100 Things About Me
Inspired by the recent rash of "Odd numbers of things about me" postings, I decided to sit down and compile a list of my own. Admittedly, I'm unsure whether there are 100 noteworthy things about me, so it may take a few days.
1. I worry how much of what I write here will come back to haunt me should I decide to run for public office.
2. I'm a midwestern girl living in Manhattan.
3. I'm probably the only person that actually enjoys those survey emails friends send you. (i.e. Coke or Pepsi, last movie you saw, favorite brand of toothpaste, etc.)
4. As a teenager, I was banned from using the family lawnmower after a freak incident involving a pine tree, a horseshoe stake, and several hundred dollars of twisted metal.
5. So far the best vacation of my life was to Melbourne, Australia. If you haven't been there, go.
6. I'm driven. Adam says I'm like a freight train - I pick a goal and go after it and don't stop until I achieve it. Then I pick another goal. He's right. A freight train.
7. I think the Simpsons and Eminem are two really insightful commentaries on contemporary society.
8. I wish I could speak Spanish and French.
9. Dogs and children are great, so long as they belong to someone else.
10. I don't like Charmin toilet paper.
11. I've been in love with the same person since the sixth grade, but never dated him.
12. Although I live by email, I love snail mail. It always brightens my day.
13. My extended family is enormous. Irish Catholic. . .enough said.
14. The low down: 5'11" strawberry blonde with blue eyes and an Irish temper.
15. Proud to be a former band geek. (Or is it, Once a band geek, always a band geek?)
16. Big fan of Impressionist painters, R&B, quiet cafes, and the 1/9.
17. I was painfully shy as a child - I wouldn't even go into the grocery store to buy a newspaper.
18. I grew up in a town where cows outnumbered people 4 to 1, and there was (and still is) only one stoplight.
19. Love watching all sports except basketball. (Perhaps due to my own experience with the game - in freshman basketball I set a record for having the ball bounce off my skull four times in one game.)
20. My photo should be listed under the dictionary definitions of UNCOORDINATED, KLUTZ, and "Ohh, look out!"
21. I love botanical gardens, but can't keep any plants alive myself. Yes, that includes cacti.
22. One of my greatest fears is that people see me as a lousy friend and completely egocentric.
23. Growing up, my dad used to make us go to church every Sunday. I hated it then, but now I value it. There's something strangely comforting about being able to go to any Roman Catholic church in the world and knowing all the rituals. Hmm...that sounds cultish, doesn't it. Oh well.
24. I ought to be doing homework right now. Yes, I am a student.
25. I can't really swim. My nose doesn't close like normal people, so I choke.
26. In the ninth grade, I was in a play. Important realization: I can't act.
27. I wonder what other people would write if they had to write 100 things about me.
28. I wish the whole world would recycle. There's no good reason not to.
29. Ending my own sentences in prepositions bothers me. (Evidence I should follow through on being an English teacher?)
30. I want to win the Nobel Prize. (Whether in Economics, Peace or Literature, I'll leave to the committee.)
31. I like emoticons and overuse them. =)
32. My travel bug is ginormous. (A portmanteau coined by my good friend Luke. Gigantic and enormous = ginormous.)
33. I love words.
34. Listening to the Wallflower's "Josephine," I wondered what it would be like to have someone write a song about me.
35. Three of my goals in life: curing homelessness, hunger and poverty in America.
36. I am such a dork that I have a computerized list of goals. It started innocently enough as a vague 5-year plan, honestly.
37. A quick story about me, goals, and probably why I'm single. . .
One night, the ex-boyfriend and I were having the "future" discussion on the phone. You know the one. Anyway, in frustration he blurted out, "I just don't know what you want!" The next morning, I tore out the pages of my journal that listed all my goals in life - everything I want to do and be - and sent them to him.
Days later, I called to ask what he thought. His reaction, and I quote: "That was hard to read."
Let me now clarify. It wasn't that he had finally realized that our goals in life were completely incompatible, but because I had written in a spiral around the page and it was difficult for him to turn the paper and read.
That was the end. Not the beginning of the end, the end of the end.
38. I write to vent, to invent, to calm down, gear up, look back and move forward.
39. Remarkably, I've never broken a bone.
40. I require more sleep than normal human beings, preferrably nine hours a night.
41. I think pigeons are the carp of the bird world.
42. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's a time to be grateful for what you have, spend time with family, eat good food, watch football. . .and you don't have to buy any gifts! It doesn't get any better than that.
43. 99% of the time my fortune cookies are right.
44. I believe in dreaming big, and working harder.
45. I love collecting quotes and quips from things I happen to hear or see. I try to jot them all in the same journal so I have something to refer back to when I'm feeling empty. Today I will start an online version, and hope you'll share some of your favorites with me.
46. I own shelves and shelves of books. Not that I've read them all, or even half, but I love being able to just go to the shelf and learn something new. Big fan of garage sales and used book stores. I always get a kick out of being able to buy Toni Morrison for the same 25 cents as Danielle Steele. I will go to my grave never having read a single Steele, Steven King or John Grisham book.
47. One of the things I wish for is a kitchen. I live in a closet - no space for a kitchen. I really miss cooking. I love to cook, especially when it's for other people.
48. I draw a cartoon strip called "The Adventures of Chuck." It's unpublished.
49. Growing up, I was Eeyore. Which one were you?
50. I have vowed to never step foot in a Starbucks as long as I live in this city. They are literally on every other block - 141 of them as of May 2002. God only knows how many now. I am a huge fan of disgusting corporate commercialization, but Starbucks makes even me want to support the Green Party.
51. As an undergrad at one of the UW's, I had a Philosophy professor who started the class by handing out the syllabus and saying, "Well, this isn't Princeton, so . . ." That scarred me. I still want to smack him.
52. I like CheeseWhiz on popcorn.
53. My friends and I went out barhopping one night, and I happened to be wearing the same shirt and earrings I have on in my driver's license photo, and a bouncer caught it. He just stared at me sideways and said, "Uhh, yea, okay..."
54. My mom says I've been 40 since the day I turned 3. I'm only 25.
55. When I'm feeling down, I eat. A lot.
56. I don't like sleeping with socks on.
57. My only known allergy is cats.
58. I've never smoked a cigarette in my life (or anything else for that matter).
59. Nicknames: Mandy, chicken, Axel (as in Beverly Hills Cop), and "a". I like "a" best.
60. I will die young of a brain aneurysm. Trust me on this. A person can't have such excruciating headaches and be "fine".
61. I enjoy writing children's books.
62. Wanted: male. Must be tall, dark, and literate.
63. I like great smelling guys - just following one on the sidewalk can change my day. Mmmm. Grrrrr.
64. Maudlin. My AP English teacher discribed my writing as maudlin. It's still maudlin today even though I consciously try to edit against it.
65. I enjoy fishing, but I've never learned how to clean a fish. (Q: Why do you "clean" a fish, but "gut" a deer?)
66. I don't hunt. Klutz + gun = Disaster
67. I've always wanted to learn how to sail. (Bleary-eyed romantic vision of cream colored cableknit sweaters and spending the weekend at the Cape.)
68. My cd collection is diverse. Bread, Chopin, Miles Davis, Live, Stones, etc. I only have 200 discs, but if I had unlimited disposable income I would probably spend most of it buying music. I love music.
69. My grandfather on my mom's side was a sheriff's deputy and the firechief in our small town. Most of the guys on that side of my family are still firefighters. I respect that.
70. Before I'm 30 I want to tour Europe. (preferrably with a significant other)
71. I hate when I'm eating cereal in the morning, look down and see a cockroach swimming in my milk. Ewwgh. Welcome to NYC.
72. I think my little brother is one of the sweetest human beings on earth. I hope he finds a girl that's equally as kindhearted.
73. I want to retire to a thousand acre ranch in the mountains of Colorado. I want to live right in the middle of it without another person for miles.
74. On my "someday" ranch, I want a pair of big black Belgian horses that can pull a sleigh at Christmas time.
75. I told my dad that once and he looked shocked. He was probably still adjusting to learning I was moving to Manhattan. His reply was that he didn't know much about Belgians, but he'd learn so he could have the job of stablehand and run the ranch. I think that's a great idea.
76. I value honesty, integrity, trust, family, faith, commitment, progress, optimism, innovation, strength, love, determination, vision, passion, hope, patience, creativity, peace, resilience...
77. When I'm not wearing makeup, people look at me like, "What's wrong with you?" Even people I don't know. I joked with my sister when I moved out here I was going to look for jobs being an extra in hospital scenes because I look like the ultimate cancer patient.
78. I've often wished for a video camera when I'm shopping with my sister. I've actually seen a guy fall off the end of an escalator staring at her. It's more than her appearance that makes her beautiful though, and I hope she finds a guy that realizes that. She's completely oblivious to her looks, cleans toilets at our family factory on the weekends, is totally smart (ought to be pre-med but isn't), and most of her wardrobe is stuff she finds in a container of cleaning rags at the factory. She's great. I could learn from her.
79. I work better with oils and acrylics than watercolors. My friend C is a phenom with the watercolors.
80. I've known my two closest girlfriends, C & T, for 20 years. We went to kindergarten together at a tiny country elementary school that had dinosaur murals on the walls. Someday I'll write a series of preteen books on our adventures together.
81. I've lost lots of loved ones. When you come from such a small town, you know and are touched by everyone. While I was in high school, we lost 12 people including my friend Josh, who had a heartattack and died at school, and my brother's friend Dave, who was strangled to death by an auger. Several other friends including Amy S, Travis, Amy R, and Angie F.
82. I knew every member of my h.s. graduating class by name and probably could have named who their parents were and where they lived.
83. Coming from a small town and a huge family, I have a story for nearly everything. I think it's a part of what made me a good English teacher. Chaucer's journey became my dad's cross country motorcycle trip with his friend Paul. To the best of my knowledge, I don't know a parallel to Oedipus Rex though, and I'd like to keep it that way.
84. My mom is a wizard with the sewing machine. I can't count on both hands the number of Halloweens, theatre productions, parades and parties she made come alive.
85. There wasn't much money growing up, but my mom always found a way for me to have a new outfit for special concerts and big occasions. I don't know how she did it, but love her for it.
86. I love photography. Someday I'll take a class and actually learn what I'm doing.
87. I wish I read more. There is so much I want to learn.
88. Today was the first day I've ever searched for myself on the Internet. I don't know what made me think of it, but I went to AskJeeves and typed in my name. I found all kinds of work-related stuff I had forgotten about and media related stuff I never knew was online.
89. I love thunder.
90. Guys that are super fashion conscious scare me.
91. I think Champion Reverse Weave sweatshirts are one of the greatest things ever created. They're right up there with post-its.
92. My top three selfish wishes are for: Grace, charisma, and a significant other whom I believe in, that also believes in me.
93. I wonder why adult vitamins can't be fun and tasty like Flintstones.
94. Someday, I want to be a member of the Augusta golf course. (As of yet, women have not been deemed worthy of the honor. For that matter, African Americans were not allowed to be members until after Tiger won the Masters.)
95. My dream of the perfect engagement proposal would be a gum wrapper ring offered on an evening stroll along the Champs Elysees. (I've never actually been there. Maybe it's not as romantic as I envision.)
96. My longest relationship was six years, with the aforementioned ex-boyfriend. I'm still gunshy when it comes to dating, nervous I'll make the same mistake.
97. I worry that people are intimidated by me, that I shove my views down other people's throats before truly listening to them, and that I'll never learn how to be the person I want to be. (If it sounds Covey-ish, you're correct.)
98. I'm going to keep trying. I believe it's never too late to learn.
99. On Saturdays, my dad and I used to take our weekly trip to the dump in my uncle's GMC truck. On our way home we would stop at Ernie's for a bottle of orange soda pop. I am so glad I have that memory. I was very young, but I can still see us sitting there with the little old men whenever I smell Sunkist.
100. It took five weeks, but I finally finished this list!!! Any questions not addressed by the presenter can be addressed to the comments section below. Thank you for attending, please drive safely.
Posted by Amanda at October 25, 2002 09:41 PM
