100 Things About Me

I decided to give this a shot in honor of my 100th post, so here goes:

1.  I’m left-handed just like my dad was and do everything left-handed except bowl.  I can bowl with either hand.

2.  I’m a picky eater.  I hate all kinds of cheese, sour cream, yogurt, and seafood.  (And lots of other things, too.)

3.  I’m extremely empathetic, sometimes to a fault.

4.  I love puppets.

5.  I wrote hundreds of greeting cards in the course of a 22 year career and still find some in the stores.

6.  The company I worked for once sent me on a media tour across the United States and in two weeks I did 188 TV, newspaper and radio interviews.

7.  I never get tired of certain foods.  I eat Grape-nuts and spinach at least three times a week.  (Not together!)

8.  I love reading fiction, but won’t read books where the story includes recipes or a cat solving a crime.

9. I wrote my first poem at age 5.  It was about our Christmas tree.

10. My life has been filled with dental work.

11. I fear hospitals.

12. …and drowning

13. …and being helpless.

14. If I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, it would be beef.

15. I can’t imagine being a vegetarian.  Life without meat would be sad.

16. I have a problem with people who complain, but do nothing to help themselves.

17. There was a time after I got divorced when I went a bit wild.  But I’ve forgiven myself.

18. I don’t have any pets, and I’m okay with that.

19. I once saved the life of one of my little sisters who was turning blue from choking.  I dangled her upside down by the ankles until the toy she had    swallowed fell out.  The whole thing was scary.

20. I believe my life would have been so much different if my father had remarried a kind, loving woman instead of the one he did.

21. I loathe seeing anyone wearing socks with sandals.  Besides looking dorky, it doesn’t make sense.

22. My favorite place in the world is southwest New Mexico.  The desert and mountains give me peace.

23. I love marshmallow Peeps, and always bite the heads off first so they won’t see me eating the rest.

24. I love pinks, mauves and burgundy.

25. I hate the color orange.  It makes me nervous.

26. I was a policeman’s daughter.  I think that affected my view of the world.

27. I absolutely love good science fiction novels and would love to visit another planet, but I doubt we’ll ever be that technologically advanced.

28. I have at least 100 vinyl record albums which I rarely listen to, but can’t bear to part with.

29. I like people with a sense of play.

30. Tongue piercing gives me the creeps.  When someone has a ball through their tongue, I can’t bear to watch them talk.

31. I love the smell of bacon,

32. and freshly-baked bread,

33. and peonies.

34. People who boast about what they have that others don’t, turn me off.

35. I have a knack for decorating.  I can visualize what a room will look like when I’m done, and it usually does.

36. I love driving through different neighborhoods and imagining what those people’s lives are like.

37. I love interesting reality shows such as “Survivor,” ” The Amazing Race,” “America’s Next Top Model,” ” Dancing with the Stars” and “Hell’s Kitchen.“

38. I truly believe in the power of positive thinking.

39. I believe dark chocolate kicks milk chocolate’s butt.

40. Ever since my mother died, I have had a fear of abandonment, which is too often justified.

41. When I was in 3rd grade, I was on a Public Television science show to share my collection of fifty sets of animal salt and pepper shakers.

42. I get along best with people who have a touch of orneriness in them.

43. I like order – a place for everything and everything in its place.

44. I don’t like to be taken for granted, and make a point of never taking anyone for granted myself.

45. When I’m painting or writing and get “in the zone,” it feels like the fairies have taken over.

46. I’m a Stephen King fan and have everything he’s ever written.  People who pigeonhole him as “just a horror writer,” greatly underestimate his brilliance.

47. I wouldn’t mind being stranded on the island on “Lost,” particularly if Sawyer was there.

48. I saw “Starlight Express” when it debuted in England, and the message of the show so touched me that I burst into tears in the middle of the performance.

49. I always choose a car based on its uniqueness.  I think most cars on the road are boring-looking.

50. I wear M.B.T. athletic shoes, despite their ridiculous price, because they’re worth every penny and do everything they say they’ll do.

51. For nearly twenty years I wore high heels and hose to work every single day.

52. For me, Sean Connery will always be the only 007.

53. I have never gone snow skiing and have no desire to ever do so.

54. I would, however, love to bungee jump.

55. After my mother died when I was eight, I used to fantasize that the actress, Debbie Reynolds would show up and become my new mother.

56. My first car was a turquoise Corvair.

57. I take a bubble bath every night of my life.  I hate showers.

58. I love to hike.

59. I can’t read and listen to music at the same time.  I need silence.

60. I had three Girl Scout leaders who showed me kindness and love at a time in my life when I desperately needed it.  I have never forgotten those women to this day.

61. I hate Daylight Savings Time!  I want more night, not day.

62. I live with an attitude of gratitude…always.

63. I am so devotedly a Mac person that I could never return to Windows.

64. I pay my bills on the day I receive them.  I hate owing anything.

65. In grade school we had to write a story from the point of view of someone on the Mayflower.  My dad suggested I be a mouse on board the ship, stealing grain from the hold.  It was a huge hit with my teacher. I got the best grade in the class.

66. I never forget a kindness.

67. I believe there’s life on other planets.  There just HAS to be a higher life form than humans.

68. I love British comedies on public television.  There’s an old-fashioned charm about them that comforts me.

69. I will never totally get over the betrayal of my little sister.

70. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of my little sister and hope she’s okay.

71. I like real coffee – black!  All that mocha latte, whatever, is just “wannabe coffee.”

72. Consequently, I’ve never been to a Starbucks.

73. I am intrinsically an introvert.  I can be alone, but not lonely.

74. I have always been a list-maker.  (Could you guess?)

75. My car’s name is Jilly, and she answers to it.  The second car I ever owned was named Fenry Honda.

76. I have a huge library of movies on VHS tapes, all arranged in alphabetical order.  I pray my VHS player never breaks.

77. I have an abysmal sense of direction.  It seems the harder I try, the “lost-er” I get.

78. When my dad first tried to teach me how to tie my shoes, I could never get the “rabbit-goes-around-the-tree” method, so he taught me the “make-two-bunny-ears” method.  That’s how I tie my shoes to this day.

79. I am a Pisces and it seems to fit.

80. I hate high humidity, gale-force winds and dark-sky tornado weather.

81. My only pet was a cat named Tuffy, who ran away to join the navy. (Or so my dad said.)

82. I’m a sucker for a man in a suit and tie or a handsome cowboy on horseback.

83. Five of my favorite movies are “Cool Hand Luke,” “The Abyss,” “King of Kings,” “The Quick and the Dead,” (the Sam Elliot version) and “The Birds” by Alfred Hitchcock.

84. I love walking the aisles of Home Depot and the lumber smell that permeates the air.

85. I sometimes wish I had gone to law school.

86. I wake up naturally at 4:15 a.m. and love to step outside while it’s still dark because it feels like the world belongs to only me.

87. Looking at the stars makes me feel really close to God.

88. On car “sister vacations,” my little sister and I would sometimes simultaneously start talking in British, French or Russian accents and maintain them for hours.  I miss that.

89. My favorite books are The Stand by Stephen King, Watchers by Dean Koontz, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.

90. My mother died when she was twenty-eight.  I often wonder if she can see me from heaven and if she can, if she’s proud of me.

91. I had an annoying stepsister who was distraught when her dog, Cricket, disappeared forever.  Finally I said, “Susan, somebody has to tell you the truth.  You know that meatloaf we had last night?  Well, that was Cricket.”  She believed me and started wailing.  I got into a lot of trouble, but it was totally worth it.

92. I’m one-eighth Blackfoot Indian.  Turns out, they were the only tribe who told jokes (when they weren’t stealing horses.)  I like that.

93. I feel bras are God’s punishment on women for turning out to be so much smarter than men.

94. I graduated from college with honors and didn’t even know it until I saw “cum laude” on my diploma.

95. I’m a problem-solver and love to devise more efficient ways of doing things.  This doesn’t apply to math.

96. I was on the drill team in high school and we danced around in moccasins.  (Our mascot was an Indian.)

97. I took tap dancing and acrobatics  for eleven years.  I loved every minute of it.

98. I love to bake and make pie crusts so flaky they’d bring tears to your eyes.  It’s my grandma’s recipe.

99. I couldn’t survive without my faith in God.

100. I’m obviously someone who’s capable of making a list of 100 things.  Woo-hoo!