100 Things About Me

I had no idea I was so close to 100 posts. It's December 6 and I just noticed I have 98, so it must be time to start thinking about this. And I know you're excited because you've been waiting anxiously to see if I would post 100 Things About Me that you didn't already know!

I don't know of any other way to do this than to start at the beginning and work my way through my life. We'll see what gems I come up with!

1. I was born in Oklahoma.
2. I have 1 brother and 1 sister.
3. My parents divorced when I was 4 or 5 (or both).
4. I moved to Virginia in 1st grade and I love it there.
5. I've lived in the Atlanta area for the last 12 years and I'm starting to love it here. Not sure if GA will ever surpass VA in beauty, however.
6. I'm bored with this already. Are you?
7. If you wanted to know 100 things about me, you could just read the previous 99 posts because I'm sure there are at least 100 things there.
8. I came into full communion with the Catholic Church on April 6, 1996.
9. TMax was baptized at the same time.
10. I learned from my stepmother that "Idle hands are the devil's workshop," so I rarely sit down to watch tv without something to do---knitting or folding laundry. Especially if it's a bad movie---then it's not a total waste of time!
11. Three of my children were born at home and 3 in the hospital.
12. I'll take home over a hospital any time!
13. Have I told you that dh delivered ("caught" I should say) TMax who was born during the Blizzard of '96 and the midwife wasn't there yet? She arrived 5 minutes later.
14. Homeschooling is like the marines; it's the hardest job you'll ever love.
15. I've been homeschooling for 14 years! But that would be much more impressive if I had actually educated someone all the way through high school. Those are the real champions!
16. My mom was an incredibly talented oil painter, but I long to try my hand at photography and watercolors. I'd like to take a class in both. Don't know when I'll find the time for that!
17. I'm only up to 17???? This is hard. I'm tempted to just skip it until I get to 1000, but that would probably be worse.
18. I remember that I loved to walk to my dad's university office when I was little (maybe 4?) because he had a cardboard castle covered in foil with a drawbridge that worked and a little electric light in it. I thought it was the greatest thing.
19. Nearby, we would stop at a drugstore for a cherry coke (you know, from a fountain with real cherry syrup in it!).
20. My family has mafia ties. Don't ask for details; I don't know them!
21. My uncle was kidnapped and held for ransom. I've seen the ransom note and I think it had something to do with #20.
22. Those are really about me, are they? Does telling about my family count?
23. #6, #17, and #17 should tell you something about me. I don't like pointless exercises and I'll do anything to get it done faster! Maybe I also don't like talking about myself.
24. I'm very good at spatial relationships. Just let me show you how good I am at packing the back of a minivan with 8 people's things!
25. I'm a logical thinker. I love "Cheaper by the Dozen" and Mr. Gilbraith's motion studies. I'm all for saving motions/work. Touch it once. I like to do things as efficiently as possible.
26. That doesn't mean I always do it. I am bad about leaving things "for now".
27. I have a beaded/sequined Advent calendar that I started making about 15 years ago. Unfinished. I think I'm giving it to KT for Christmas. She can finish it, or throw it away. Merry Christmas, hon!
28. I have dreams of living in the country. I lived on a rented farm during middle school and it was a great place to grow up. Lots of fresh air and hard work, mowing the grass with a regular gas mower, not a riding mower. Taking care of chickens. Helping in the huuuuuge garden. Running through fields, jumping onto those big rolls of hay, running through cornfields and getting lost and extremely dirty!
29. I loved living in that drafty, old farmhouse with a wraparound porch. Sunbathing on the tin roof outside my bedroom window. Playing in the hammock outside. Exploring all the different cubbies and rooms in that incredible house.
30. I did not love chicken butchering.
31. I used to refuse to eat the fresh brown eggs because they were gross.
32. Now I refuse to eat the eggs from the grocery store and prefer to get them from the farmer's market where I know what wonderful conditions the hens live in.
33. Back to the farm---we had 4 bedrooms and 1 bath with a claw-foot tub.
34. One bedroom had the doorway to the big, scary attic. We all refused to sleep in that room, so it remained empty.
35. So my sister slept in a sleeping porch (I guess that's what you call it) off my room. She had to go through my room to get there and the 3 walls that were not attached to my room were all windows. It was cold in the winter! Though I'm guessing the whole house was pretty darn cold consider how big and old it was.
36. And we were very poor at the time. I remember complaints about the price of heating oil and the need to fill the tank. We spent a lot of time in back half of the house where there was a large fireplace in the dining room. So, we built fires and kept the doors closed.
37. This was in Loudoun Country, Virginia.
38. My stepfather left when I was in 8th grade. We got to go visit him at his new house and see his new baby. Nice.
39. After that we moved to Fairfax County, VA, where I went to the same high school as dh.
40. No, we didn't date in high school. He had another girlfriend, but I dated one of his friends.
41. Also dated the son of an NBC news correspondent from the neighboring high school. I went to the Junior Prom with him (our 2nd date) and I still remember his birthday every year. It drives dh nuts, probably as much as "his old girlfriend Diana" drives me nuts. lol.
42. 42??? Are you kidding me? Not even halfway there? It's fun walking down memory lane and all, but I need a break. You too? Just come back later. You know you want to.
43. I ran track in high school.
44. The mile and the high jump.
45. That amazes my kids that I could high jump.
46. Me too.
47. I have great memories of going canoeing on the Shenandoah River with my church in high school. We went every year and had a blast.
48. When I went to college, my mom sold our house and moved to Manhattan.
49. During the summers after my first and second year of college I lived with her old friends in Virginia.
50. After my 3rd year I spent the summer in New York with her and worked at Lord & Taylor.
51. I slept on the floor in the tiny 1 bedroom apartment that she shared with a college friend, right under the window a/c unit that sprayed a toxic mist into the room and onto me.
52. I got sick that summer.
53. Mom and I took a taxi to the emergency room and found out that I had pneumonia.
54. "Walking" pneumonia because it was only in one lung.
55. So we "walked" back to the apartment! I still think that's hysterical. It was a long weary walk and we stopped many times to rest, but I'm sure she couldn't afford another cab ride after the hospital visit. And I survived. Nor do I blame her for it.
56. Blue is my favorite color. All different shades of blue, from periwinkle to teal.
57. My favorite food is chocolate.
58. My favorite ice cream is something that has chunks of chocolate, nuts, and ribbons of fudge or caramel.
59. Candy? Basically the same thing---chocolate, nuts, ribbons of caramel. Sounds like a Snickers! Yummmm.
60. I love to sing. I sang in the choir in high school.
61. I also sang in the Madrigals group in high school. We met at 6:30 a.m. once or twice a week and sang a capella. There were only 6 or 8 of us and we had to wear medieval costumes.
62. I sang in the Women's Chorus at The University.
63. I was also one of the early members of a group called the Virginia Belles---just 6 or 8 of us who sang a capella, again. That was a lot of fun!
64. I cantor at my parish now. It's sometimes a humiliating disaster, but that's life. Pray for your cantors and be sympathetic!
65. I was on the swim team in high school for a short time. We had to get up and practice at the nearby Club at 6:30 a.m., in winter. It was cold and hard. When we started working on the butterfly, I quit. I still can't do that stroke.
66. I'm a decent swimmer, but when I'm doing freestyle I feel like I'm going to drown. I think it's a touch of claustrophobia, surrounded by all that water, you know!
67. 2/3 finished. Are you still reading?
68. Kathleen is waiting with baited breath. I hope she decides to breathe because this is taking too long.
69. After 44 years you'd think I'd have more to say about myself!
70. I've been married half my life.
71. We lived in Williamsburg, VA for the first 3 years of marriage.
72. I love Williamsburg. What a lovely, small town. It's a great place to raise kids.
73. But it gets hot and sticky in the summer. Last time we were there for a visit, it was 105 degrees. I thought we would all melt!
74. I remember going to Williamsburg when I was little. I loved it then, too.
75. I love roller coasters!
76. When we went to Busch Gardens, Williamsburg (I think we got in free as city residents!), dh and I would ride the Loch Ness Monster repeatedly until the line got to be more than 2 minutes long!
77. I'll still ride coasters repeatedly if there is no line.
78. I can live without some of the super-coasters they build now. Like Superman. I'm not sure why I don't care for it. Maybe it is because it breaks down constantly and I don't feel safe on it.
79. I wanted to cry last summer when LP wouldn't let me go on the Coyote Canyon coaster.
80. Yeah, I'm childish. But you have to be like a child to get into heaven!
81. But when we met up with Tmax and Pipster, we were able to take turns riding the Ninja (yes, repeatedly) and watching LP because there was no line. I had never seen it like that, but all my kids (and my chiropractor) say it's because it is the hardest on your skeleton. But that made me happy---getting several good rides in.
82. Did I say that I love musicals? Even my kids do, and they're unique among their friends. My kids have seen movies that none of their peers have heard of.
83. I read Gone with the Wind in 8th grade. My favorite book and movie for a long time.
84. I tried to read The Lord of the Rings in high school, but couldn't make it through.
85. I read it for the first time when we moved here (1996?) and have read it about 10 times since then. Every time is better!
86. When I'm in a reading mood, I'll get stuck on a theme. I discovered Nicholas Sparks when I read his memoir, 3 Weeks with my Brother, and then I read the rest of his books. The memoir was the best.
87. Then I went on a Dean Koontz kick and read many of his until I got too creeped out by one and had to put it down. I think that was Intensity. Too intense.
88. I don't just read fluff. I read The River of Doubt about Teddy Roosevelt's adventure after his presidency and then got lost in David McCullough's Roosevelt bio and all of this other history books. One of my favorites was The Great Bridge about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.
89. TMax reminds me of my Everest binge. After talking about mountain climbing with my brother when we were together during Mom's last days, he suggested I read a couple of books about the 1996 disastrous Everest expedition.
90. I think I read about 15 different Everest stories. Many of them were by different people on that same expedition.
91. But I still can't tell you the elevation of Mt. Everest.
92. Another favorite is the Horatio Hornblower series. I love all those books---and the made-for-tv movies with Ioan Gruffud (Yo-an Griffith) rock, too. Too bad they didn't finish the series.
93. I forgot to tell you about the awesome attic in that farmhouse. (Did you skip to the end? Go back and read them all!) It was huge, the entire thing had a floor and if I lived there now I would have it finished into bedrooms or a giant playroom. There was some great stuff up there, during the daytime. There was only scary stuff at night!
94. We had a dirt cellar and a smokehouse, too. My brother hung his rabbit skins in the smokehouse. Rabbits that he raised and then shot because they couldn't survive on their own in the wild. Seriously? Rabbits don't know how to eat grass and run and hide in the wild? Fortunately, he didn't eat my pet or my sister's.
95. I worked at a movie theater in high school
96. It was a great job and my favorite part was going in to "check the theater" during my favorite parts of the movies. You know, the good songs from "Grease"---we knew exactly when they were during the films.
97. Grease was my favorite movie. Still is. Shhh. Don't tell my kids because I don't want them to see it!
98. We drank (free) sprite and use strawberry twizzlers for straws.
99. No one ever read the big sign at the box office that said, "Please hold onto your money. It blows away." And they'd get mad that they had to chase their money across the plaza when it blew away.
1000. Well, it feels like a thousand! And #99 wasn't strictly about me either, but I'm pretty desperate to finish this ordeal.

Have I lost my 12 readers now?