If you comment on this post, I'll list 5 things I associate with you, and you can do the meme too. redcat9 gave me these 5 things.

Being Tall: At 5'11" I fit soundly in the category of "women who are tall". My father, at 6'7", is soundly in the category of "men who are extremely tall". So when I was growing up I was in an environment where my height was only average at best compared to his. I think that this strongly influenced my opinion and demeanor regarding my height. Many people have said that I don't act like a tall girl or they won't really notice I am tall until they stop to think about it. I think that this is because I don't have a self consciousness about my height - I don't slouch to try and seem shorter like many tall women, I wear heels, etc, and most of that I chalk up to growing up with my dad. On the other side my mother is 5'3", so I also don't feel awkward being around people who are shorter than me and I have dated men of all heights. There have been times when height affected my life - back when I was acting it was awkward for me to be taller than a male counterpart. I sometimes have to remind myself I'm tall when I see someone looking at me oddly and wonder why - then realize I'm in 4 inch heels and therefore 6'3". It also affects the way I play sports and other physical activity since my center of gravity is unusual and tall people can have specific health problems. But mostly it's nice to be able to reach things on the top shelf.

Professional Sports: I love 'em! Of the big four my favorite is hockey and, ironically, my least favorite is basketball but I will enjoy any game of any sort that is available for the watching no matter what it is and who is playing. Recently this has been golf, skiing and snowboarding. I certainly have my specific teams I cheer for (Red Sox, Bruins, Flyers, Blazers) but most of all I appreciate good sport - I can quite often be found applauding the other team if I think a play was particularly elegant or a shot was amazing. I also enjoy minor league play because, while I do have players I follow (Chara, Beckett) I don't need to know the players to enjoy the sport. I am obsessed with the Olympics. When they are on I will sit and do nothing but watch for the whole 2 weeks. There is something about that combination of athletic and patriotism that is awesome.

GenCon: Ah, GenCon. I went to my first one 4 years ago I believe, where I was working for Lone Shark on the GenCon puzzle hunt. My first year was quite the experience... when I was growing up I didn't really realize I was a nerd because I was in an environment where there weren't many of them. So I didn't grow up playing D&D or much M:TG because there wasn't anyone for me to play with (video games I played on my own and my parents were both into sci-fi books and movies). When I got to MIT I was exposed to many of those things for the first time and loved it - GenCon was totally overwhelming. Here are thousands - thousands! - of people wanting to play games with me. Hell yeah. While at GenCon I tend to spend most of my time in the board game room with an occasional RPG thrown in. I don't have the money for TCGs or Minis (though I wish I did) and I have little to no LARPing experience. I worked for Loneshark for two more years after that one with an increasingly cool subset of people but I couldn't go last year because I was in Scotland. I am looking forward to my first GenCon where I can just game all day/night. GenCon is also important because it is where I got to know redcat9.

Single Sex Education: For those of you that don't know, I went to Baldwin, an all girls school, from 5th grade through 12th grade. I loved it and think it went a long way towards shaping who I am. I was able to focus on school and building strong friendships without worrying about boys or looking too smart in class. I was involved in extra curricular and summer activities that involved boys so I didn't feel like I was unable to deal with the other sex. I would strongly consider sending a daughter to an all girls school. On the other hand I most likely would not send a son to an all boys school. While I think that it is good for women I am not convinced that being in an all male environment during those formative years is a good thing for boys. The men I knew who went to an all-male school were, overall, more arrogant, misogynistic and homophobic than men from co-ed schools. (Of course there are exceptions, I'm not saying they are all like that, etc, it is just my experience overall. I had some good friends from the all-boys school). I am also less enamored with single sex higher education. College is training you for the real world and I knew that I needed to gain more skills and experience dealing with men before entering the workplace. I'm sure Wellesley has plenty of statistics regarding the benefits of an all women's college (especially for those who were from co-ed highschools) and I honestly don't know much about it. I do think it is an unwise choice for someone to go from all girls hs to an all womens college. I choose to join a sorority in college specifically so that I would have an all-female support group if I found myself missing that part of my life. Turns out I spent most of my time at a fraternity - whatever that means.

Flying: Ah, what a tale. I spent my childhood traveling extensively with my family and, beyond the ridiculous pain in my ears on landing, I had no problems with flying. Then in the summer of 1996 TWA Flight 800 went down. Something in my brain snapped. My parents were supposed to fly two weeks later and, at 15 years old, I ran into their bedroom sobbing and begging them not to go because I didn't want them to fly. On my next flight (to the Caribbean I believe) I flipped out. On takeoff I was sobbing so hard, my muscles were all clenched and paralyzed, I hyperventilated and started losing feeling in my fingers and toes which started creeping up my arms and legs. I have never been so horrified in my entire life. For the flight home I took 3 Dramamine and passed out but my fear of flying was born. For the next 8 years I was aerophobic. I missed 6 flights because I couldn't get on the plane. I have twice left the plane after boarding. I was given sedatives which only marginally worked. I have sat 14 hours on a train to and from North Carolina more times than I can count because flying just wasn't an option. It is difficult for me to even explain what it was about flying that terrified me. Eventually I had counseling with Capt. Tom Bunn from www.fearofflying.com. I cannot recommend this program enough. It taught me ways to deal with the fear - everything from knowing what is normal to visualizations to the simple but amazingly powerful advice of visiting the cockpit before the flight. To this day I still try to interact with the pilot before I fly because knowing that there is someone nice, competent and professional in charge of my life calms me down (though once it backfired - trying to get to texas for spring break I met the pilot who was an awful man in a terrible mood who basically said he didn't want me on his plane. Needless to say I didn't get on it.) You will notice that through this paragraph I have been speaking in past tense - I no longer consider myself afraid of flying anymore. I even look out the window sometimes.