1. When I watch Jeopardy! alone, I still feel compelled to shout out the answers.
2. I can't believe the lady in those Glade commercials has any friends.
3. By the time I was ten years old I was the height I am now. It wasn't until about 15 years later that I actually appreciated it.
4. I love reality television, but I totally draw the line at shows like Wife Swap, Beauty and the Geek, and pretty much any show about weddings. I do have some standards.
5. Even though I got my degree in English and loved it, I was really a much better math student. During Finals week almost every semester I would tell myself that next semester I would take a Calculus class-- damnit! -- just for fun. At least in Calculus there were 'right' and 'wrong' answers. I never did though.
6. Latin is one of the best classes I have ever taken. If Math was a language, it would be Latin -- it's lovely that way. Structuring sentences was so much fun! When I discovered that in college -- that there was a class for dorks who love Math but also really, really love words -- I realized I was probably in the wrong major. But at that point it was a little too late.
7. I have an irrational fear of flying that I really didn't develop until my mid-20s. I flew a lot as a teen and never had a problem, and now -- holy hell, I white knuckle it and breathe shallow the whole time. I'm seriously considering medication this summer when we go to Hawaii.
8. Speaking of Hawaii, I have never been. I know! It's a travesty. My parents lived there for years before they were married, vacationed there, and as a child I was told "Hawaii is where you were conceived." (Um Gross, btw. Luckily as a kid I didn't really get it.) My parents always said they would take me when I turned ten. You can see how that turned out.
9. I was born on Saturday October 14th. Had my mother not stopped to iron her outfit and vaccuum the house after her water broke, I may have been born on Friday the 13th. My parents were living in Michigan because my father was playing football for the Detroit Lions. Because of that I make my squishy, fat TV debut (seriously, I looked like a Sumo Wrestler)during the annual Detroit Lions Thanksgiving game of 1978 -- this is the first time my California family saw me.
10. Growing up my Aunt and Uncle had a German Shepherd named Butch, of whom I was very fond. One day when I'm about 3 while he is enjoying his food in the garage I decided he should play with me. Instead of waiting for him to finish his lunch, I kick him, you know just to let him know who's boss around here. He calmly picked me up by my head and transported me to the other side of the garage and went back to enjoying his kibbles and bits. It proves my first experience in the hospital and as I roll into the ER squirming, the hospital staff puts me into a strait jacket and sutures my head under a local anisthetic. I watch the doctor the whole time and it looks like he is using a needle and thread. Despite that fact that my grandmother hand sewed outfits for me and my dolls growing up, sewing is a hobby that I never really take to.
11. I met Garrett at work, and despite the fact that he was very nice to me, I didn't really like him. I used to be very prone to snap judgments. I vividly remember sitting out in front of Peet's telling my girlfriend (who was interested in him at the time) that she should under NO CIRCUMSTANCES date him. I can be a real idiot sometimes.
12. Wwe actually started dating, I knew almost immediately that he was the man I was going to marry. He's like no one else I know, and we are absolutely perfect compliments to each other. I almost can't remember what life was like without him.
13. My mother has always hated fish, and as such never cooked it growing up. I always just assumed I hated it until I was about 25 and someone dared me, as a very vocal fish-hater, to eat sushi. As a sidebar, don't ever dare me to do anything. I don't have the power to resist. Anyway, it was love at first bite! I can't believe I spent a large portion of my life hating seafood when now it is pretty much my favorite food group -- raw, cooked, dead, alive -- whatever, I'll enjoy it! My mom is understandably disappointed.
14. My cousin Kelly is just about the only person who can make me laugh so hard I can't breathe.
15. As a child we never had cable and on the weekends my parents always talked me into playing educational games like "Hey, let's play learn new vocabulary words" or "Hey, let's memorize the capitals of foreign countries." What a rip-off, right? I like to thank them as an adult for doing their part to prep me so I am able to be the reason that my team wins porn at Pub Trivia.
16. I am physically unable to stomach movies starring Wesley Snipes.
17. I am an only child and an only grandchild on one side of my family. This means my grandparents have volumes of audio tapes (yes, AUDIO TAPES) of me drinking water. I was NOT starved for attention as a child.
18. After two years at Cal Poly I needed to take a break from college. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I just knew I needed to do something different and I thought dropping out of school to figure it out seemed like a fantastic idea. You can imagine my parents were not pleased with that stellar explanation, but luckily they obliged and let me move home . To this day I am so grateful for their trust in my intuition, becase two months later my father had a heart attack and died in our home.
19. It bums me out that Garrett will never know my father. In some ways, they are so similar. My dad could have used another dude on his team. He grew up with a single mother and three sisters, then married my mom and had a daughter. Although he spent years of his life as a professional athlete and was incredibly masculine, he had an almost instinctual understanding of women.
20. After my father passed away I needed a change and decided I should move to Los Angeles. Why? Well, um...heck...why not? It looked interesting on TV. Some of the best years of my life were spent living in LA. They were certainly tough in the emotional aftermath of losing my father and not really knowing anyone, but I have never felt more independent. I carved out my own spot there, made life long friends, and have more crazy memories than I know what to do with. I'm nostalgic for that time, but holy hell I would never move back there. THE PARKING! THE TRAFFIC! THE FAKENESS! It's comical. But it was amazing at the time.
21. When I moved up to Sacramento, I didn't know a soul. I rented a room in a 5 bedroom house full of girls going to Sac State and it was there I met my friend Sarah who would be my roommate for the next six years. SIX YEARS. Oh my god, who lives with the same person for six years? When she moved down south 4 months ago, it hit me harder than I expected. I'm so lucky to have had such a great experience with her and to have her in my life.
22. Two years after my dad died I saw a psychic on a whim, just to see what would happen. This psychic immediately said she felt a presence in the room that was paternal (I had not told her of my father's passing) and then proceeded to repeat an entire conversation that my father and I had had years earlier about rollerblades. (Rollerblades? Who knew they held such psychic relevance). Ever since that day, whoa, am I a believer. And also, I'm not gonna lie, a little freaked out about rollerblades.
23. I can recite just about every word in Reality Bites. When I first saw that movie, I had no idea how accurately it actually captured the post-collegiate experience of your early 20s.
24. I spent the first 25 years of my life having no idea how to cook. I mean literally being stumped by the idea boiling water. After one too many meals of pasta-roni one night I flipped out and decided that I could not spend another day eating food that came from a box. So I bought some cookbooks and decided it was about time to FIGURE THIS SHIT OUT. And I did. And at the risk of sounding all irritating and braggy, I'm a fantastic cook now. I honestly think that ability is more about attitude and perserverance than it is about natural talent. Jesus that sounds like it should be a tag-line right below some jerk scaling the side of a mountain or something. GOD! But it's true, dude, I swear.
25. I'm wordy.
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