Tagging in the world of blogs

Apparently, I have been tagged, though it has nothing to do with spray paint in my 'hood.
So what I'm supposed to do, after being tagged is give up info in a post here concerning 5 things about me that most likely, no one that reads this would know about me.
The problem, how to think of 5 things that are interesting, though keep me out of trouble in a broad sense.
Maybe I'll start with things from childhood and work my way forward chronologically?
To that end, I will state that I was born in 1966. Johnson was prez and we were in the middle of the Vietnam war.

1) When my brother and I were pretty young, our family moved from CA to FLA for a couple years when my dad took a job there. Probably the coolest thing that I remember is that through an invite from my dad's aunt, we were able to see a launch at Kennedy Space Center.
In the summer of 1975, was the Apollo-Soyuz launch where we joined up with the Russian ship, Soyuz-19. 30 years later, I still remember the whole thing from the shaking of the ground to the sight of the rocket shooting up and away into the blue. It was completely amazing.
I'd kill for one of the commemorative issued Speedmasters seen at right (The Omega Speedmaster was and still is the "official watch" of the NASA astronauts) but my obsession with timepieces would be a bore. I do have a vintage 1974 Speedy, though. :) I wear it often and love to wind it up. Nothing matches the sound of a mechanical watch ticking away..


2) When I was growing up as a teen, I was basically a Reagan Youth. Oh, did I love Ronald Reagan when I was in High School and into college (which was his entire time in office). My background growing up had a lot to do with it as well as nice, conservative peers in school. I later abandoned the Republican party and have never registered for either since about 1992.
As an optimist, I believed in what I was hearing from them about the free market and personal responsibility and smaller government. The first things that bothered me with the political right, though, was when they started aligning themselves with religious crazies. Then I started actually working for a living and understood some of the evils of corporate America that had to be kept in check. Plus, I like clean air and water. Call me crazy.. I could write an entire HUGE post on my move from one side to the other and basically hating the two party system, but that's for another day.

3) A timely thing: I hate Christmas music. With a passion. When I hear Jingle Bells, I want to poke out my ear drums. When I hear Silent Night, I want to bury my head in the ground to avoid the torture. There have been some creative people that did some interesting things like Run DMC about 20 years ago, but most all you hear anyhow is the "classics". I hate all of that crap. I wish it were illegal.
OK, so I worked 16 years in retail grocery and had to listen to it all day long during the season, that might be part of it.

4) I love gardening, particularly roses. At my old house up in the Bay Area, I had like 60 plants. At my current house, I only have a half dozen so far and not much room because of the yard layout (and not as sunny a backyard) to plant more. I'll try and squeeze a couple more, though as soon as the bareroots for this year are in at Anderson.

5) I cannot get enough Fresca. Though I try to limit myself to 2 cans a day. When they started carrying it in our machines here at work (which are subsidized, so we only pay a quarter per can) I was so damn happy!

Gimme til later tonight to tag others.. :)

OK, three more people, give it a try if you wanna:

Sar
Shea
Toad