My friend D used to resist investigating what he considered “trendy” books, movies or music, just on principle. If it was the new hot thing with so many people at any given moment in time, he would shun it so as not to be considered one of the crowd. There may have been other motives in there as well; I can’t be sure. But while D and I haven’t been in touch in a while, I suspect he still hasn’t read a Harry Potter book or seen any of the movies.
I have a little bit of this perverse quality in me. I don’t think I take it to the extreme that D does, but that may depend on whom you ask.
One of the big trends from a couple of years ago that I resisted (mostly) was the whole Internet meme craze. Do you remember the “25 random things about me” meme that was going around Facebook back in early 2009? I was just going through my FB notes and realized that I was tagged by 14 different people back when that meme was in its hey day. And whether it was laziness or some other kind of perverse resistance, it doesn’t look like I ever wrote out my own 25 things.
It’s two and half years later. Is it too late? Who cares? Here goes…
1. I am a coal miner’s granddaughter and a farmer’s granddaughter. My coal miner grandpa came through Ellis Island from the Ukraine in 1913, when he was 18. My farmer grandpa can trace his roots back to Plymouth, Massachusetts.
2. I have lived in nine cities/towns/burgs in two states, but I have moved residence a lucky 13 times. Not counting my parents’ moves after I left home after graduating from high school, but including a new dorm room or apartment each of my four years of college.
3. I will have lived in my current house for a lucky 13 years in December, which shatters all previous records by nearly three times.
4. I am 5’9″ and wear a size 11 shoe. Thank you, Ukrainian ancestors!
5. I was born on Shaun Cassidy’s birthday and my friend Ann was born on Donny Osmond’s birthday. Donny was my first celebrity crush and Shaun was Ann’s. (I just discovered this little coincidence when Ann visited me last weekend. Weird, right?)
Okay, it’s a start: five down, 20 to go. Stay tuned.
maegregale.com 
I remember doing the 25 things. I doubt they were very interesting…I could come up with about 7 or 8 about myself that might be, but not 25…I was however descended from bigamists and bootleggers according to the cursory geneology I had to conduct for a university class. And the doctor who delivered me and saved me from a near-fatal respiratory complication at birth…is famous in our area for murdering his own two sons for insurance money and killing himself in prison.
Lora–wow! Whether 7 or 8 or 25, the genealogy and birth story (and doctor) certainly provide a provocative lead. Have you ever written that story? And I think you may have hit on why I never did the 25 things thing in the first place. I may eventually get up to 25 if I just do a few at a time. Makes for a good blogging prompt, at the very least.