I have been tagged today by fellow relationship networker Jason Jacobsohn from The Chicagoland Chamber and his great blog Networking Insight.  I have to share 8 random things about myself that people may not know, so here I go:

1. I am an avid Packer Fan like Jason.  I did not grow up in Wisconsin, but my father started ShopKo in Green Bay during the 60’s so we went to all the home games.  Driving from Chicago to Green Bay - 5 children and 2 adults.  Need I say more?  To this day, we are all still cheering for the Green and Gold even though we are spread throughout the US.
2. I was an Ensign in the Sea Cadets at Great Lakes Naval Training Center.  My third son Golan wanted to be in the military at one time, so he joined Sea Cadets.  Of course I volunteered to help - took my tests and became an Ensign.  Golan never joined the military but he and I along with my youngest son Daveed had many wonderful weekends of training.
3. I coached football and was the conditioning coach for the Wilmette youth football program for 2 years.  Daveed was 8 and 9 and I coached his team.  This past year, while volunteering at a New Trier program, a young man came up to me and said - “Didn’t you coach football?”  He was one of the young men I had coached and I made a good impression on him.  That was nice to hear.
4. I started dancing when I was 3 years old.  I took tap, jazz and ballet until I was 18.  I still love to dance, but did not make it a career because as Drake University had said in 1970, “You are too large to be a professional dancer.”  Oh well, I still love to dance.
5. I believe in angels.  I have had two encounters that have saved my life.  One was when I was 20 and my family was visiting Jerusalem.  We were staying on the newly opened West Bank.  My brother Max and I started walking to the Garden of Getsemini and we both stopped walking.  We looked at each other and both stated we did not want to go in.  The next morning in the Jerusalem Post was an article about 2 American tourists that were killed by terrorists.  I know my angels were looking out for me.
6. I lost 135 pounds in 1990.  I have gained some of it back, but I will be back down to my healthy size 10 by June 2008.
7. I was physically abused when I was a child and verbally abused in 2 of my marriages.  These could have had a negative impact on my life, but I look at them as learning gateways to where I am today.  There was a positive spin put on each of those incidents.
8. I love Hershey Kisses melted in the oven and then cooled so they have a crispy outside.  I don’t touch them anymore due to my healthy lifestyle, but boy - I sure do miss those Kisses.

I am now going to tag 8 of my friends.  Since I am one of the older folks on Jasons list, not all my friends have blogs, so I am going to offer them to list their 8 items in the comments area of my blog.

Kris Schroeder

Dean Klassman

Chad Coe

Mikki Williams

Patrice Marks

Anna Maria Viti-Welch

Marcy Gelber

Holly Kahan

Happy networking everyone!