The other day, I was tagged by Fiona with the 5 Random Things About Me list. After rereading my list I realise it is weighted heavily toward the ‘weird injuries I’ve sustained’ subject which creates a more thematic sort of list rather than a purely random one. However, weird injuries or accidents are really the only interesting things about me – random or not – so they’re going to stay.
1. I fell out of a second story window when I was little and came away from it without a bump, bruise or scratch. Babies are bouncy, I guess. I am less bouncible and more bruisible these days.
2. I have been bitten by the following mammals: squirrel, rabbit, cat, seal, dog, pig, horse. The most damage, measured in blood spilled, was inflicted by the squirrel.
3. At age four I had to have stitches in my tongue following an ice skating accident. Keep your tongue in your mouth while skating and you’ll keep your tongue.
4. While visiting a Central American country, I wore a small scorpion on my back, inside my shirt, for the better part of a morning before I noticed it and it was removed without incident. After that, I was careful to check all my clothing before getting dressed.
5. These days I worry often about the state of the planet and my impact on it. Seeing newly designed disposable (plastic) consumer items advertised on TV is enough to simultaneously annoy me and throw me into a funk. And there is absolutely no reason for grocery stores to wrap bananas or coconuts in plastic packaging. phew! end of plastic rant.
note: the seal pictured above is not the culprit from item number 2. But it looks a bit like the culprit – big eyes, flippers, whiskers, cute… and this is a better photo than the one I have of the seal in question.
I know the whole idea is to tag 5 more people… but I’m just not very good at doing what I’m supposed to. Take this as an invitation to post your own list on your blog if you so wish. Why wait to be tagged?
….
Kirsti Wakelin 
Well done, Kirsti! I think your list qualifies as random…Weird Injuries I’ve Sustained is about as random a topic as I can think of.
Bitten by a seal, huh? I’ll be asking you about that story the next time we meet. :^)
–Fiona
Rachael, consider yourself tagged!
Tongues are good bleeders. So are foreheads and chins. I recall dramatic results with the latter two as well and the forehead needed stitches. I don’t remember any parental freaking though. I was a little too young to remember the window fall but I’m assuming they probably used up the freak out quota on that.
Remember the good old days when playgrounds could kill or at least properly maim you? I bet you can’t get smacked in the mouth by the modern day swings. They probably have sensors like elevator doors do to avoid just that.
fgj, I feel the same way. I wonder if environmental devastation-induced depression will spawn a new pharmaceutical industry? It would be ironic if the pills were packaged in non-recyclable blister packs.
The second story fall incident explains so much! 😉
I’m with you on #5. I fret about all the horrible plastic things that seem to surround me with ever increasing frequency. I make a point not to buy products where the manufacturer can’t be bothered to put a recycling logo with the associated number indicating what type the plastic is (out in Delta we can put just about any number into our pickup box). Sometimes I just get depressed by the seeming hopelessness of it all 😦
If I manage to get any sleep tonight, and can still remember this tomorrow, then I will do my own random list.
I had a tongue injury when I was a kid. My cousin and I were playing with a backyard swing. We were pushing it and letting it swing back to us. My memory of the whole thing is vague, but I somehow got wacked on the tongue by the swing. I do recall there was a lot of blood and parental freaking out after that. For the longest time I had a very ugly scar on my tongue too.