Nerdy Knitter

100 things about me

I don't know how to make this a permanent part of my blog, so I'm posting it here. Boy, finding 100 things to say about myself was a challenge! This is what happens when I have a cold and can't sleep--I sit up all night making lists.

100 Things about me

1. I occasionally get carded when I buy alcohol, and then feel incredibly disappointed when the cashiers don’t giggle when they do the math & figure out that I’m 36, for pete’s sake.
2. I’m a pack rat, 3rd generation (possibly even more, but I didn’t know my great-grandparents); that’s some serious heritage.
3. Nerdy Hubby comes from a long line of fairly unsentimental throw-away-ers.
4. I’ve never seen the movie “Gremlins,” even though I was in 8th grade when it came out.
5. I’m a librarian with an embarrassingly long list of classics that I've never read.
6. I was a children’s book editor for a major publishing house in NYC.
7. Now I live in the mountains in Virginia.
8. I barely remember my NYC life.
9. I married “that boy” from high school who was cute and nice and just a tad bit mysterious. That fact still makes me giggle.
10. I have an insatiable curiosity (it’s always all about satisfying my curiosity).
11. I just finished taking my first “grown-up” (ie, non-high-school-level) drawing class…I got an ‘A.’
12. I love art classes.
13. If I could quit my job and sit at home, making art, knitting, spinning, and reading, I’d be happy as a clam.
14. I don’t think my body could handle staying home every day, all day…I’d eat too much.
15. I eat when I’m bored.
16. I eat when I’m avoiding something distasteful.
17. I eat when I’m stressed.
18. I eat when I feel guilty.
19. I eat when I’m sad.
20. I feel stressed when I overeat that I’m going to gain weight because of all the crap I’m stuffing in my mouth (but this is where it gets difficult—see #17 above).
21. I feel guilty when I knowingly overeat, which makes me feel stressed (yet again…a refresher of #17 might come in handy right about now).
22. I’ve struggled with being overweight most of my life.
23. I’m finally smaller than I was when I started my undergraduate life.
24. I used to take Thai kickboxing…I was slightly obsessed with it, in fact.
25. I was also obsessed with Irish step dancing, but our class was discontinued.
26. I own boxing gloves and step dance shoes (gillies).
27. My latest obsession is…spinning.
28. I have an Ashford spinning wheel.
29. The wheel’s name is JoAnne (named by Nerdy Hubby).
30. Just tonight, I knit a hat from the very first yarn I spun all by myself.
31. I almost wore that hat to bed, I was so excited about it.
32. I’m already torn between deciding to give my hat away or to keep it in my “archives.” It’s a tougher decision than some might think.
33. I have been out of high school for half of my life.
34. We are living in our very first house.
35. We have a dog for the first time in our not-living-with-our-parents lives.
36. I love our dog so much, sometimes I can barely stand the knowledge that he’s going to die someday.
37. I willingly stay in uncomfortable positions if it means keeping the dog comfortable…especially if his little head is resting on any part of me.
38. I don’t talk on the phone much.
39. We still wouldn’t have a cell phone if my parents hadn’t hit that deer when they were visiting…
40. I send up a silent apology to every dead animal I see on the road.
41. I’ve been a vegetarian since 1991 (or so).
42. I’m married to a carnivore.
43. We both love the movie “White Christmas.”
44. I love “Perry Mason”—both the books and the tv show.
45. I think I harbor a secret belief that I’m destined to be something great, but that I’m just as yet undiscovered…what it is, I’m not quite sure. (It’s kind of like when you’re a little kid and think that your real parents must be royalty, etc., and that someone will come and take you to your true home sometime soon.)
46. Maybe it’s that I think I could write a children’s book…I’ve never really been interested in that, but once people learn that I was once an editor, they always ask me if I intend to write…maybe it’s meant to be…maybe it’s not.
47. I’m terribly judgmental when people make grammatical errors in public places (like blogs).
48. I find that I frequently miss my own mistakes, even in public places (like blogs).
49. My biggest pet peeve as far as grammar goes is when people confuse “its” and “it’s.” This stems from an experience in 6th grade.
50. I don’t make a very good patient; I don’t like having anyone do anything for me.
51. I know this because I was hospitalized twice in a matter of 4 months, each time for 2 weeks.
52. I realize now how annoying I must have been to the nurses (I apologized every time someone had to be called to empty my bed pan).
53. I don’t think I’ll ever get over having no memory of some of my time in the hospital; having no recollection of days in my life is very unsettling.
54. But then again, there are plenty of days in my life that I don’t remember just because they are too far back in my past, or they weren’t terribly memorable.
55. I spend a lot of my days monitoring other peoples’ moods to make sure they’re happy, to make sure things don’t deteriorate into unpleasantness.
56. I love that I married “that guy” from high school.
57. I love that one of my closest friends is my husband’s best friend’s wife.
58. I wish I played a sport or participated in an athletic activity that required “gear.”
59. I miss having muscles like I did when I took kickboxing.
60. I miss taking the train.
61. I love listening to talk radio.
62. I think my family is a pretty healthy one, with just a touch of dysfunction.
63. I am the worst gift-giver.
64. Not because I buy bad presents, but because I can’t stand the wait and give presents early.
65. I’ve finally gotten Nerdy Hubby to start giving his gifts early, too. He had a will of iron, but I broke him down, yes I did.
66. I used to badger my parents into opening their birthday gifts early, telling them “you might want to use it ON your birthday, so you’ll have to open it now.”
67. I must have been an obnoxious child.
68. I hate to cry, whether I’m alone or with a friend/relative.
69. Crying makes me angry.
70. I wish I had curlier hair (boing-boing curls would be my ideal).
71. I’ve had horrendous perms 2 or 3 times in my life, and yet I still strive for curlier hair.
72. I look so much like my mother that her childhood friends have mistaken me for the Nerdy Mommy they knew when they were young.
73. I’m a night owl.
74. I don’t need much sleep to function.
75. I used to get on the floor of my bedroom to read by the light that came in under my door; then my parents figured out my system of turning on the hallway light on my way to bed, and that was it.
76. I once read in bed using the light from the thermostat on my heating pad.
77. I seriously dislike playing pretend.
78. I hated playing school, playing house, and playing with dolls.
79. I used to make up dance routines and plays with my best friend, Gina.
80. I had my old baby crib filled with all of my stuffed animals, and would put them to bed one at a time, saying good-night to them all.
81. I had puppets that I talked to; I still remember one whose name was ‘Fang.’
82. My dislike for playing pretend makes me nervous about having a child of my own because I know that playing pretend is part of playing with your child…I hope it’s true that everything’s different when you’re doing things with/for your own child.
83. I think squirrels are adorable.
84. I think mice and skunks are pretty darn cute, too.
85. When I was little, my favorite daydream was the one where I could talk to the animals.
86. I was a member of our local 4-H club’s square dance group in middle school; I loved it.
87. My 64-year-old father has Alzheimer’s Disease.
88. I feel a tug on my conscience to live closer to my parents now that my mother is taking care of my father.
89. I’m a really good brainstormer, but not a very good do-er.
90. So if you need ideas for how to accomplish something, I’m your go-to person.
91. Need someone to execute a plan of action? I think I’ll be washing my hair that day.
92. My Myers-Briggs personality type is ENFP, which gives me permission to be a bad do-er.
93. I wish I spoke a 2nd language fluently.
94. I wish I could try out being a woman of mystery, a la Lauren Bacall or Kathleen Turner, for just a day or two.
95. I wonder what it feels like to be so beautiful that people notice you.
96. I wish I could remember when/how my self image improved; it was so bad that you would think I would have had some life-changing “aha!” moment when I decided I didn't hate myself, but no…no major turning point, just a late realization that my self-hatred is gone. How did that happen? If I knew, I could be on the lecture circuit.
97. I really, truly enjoy public speaking.
98. I wish I could find a job that would allow me to go around, speaking in public about something that interests me (anyone need an expert in children’s books? using the library? knitting?)
99. I have a certificate in graphic design.
100. I didn't drink "hot liquids" until about 5 years ago; now I'm addicted to tea.

So there you have it--confirmation that I'm completely nuts. Don't say I didn't warn you.

posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 9:34 AM