100 Things

Right, so this page came into existence because of the soul mate list, this list of 100 things you hope to find in a soul mate.  You make the list without thinking too hard about it, and then send it out into the universe and just hang out.  The idea is that by putting it down on paper, you’re giving the powers that be a heads up, and learning something about what you need in a companion at the same time.  I love the idea more for the self-discovery aspect of it, although who knows, maybe putting it out there will speed up the process!  But anyway, I was thinking about the importance of self-awareness, and if I’m going to make a list of 100 things about a person I haven’t even MET yet in order to learn something about myself, wouldn’t it make more sense to actually turn inward and make a list of 100 things about me?  I’ve seen lots of blogs where people have done this, and it seems like a worthwhile endeavor.  So if you’re not interested, click away.  Otherwise…here’s the Peacegrrl 100 Things list!

1. I was born in Charleston, South Carolina.  I have absolutely no memory of it.  I think we moved away when I was like one or two.
2. I have a writer’s callous on my right index finger. I’ve had it for as long as I can remember.  Guess I was always fated to be a writer.
3. I have an unhealthy addiction to diet cola.  I prefer Pepsi, but when I can’t get it, Coke will do just fine.
4. I’ve only actually had six jobs in my life, counting the one I just got.  I didn’t work in high school, I was far too busy being a nerd.
5. Yeah, high school nerd.  I won trophies at academic events.  I was on the third place state Academic Decathalon team in 1997.  I graduated 11th in my class.
6. My hair is naturally curly.  At times this is a blessing.  At other times I really think it looks like shit.
7. I never had a real “childhood home”; we moved around so much that there wasn’t a lot of permanence.  Now my immediate family all live in apartments.
8. I have had asthma since I was two months old.
9. I walk on my toes when I’m not wearing shoes.  It’s because I had an IV in my foot when I was a few months old and learning to walk.  As a result, I have killer calves.
10. When I was growing up we had a Betamax.  Then everybody switched to VHS and we were resistant, so we found the two or three video stores in San Diego County that actually had Betas and trotted all the way out there to buy videos.  Mostly we bought blank tapes and recorded stuff.  I probably had half a dozen episodes of “Highway to Heaven.”  I was six, so don’t judge me.
11. We were always a little too poor to for me to be up on the latest trends. I didn’t get LA Gears until they were fading out of style.  In Jr. High all I wanted was a pair of Gibaud jeans.  In high school it was Sketchers and Mossimo t-shirts.  Now I buy the most expensive clothes I can reasonably afford, and take meticulous care of them.
12. I’m nearsighted and usually wear glasses because I’m so lazy that I hate to clean contacts.
13. I’ve had body image issues since I was around 13 and realized I had boobs.
14. At the age of 29, I’m currently leasing my first apartment.  I’ve lived on a college campus of some sort since 1997.
15. My sister is half African-American (we have different fathers).
16. I love the show Sex and the City, so much in fact that I actually own a book of scholarly essays about the series.
17. The same goes for Six Feet Under.  I think I may love it more.  I go back and forth between the two.
18. I learned to knit when I was around 17 or so.  I got serious about it around five or six years ago, and now I am obsessed.  I can make just about anything, but I’m trying to get better at lacework and making larger garments.
19. I’m a full-figured girl like all of the women in my family.  We all have big boobs and bellies, and great legs.  I alternately feel really sexy and totally gross, depending on available clothing and how much stock I put in what men think about me.  See above about body issues.
20. I have inherited lousy teeth, and have an irrational fear of the dentist.  I have to use nitrous oxide, and if they’re doing anything beyond a filling, I have sedation.
21. Because of the above, these days I am a vigorous flosser.  I floss just about every day.  I use those little dentapick thingies because I think wrapping floss around your fingers and then reaching into your mouth is kind of gross.
22. Until I was around 20 or so, I was terrified of thunderstorms.  I think I thought a tornado was going to come along and flatten me.  I grew up in southern California and didn’t experience them much, so when I found out we were moving to Texas, where I knew they had them all the time, I cried.
23. I’m not afraid of them anymore, at times they’re kind of nice.
24. Growing up, I lived in six states, seven cities, and a foreign country (Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, back when there weren’t suspected terrorists there and dependents could live there).
25. My all-time favorite author is Jane Austen.
26. I discovered here when I was a senior in high school and we read Emma.
27. I always thought that Pride and Prejudice was my favorite Austen book, until I read Persuasion last fall.  It wins, hands down.
28. I like both of the major movie adaptations of P&P; Colin Firth is the best Mr. Darcy and Jennifer Ehle makes a much better Eliza Bennet, but Matthew McFayden wasn’t so bad.  Keira Knightly was way too skinny.
29. Incidentally, I also loved both of the Bridget Jones’ Diary movies.  They are becoming far more relevant to me the older I get.
30. I love O magazine.  I haven’t subscribed in a while, and instead buy it every month.  This means that I spend $54 a year on it.  A subscription costs around $20.
31. Same goes for Real Simple.  Although that magazine mostly makes me wish for a life that I don’t actually have.  I’m weaning myself off of it.
32. I stayed with my last boyfriend for a year even though there was no chemistry between us practically from the beginning.
33. I had a three-year, on-and-off incredibly dysfunctional relationship with a bad man because the chemistry was incredible.
34. The above would indicate some serious issues with men.
35. I am a serial blind-dater, thanks to the advent of Match.com and my dislike of the club/bar scene.  I have had several very bad experiences, peppered with a few good ones.
36. I never had many female friends until I moved to Kent.  Then I found the most amazing group of women, who I miss terribly.
37. My oldest friend is Vixen, who I met at college freshman orientation.  I don’t stay in close enough touch with any of my high school friends to really consider them close.  If it weren’t for Myspace and Facebook, I wouldn’t have the first clue what any of them were doing right now.
38. I haven’t been back to the town where I graduated from high school in over six years.
39. My stepfather, who basically raised my sister and I, died in 2001.  The last time I talked to him we’d had a huge fight.  I held a grudge and didn’t speak to him for over six months; the next time I saw him he was unconscious and on his deathbed.
40. My mother is second-generation Sicilian American.  My father’s family is of English descent and I think they like to think they came over on the Mayflower.
41. My father and I didn’t meet until I was 20, and our relationship is loving but very tenuous.  We have extreme political and spiritual differences.
42. I love to bake.  Once, when I was unemployed for about a month after college, I filled my time learning how to make bread.  I can make several kinds, including focaccia and challah.  I even braid my challah!
43. I also make a really good salsa.
44. Although I do enjoy cooking, I don’t put a lot of time into it, so I wouldn’t consider myself a good cook.  But I know what I’m doing.
45. I’m a pessimist, and usually expect the worst while secretly hoping for the best.
46. Disappointment is my absolute least favorite emotion.  I am so afraid of it that I worry and obsess constantly.  This is probably the one thing I wish most to change about myself.
47. I am a dog person.  Growing up we had up to five dogs at once, which was a bit much.
48. I have one sister, my only sibling.
49. I went to two different graduate schools and changed majors three times (from English to Higher Ed-Counseling, to Higher-Ed-Administration, to Liberal Studies).  I have 20 or so hours of graduate credit that didn’t even count toward my degree.
50. I got two A-minuses at Kent; otherwise I would have gotten my master’s with a 4.0.
51. I was once really good at speaking Spanish.  My goal is to become fluent and get an ESL endorsement to my certification within the next two years.
52. I am a liberal–I lean toward the left on nearly every social issue, including gay marriage (all for it), abortion (pro choice), immigration (this is a country of immigrants, open the borders), affirmative action (what we’re doing now isn’t really working, but the truth is that the playing field is not equal), war (against it except for the most extreme of circumstances, most certainly against it in Iraq), and the separation of church and state.
53. I used to think I was a conservative, because I basically just parroted my dad’s values without really thinking any issues through.  My kneejerk, defense reaction as a lower middle class white female was to believe in the “eye for an eye,” “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” values.  Then I took a philosophy class called Contemporary Moral Issues in college, actually examined my personal beliefs and passions, and realized that I am a total leftie.  The first issue that called this to my attention was the death penalty (against it).
54. I’ve never had serious doubts about my sexuality, but I also don’t believe it is an absolute.  I’ve been attracted to women before.  I’d say I’m about 95% hetero.
55. I’ve never been to Europe, and I would absolutely love to go.  I think I’d want to see Italy first.
56. Other places I dream of visiting…India, Africa (Kenya and South Africa, I think), Ireland, Hawaii, Alaska, and so many more
57. I think I like Facebook a little better than Myspace, but they both have their advantages.  I like the applications better in Facebook, but I love the Myspace bulletins.
58. I love art and have always wished I were a better artist. I play around with abstract painting and collage, but never really put any serious work into it.
59. I am a music lover.  I love music from several different genres, and I love finding new music to get obsessed with.  I like moody lyrics, sweeping melodies, catchy riffs, whatever.  I hear it, I like it, and I play it over and over again.
60. On the reverse, there is nothing more irritating than having a song you hate played at full blast and you can’t escape it.  I think that must be worked into hell somewhere.
61. I use a Mac, and I am a recent convert.  Mainly I went over to them because they look cool, are virus proof (at least so far), and are fun to use.  Plus I never have any of the problems with Mac that I had with PC.  I love my macbook.
62. I started blogging in ‘04 to chronicle my move to Ohio and a tough breakup.  I took a hiatus and then posted pretty much sporadically, but now I think I’m back into it for good.
63. I have this insecurity that nobody is really that interested in anything that I have to say.  And at the same time, I love talking to myself.
64. One of my favorite books of all time, one that I read over and over, is The Loop by Nicholas Evans.  I’m not sure what all draws me to it–the Montana setting, the tortured and broken women that is its heroine (I’m her age now, I just realized…), the unique love story, the wolves, or what.  But I absolutely love it.
65. I’m an avid reader and collect books, even though I know I should really be using the library more.
66. I re-read some books that I particularly love.  When I was younger I would re-read books so many times that they literally fell apart (this was the plight of most of my Judy Blumes.)
67. Speaking of whom, Judy Blume taught me everything about adolescence–boobs, periods, sexuality, friendship, family rifts.  She is fantastic.
68. I have seen so few marriages that truly work, that I am somewhat dubious of the institution.  And at the same time, I daydream about becoming engaged, about my wedding, about starting my family.
69. I can’t wait to have kids.  I have an irrational fear that I won’t be able to have them.
70. I have short, stubby fingers.  This makes me a lousy guitar player.
71. But I do try, on and off, to play.  I’m not very good.
72. I love MSNBC, except for Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough.  I really love Keith Olbermann and have a huge crush on him.  Smart and sexy…mmmmm
73. One of my sexual fantasies totally involves having a really intense political argument that gets so heated that we end up getting it on right there and then.  (Maybe on a desk?  I’m such a nerd.)
74. I like to read romance novels sometimes, especially LaVyrle Spencer’s books, and occasionally fantasize about writing one.  Past attempts, however, have been beyond clumsy.  I don’t think I’m much of a fiction writer.
75. One day I would love to own my own business, either a bakery or a bookstore.  Or maybe even a yarn shop.
76. I think Ellen DeGeneres is absolutely hilarious.  I also think she’s a kick-ass role model.
77. I am a movie freak.  I love the experience of going to the movies, and a lot of times I go alone.  It’s the one place where nobody can really bother you, and you can completely disassociate from your own life for a bit.
78. I buy a lot of DVDs, but I don’t have a huge collection or anything.
79. If I’m having a lousy time and need a good cry, I love to watch a sad movie.  It can be very cleansing.
80. I love food.  I was lucky enough to be raised on a lot of different cuisines.
81. Italian is probably my favorite, since I was raised most with it.
82. We had manicotti or lasagna for Christmas dinner, never turkey or ham.
83. I also love Thai, Greek, Chinese, Filipino, Lebanese, sushi, and Mexican.  And Spanish.  I haven’t had enough Indian to decide if I officially love it.  I’ve even tried Ethiopian.
84. I am much more of a night person than a morning person.  I rarely feel like I’ve gotten enough sleep.
85. I’ve never officially broken a bone, but I’ve sprained both ankles and a pinky finger.
86. I tend to be a bit clutzy.
87. I like to go to sporting events and even occasionally watch sports on TV, but I don’t have enough confidence in my athletic ability to participate in them.  I’m not even all that crazy about playing volleyball.
88. The scariest experience of my life was when my mother had a heart attack and we thought we might lose her.
89. I fall in love entirely too fast.
90. In all actuality, I’m not convinced I’ve ever really been in love.  Not that I haven’t loved a lot of people.  But you know, REAL love.  Whatever that means.
91. When I really cry, about an hour later I get an unbearable headache.
92. I like being right, and for some reason I’m dumb enough that I’ve gotten into arguments over my need to be right.
93. I don’t believe I treat any of my friends as well as I should.
94. There are dozens of things that I wish I did better.  So many that I become paralyzed and don’t really work on improving any of them.
95. I used to be involved in drama.  Acting skills have come in handy many times in my life.
96. I had an amazing memory at one point in my life.  I could remember dates, tiny details, phone numbers.
97. Due to some poor choices in college, this is no longer true.
98. I think V8 juice is disgusting.
99. I started smoking in 2002, and have quit four times since then.  The last time was in August 07 and I haven’t gone back.
100. I love Nutella.