25 Random Things You Should Know About Me

Since I have been blog-stalking several of you and you might be wondering just who I am, I thought I would share with you an exercise I recently did on Facebook. The latest trend on Facebook is the create a list of 25 random tid-bits of info about you. The point is to do it fast, I however took 6 days.

1. I was hoping no one would tag me (meaning sent me theirs so that I am obligated to do mine-a sort of virtual chain letter), but now my (former favorite) cousin Megan has gone and done it. Blast!
2. Like Megan I can suffer from "Impostor Syndrome". All through college I felt like a big-fat-faker. Grad school (including the trial by fire in Dr. Arbino's class) has really helped with this. Thanks God!
3. If I could go back and be a Freshman in college again, I'd totally do it, and do it ALL differently. Does anyone know the rules for going back in time? Do I get to keep the knowledge I've gained since?
4. I hated high school so much I graduated two years early. I have a reoccurring nightmare that the high school contacts me to tell me there's been some sort of mistake and I have to go back. Awful!
5. I've always wanted to try being a professional writer (please don't take the quality of this note (or my blog) as proof or disproof of any talent). I've also always wanted to learn how to paint with acrylics.
6. I'm sick of my hometown! I've lived here for 6 years since college and feel like it's time to move on for awhile. I want to move to somewhere fun and urban, but I feel stuck. Mostly because of money. (pout) I'd love to move to some little colonial Mexican town in the jungle. Um...maybe not forever, I've seen what it's done to some people. I think they call it jungle fever.
7. I regularly read the gossip page on MSN, then feel really gross afterwards. My favorite is when they have the worst dressed list. I don't think Jesus would read it, ya get me?
8. I recently started a blog of out total boredom. I'm generally too embarrassed to share it with anyone, but I did give the link to a few people who I thought would be encouraging.
9. I learned to knit about three years ago. I do mostly kids stuff, not because they're so cute but because I have a short attention span. I don't do anything in pairs for the same reason.
10. The closest thing to "action" I've gotten in 6 months was being called a saucy tart by a gay friend and kind of being stalked by a creepy neighbor. I chose to chalk this up to the ethical behaviour form I signed for grad school. No?
11. I love Christmas. I think it should start on November 1st (I totally stole this idea from you! You know who you are.) and end after the first week of January. That's when my Spring fever kicks in like a Kung Fu Master. However...my place still has some decorations up and I hate it. In my defense the items are above my reach and I am waiting for a volunteer. Any one? Please don't make me ask the creepy neighbor, cause I know he'd do it.
12. I love opera but have never seen one in person. La Traviata is SO beautiful. I bought a book called Opera 101 because I know nothing about it, but when tried to read it I couldn't, it was way too boring. Maybe it isn't true love.
13. The thing I am most afraid of is waking up alone at 50, with 7 cats, wearing the same sweater I've worn for 15 years with the compulsory holes in the elbows, craft projects covering my apartment, having grown wider than I am tall.
14. Every time I go on a big trip I make a travel journal, but have never, ever filled one up, no matter how hard I try. So I have like 6 half full travel journals. (Oh, who am I kidding? I never fill up any journal but I sure do love buying them.)
15. If I find a household appliance that I think is really great; like my grandma's upright Kitchen Aid mixer or my super-fab yellow vacuum, I name it Gloria.
16. I am currently watching Dirty Jobs and trying not to pee my pants laughing. He's at a factory where they clean ducks and he ripped it's head right off! Too funny.
17. I don't like watching football because I hate the macho-beer-gut-cheerleader-crap that (I believe) American football is today. However...I secretly sometimes turn a game on and let it play in the background when I'm lonely in my apartment. Sounds like childhood and home. (And yes, I do realize this comment drastically improves my chances of ending up like #12 but what can ya do?) I did however enjoy watching the end of the Superbowl, are there pigs flying? Check for me?
18. No matter how exhausted I am, I must read before bed. I have found that a good book will keep me up too long, a simply written book will get me to sleep pretty fast and non-fiction is the fastest. (ok, my bible is the fastest fastest, that's why I read it in the day time, duh!) Right now I am reading good-for-me-non-fiction-books. I've been getting plenty of sleep but am making no progress in the book.
19. I hate putting clean laundry away. I love when it has been put away, but loathe doing it. I thought I was being really clever and just left my clothes in a pile on my kitchen table near my laundry room. Very convenient! Until I watched an episode of "Wife Swap" out of total desperation. This awful awful woman did the same thing! I stopped doing this immediately!!!!!!
20. Every birthday my maternal Grandmother gives me $10 and has since I was a kid. This was the exact amount of money needed to buy a new Barbie at K-mart. To this day my sister and I call a ten dollar bill Barbie money.
21. The best camping trip I ever went on was when I was 18 with Gina A. I lost count of the number of ways we could have died. That was the best trip ever. I remember being thirsty the whole time, and drinking the koolaid with cinnamon and sugar in it, and the wild boar, and the rancid cheese, and the heat stroke. Ah, good times.
22. The code word for adventure is "pudding." It's from the 1950's movie Annie Get Your Gun. You see these two guys go on a big city adventure...ah, ya just got to see it.
23. At 18 I moved by myself to Seattle and went to culinary school. It was fun but I wasn't a very good cook-just didn't have the palate. I can, however, follow most complicated recipes and do still love to cook. I usually only cook on holidays though. My favorite memory from Seattle is riding the bus (which we called the shame train) home from Swedish Hospital with a fever (my car had run out of gas in the hospital parking garage), and seeing these two guys talk ecstatically to each other in Spanish about having just bought Michael Jackson's Thriller album. It was 1994! 94! Not 1984! When I eventually got my car out of the garage, I had to write a check for the $1 fee and the check bounced. This was pretty typical for my surreal days in the Emerald city.
24. I would die for either of my nieces.
25. I know it isn't popular but I totally love Jesus. This love has strained several of my relationships with family and friends. But he has changed my life, he's the reason I can get out of bed everyday. You could say I'm in love with him. Crazy, I know! I believe he is the son of God, was born to a virgin, lived a life never doing anything wrong, died on a cross, raised from the dead three days later and is still alive today. I know many people would rather me just keep this to myself, but think about this...if you read a great book or go to a fab new restaurant, you want to tell people about it, right? That's how I feel, I want to tell people about it.