November 27, 2004
Things you may not know about me
1) I�m, for the most part, a first-generation native Californian. My dad�s family came from Pennsylvania. My mom�s dad was born in Germany. My mom�s mom was born in Los Angeles but they were living in Illinois when my mom was born.2) I was a casual Beatles fan for most of my life up until 1994, when it burgeoned into an obsession. It�s a huge part of my identity, to the point where my message board friends, who don�t even know me in real life, think of me immediately when they hear something Beatles-related. When George died people posted threads asking me how I was holding up.
3) So it�s no surprise that I named my son after two of the Beatles. (Okay, most people know this one but I bring it up frequently, anyway, just because I�m proud. And creepy. Can't forget creepy.) For anyone who doesn�t know, his name is John-Zachary Harrison J----.
4) One of my biggest goals in life is to go to all 50 states before I snuff it. I have 32, so far. I�m liking my chances (knock wood).
5) Speaking of knocking wood, I�m superstitious. I haven�t walked with one shoe off and one shoe on since I was in elementary school � it�s bad luck (7 years of tears for every step taken). I either hop on one foot to reach my other shoe, or I take the first shoe off so I can walk to wherever the second shoe is.
6) Back to the subject of traveling: Up till the age of 15, I had only been to two states. At 21, I had 7. Then I picked up another 24 in just 5 years, from age 22 to 27!
7) Before Madalyn was born I had 13 guinea pigs at once! We even put an addition off our bedroom to house the cages. Over the years they have passed on and we are down to just one remaining � Linus, who is in the neighborhood of 5 years old. This is the first time in almost 8 years that I haven�t had multiple guineas in the house!
8) I can raise my left eyebrow without raising the right one.
9) I write with my right hand but throw, bat and bowl leftie.
10) My left ear also hears better and I am left-eyed, like when using a camera, microscope, etc.
11) I believe I was supposed to be taller, but something stunted my growth (hmm, couldn�t have been the diet of Mike & Ikes and Cactus Coolers I lived on in junior high, now, could it?). I am 5�3� but have a huge head, hands, and feet. You don�t see many 5�3� girls with size 10 gunboats.
12) It�s 9:05 p.m. and my daughter is asleep on the kitchen floor. It�s ceramic tile. And it�s cold. She said she wanted to sleep on the floor; I didn�t believe her. Guess she showed me.
13) One of my dream cars in high school: Toyota 4Runner.
14) What I drive now: Toyota 4Runner. (Hooray for being spoiled!)
15) My other dream car in high school: 1957 Ford Thunderbird. (Haven�t quite gotten around to that one yet.)
16) I have never done drugs.
17) But I hung around with the �stoners� for the first two years of high school.
18) Pro football teams I have seen play in person: Buffalo Bills (2x), New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs (2x), Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions.
19) College football teams I have seen play in person: Oklahoma Sooners (well, duh!), everyone else in the Big 12 conference except Nebraska; Northwestern, Notre Dame, Cal Berkeley, Washington State, Alabama, and more that escape me at this moment.
20) Major cities I�ve been to: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland OR, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta, Memphis, Kansas City, New York City (4 boroughs), Buffalo, Providence, San Jose, Albuquerque, and St. Louis.
21) The longest I�ve gone without drinking a Coke, probably since I began drinking them in junior high: 8 days.
22) Nervous habits: picking/biting nails and cuticles, eating (hello�have you SEEN a picture of me??), grinding teeth, gently, in time to music in my head, fidgeting, facial twitches. Also when under stress my psoriasis/eczema flares up. (The moral of the story: Be glad this isn�t a video blog.)
23) Theme rooms in my house: red toile (dining room), Coca-Cola (kitchen), jungle/safari (entryway), princess/fairy (Madalyn�s), John Lennon Musical Parade (JZ�s), beach/ocean (master bath). The rest have no specific theme, but the d�cor matches.
24) Number of non-Christian religions represented in my home, via sculpture or other artifacts: 2. (Many items representing gods and goddesses from the ancient Egyptian pantheon, plus several Buddhist deities, including a large statue of Kwan Yin on my front lawn).
25) I�m an obsessive list-maker. I have two folders on my computer � one for �Current Lists� and one for �Old Lists.� I have lists of things like the contents of every meal they served me when I was in the hospital having each child, all the Google searches that have brought people to this blog and all the songs that Paul McCartney sang when I saw him in concert (y�all, I had a pen and a piece of paper stuck in my sleeve which I pulled out at the beginning of every song).
This means that, far from being a cop-out, this entry is just the sort of thing I love to write. I guess it's my way of trying to bring order to chaos. Which, when you think about it, is, like, WAY better than the Borg's method of assimilating everyone they can lay cybernetic implant on. (Plus I looked into the assimilating thing and it's just not cost-effective.)
|
