine, and have a conversation with an old friend.
5. And lastly, but hardly least, I'm tagging Heather over at Gild the Voodoolily, because I just love her writing. She declares that she is zealously overcompensating for her white trash roots, but her sense of humor makes it obvious that there's nothing to compensate for!

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their Blogs.