10.

• Speaking of which, at any given moment, I am reading about 7 books. Some I have been reading for years. For example, I read Catcher in the Rye over 3 years. No, I'm not a slow reader. Just an "occasional" reader. Every once in a while I'd pass by the bookshelves and notice it, then pick it up and read a chapter. I do this a lot.


• I'm a really fast typer. I never officially learned to type- I am just sorta self taught. However, my mother, who was formally trained, said that what I taught myself is almost identical to the formal way. Somehow my fingers just figured it out.


• I showed dogs for 10 years. At first I showed a dachshund, only she was old and not that into it. Then I showed a golden retriever and a border collie for the rest of the time. Both were champions, and won everything they entered numerous times, including the "brace" event where they were tied together by a 6 inch "y" shaped chain that was attached to a leash (an event that forces them to act as "one").


• When I was in 8th grade I was supposed to get braces for teeth that had come in over baby teeth and were, therefore, jutting out pretty far. One week before my appointment I backed out, telling my parents I would rather wait and see if they grew in. It was a good choice. Within a year they grew in perfectly and now it appears as if I have pretty much straight teeth.


• I like a lot of what most people would call "really bad movies." I think my tolerance for movies is just really high. So, stick a really hot guy in a piece of crap movie and I'll probably watch it, maybe even buy it on VHS.


• I love sauces. As a kid, my parents thought I was weird because my mom would make spaghetti, and I would rather eat a bowl of the spaghetti sauce than the noodles. To this day, I still would rather eat the sauce, and if I do have the noodles, I'll eat them plain, or with parmesan cheese.


• I collect sunglasses. They're kept in a giant lunch box in my closet. I never go anywhere without a pair.


• Every night I go to sleep, I will wake up naturally almost exactly 8 hours later- sometimes to the very minute.


• On the pinkie toe of each foot, I have a split toenail- meaning I have two
  separate toenails that grow side by side on the same toe. I got it from my dad (isn't genetics interesting?). It sucks because the outside one gets caught on things and tears off and sometimes I'll look down and realize there's blood all over my foot.


• My parents encouraged me to do anything I was ever interested in. As
  a result, I've played tennis for 18 years, volleyball for 12 years, softball for 4 years, piano for 10 years, flute for 14 years, saxophone for 1 year, bassoon for 1 year, piccolo for 13 years, debate for 10 years, soccer for 1 year, basketball for 6 years, and showed dogs for 10 years. I took gymnastics and horseback riding lessons for three years. I was a Blue Bird and then a Girl Scout (until my parents bribed me to quit by buying me a dachshund and telling me I could show her, which was my original request. They thought my girl scouts leader was a bitch.)

20.

• I've studied a lot of languages, and can pick them up and understand them
  pretty quickly. I know the basics in German, Spanish, and American Sign Language. I've studied (for years) French, Latin, and Italian.


• I am second generation American- my grandparents came over here from
  Norway early on. Unfortunately, my Norwegian culture is limited to my name, occasional news of relatives that still live there (whom I've never met), and some foods that I never really noticed that other people around me don't eat (until recently)...like Lefse (yummy potato tortilla-type things with butter and cinnamon and sugar type stuff melted in the middle...mmmm).


• I have kept a journal for 6 years. I'm actually working on the fourth one, having filled up three already. I've filled up one and a half since last January. What can I say, it was a heavy-drama period.


• I'm really sensitive to drafts- meaning I can't sleep with a window open, or with a fan blowing- I'll get a horrible sinus headache and wake up with a sore throat, then get sick. Air conditioning in a car is like sinus-death to me. I'll get an immediate sinus headache (ever felt one of those? They hurt pretty bad and nothing makes them go away.)


• My piano specialties are Chopin, Beethoven, and Brahms (the first two
  being my absolute favorite composers). I know the Moonlight Sonata by heart, and have made people both cry and give a standing ovation by playing it. My goal now is to learn Chopin's Nocturne in C# Minor (it's the song Adrien Brody is playing in the beginning and in the preview of The Pianist).


• I've had the top cartilage of my ear pierced for 5 years. It hurt like hell and took 6 months to heal. My parents were shocked and sickened when they saw it, but apparently not so much that they remembered it considering they expressed the same shock as they continued to completely forget its existence and re-discover it for 4 years.


• One time some irritating guy kept IMing me for a picture, trying to get me
  to cyber with him. So I sent him a picture. Of a man. Happily enough, he stopped bugging me immediately.


• I taught myself to read when I was 3, using a book entitled "A Pig Can Jig." My mom gave it to me and after playing with it for a few hours, I figured out the words and read it to her. She was shocked.


• I can remember my first steps. My parents never believed me, until I
  described the exact image in my head. I was standing by the couch, and one of my brothers was calling me to him, arms open wide. I stepped out and into his arms. For the next several minutes, my brothers were calling me from one to the other, and I walked back and forth.


• I love a good medium-rare steak, surprisingly enough, without any sauce
  whatsoever.

30.

• Like a true writer, my dreams always appear in these complete, long, epic
  adventures. They're always really weird and I write them all down in my journal. I like telling people about the weird and interesting ones, and they always laugh and tell me I'm strange.


• I have four older brothers, all at least 12 years older than me.


• No one in my family has the same hair color. We're all naturally very different, and my dad's is the only one even close to mine. My Mom has almost black hair, which she has dyed blond since she was 22. One of my brothers has platinum blond hair, the second has sandy blond, the third has medium brown, and the fourth has darker brown. My dad has medium blond hair, and mine is sort of a dirty, dark blond. Hmmm...maybe we're all the result of several different mailmen?


• When I was young (like first grade young), I had an extreme fascination
  with the Third Reich and anything having to do with WW2. I read every
  book I came across, and was an expert on Hitler, the Nazi Party, and Germany. I got over it by junior high and have since forgotten pretty much everything.


• I was raised Lutheran, not because my parents are religious but because they wanted me to have exposure to religion (so I could make my own choice later) and also so I would have a sense of morals. Now I don't ascribe to any religion in particular. I took a "What is your religion" quiz online and it told me the top 3 religions that matched my beliefs were Hindu, Amish, and Protestant. Hmmmm...


• On another note, I LOVE churches, and I LOVE going to services. Churches are always really pretty, and I love the solemnity of a church service. Additionally, I think organs make some of the most beautiful music ever created.


• I have wanted to be a lawyer since I was 14 and started debating. I have not changed my mind since then. After people get to know me, regardless of whether they know I want to be a lawyer or not, they almost always say "You'd be a great lawyer."


• I could also see myself being a teacher, doctor, FBI profiler, and engineer. If there was only one thing I could do for the rest of my life, though, I'd be a writer.


• I've had a bazillion jobs- waiting tables, slinging bagels, managing a movie theater, running the movies, coaching volleyball, teaching computer classes, and running my own store.


• When I was in elementary school, I always half-assed those Presidential PE
  testing things...so I'd run a 15 minute mile (because I'd walk the whole time) and never scored really high on anything because I never cared. In middle school, my competitiveness kicked in and I decided to start trying. After that, I scored in the 99th percentile on everything but the Flexed Arm Hang. I ran a 5 min 57 sec mile, and did 64 situps in a minute. :)

40.

• I like driving really really fast, but have never gotten a ticket.


• I was a vegetarian for three years until I made my family dinner one night
  and the chicken I was cooking smelled so good I kept nibbling at it, then decided I missed it too much and said fuck it to the whole thing. I haven't looked back since.


• My favorite position is On Top because it feels better and I get to do everything for once.


• I can sleep pretty much anywhere- in cars, on planes, on the floor, on the
  couch, in class, on the bus, on the floor of a bus, and if I drink enough, with my head propped up against the corner of a desk.


• I'm really picky about who I let sleep in my bed. If it's not someone I really like, then I'm way too uncomfortable. And if it's anyone new, I can never sleep for the first few nights. I'll usually lie in bed the whole night either staring at the ceiling or them. (Yikes!)


• I don't like dating. I hate forced situations, and I'm really picky about who I like. Basically, I'd rather only go out with people I really like, and that isn't too often, which is fine because I like my alone time.


• I'm really good at keeping in touch with people. In fact, when I moved back to Washington from California, I found that I had kept in better touch with more people than the people who had actually stayed in Washington. And I still talk to my old friends in California.


• My nicknames have been and still are Whora and Spora.


• My favorite drink is a Mudslide. The runner-ups are Pina Colada and White Russian.


• My favorite beer is Guinness. The runner up is a good Hefeweizen.


• I have a really stable personality, meaning it doesn't change much. This is not to be confused with having a boring personality. I've been accused of being a lot of things, but never of being boring.

50.

• I refuse to stay friends with people who fight dirty- meaning when we get
  into an argument, they do everything they can to make me feel as horrible as
  possible- from calling me names, to trying to turn people against me, to actually physically trying to hurt me. We're not in junior high anymore and it's not worth it.
• When I was in junior high I was fascinated with vampires. I once jokingly told a boyfriend that I was one and lightly bit him on the neck. He REALLY liked that, and was thereafter obsessed with the idea. Yeah, okay.


• My hair has been Red, Purple, Green, Blue, Bleached Blond, Streaked Blond,
  Dark Brown, and Black. I fried it so badly once that the top part broke in half and fell off. When I dyed it black, it was only supposed to be temporary. But when it still hadn't faded after a month, I noticed that the bottom of the box said that if you had hair lighter than a brunette, the color would not come out. Thanks fuckers. So I had to bleach it to get the color out, and the color hair you see in my picture above was the color I got. On a related note, whereas I'd worn mostly gray and black before, I started wearing more colorful clothes (if you're White and you have dyed Black hair, you look Goth, which I wasn't). This trend has continued, and now I wear all colors, even Orange occasionally.


• My favorite pizza is half-vegetarian and half-hawaiian. Unless I'm at McKormick and Kuleto's Seafood Restaurant in San Francisco. Then my favorite is the Spicy Rock Shrimp Pizza (spicy rock shrimp, feta, mozarella, and homemade pizza sauce made in a brick oven). Yum.


• I'm crazy and I love to do crazy things. I once picked up and drove
  to Lake Tahoe late at night. I've gotten lost in the woods for an entire day. I like to just get in the car and go somewhere. Most of the time I can't find someone to go with me, in which case I've become used to going on my own.


• Every boyfriend I have ever had has promised to teach me how to drive a stick shift (literally...get your mind out of the gutter). I still don't know how. At this point, I figure it will be the man I marry who actually teaches me how to do it.


• I'm really really shy but after years of customer service and force of habit, I've made myself overcome most of the symptoms to where I'm actually really outgoing. My shyness still surfaces when I have to call someone I don't know, and when I have to tell someone I like them (even if I know they like me for a fact).


• I absolutely can't stand people who have to argue with everything.
  At some point I have to tell them to just shut up and let things be. I find it ironic because I'm going to be a lawyer, and all of my friends are debaters, two attributes that make people extremely argumentative.


• I hate it when people talk shit about someone who is my best friend or
  boyfriend. I mean, you've got other friends to bitch at...are you really that stupid that you think I'd be sympathetic to you, want to get involved, or want to hear it at all?


• I'm not afraid of heights, but I don't trust ladders. The higher I get on a ladder, the less in control I feel, and I don't feel I can trust my life at 30 feet up to some child laborer in a third world country who's being paid 2 beans a day to make ladders for us stupid American consumers.

60.

• I'm one of those people who is extremely prepared for everything. In my purse I've got medications, floss, makeup, a flashlight, bandaids, finger nail clippers, and a knife. It's a small purse too. In my car I've got a complete First Aid Kit, a change of clothes, and enough stuff to last me should my car ever break down in the mountains or the wilderness. Hey, it runs in the family.


• I've got like 50 people on my AIM buddylist, and most of them I never talk
  to or don't know who they are. And this is after I've cleaned it out. This includes people I've never known (but found them on a list for Interview with the Vampire) named Armand, Lestat, and Louis whom I put on there years ago just for kicks.


• On a related note, I love reading people's away messages. There are people I haven't talked to for years whose away messages I read daily.


• I have a highly developed sense of manners. It's kinda bad because if I forget to say thank you, even for something really really small, it will bug me and I'll feel guilty until I do say it. It also means if someone doesn't say thank you to me, I will notice and it will bug me until I force myself to forget about it.


• I have really really quick reflexes. This is what makes me good when I play tennis or volleyball and am up at the net.
• I don't belong to any particular political party, and I refuse to choose one. Sometimes I go one way, sometimes I go the other. I'd rather just vote by person, by issue.


• I like the idea of reincarnation. I think it makes me feel better about death. I also like the idea that Heaven and Hell are what you make of your life on earth.


• For some reason, I can't dive head first into water. Once, in high school PE, we were required to dive head first off of the high dive. I went up there, determined to just do it. So I put my arms together, and pushed off...halfway down I freaked out and pulled my head up, and went SMACK...I belly-flopped on to the water. Everyone in the whole pool heard it, and I went home right after that. My body hurt for like three days.


• I love LOVE horses. Once, while I was at my cousin's house, I went into his neighbor's yard (who wasn't home) and hopped bareback on to his horse. The horse bucked a bunch and tried to bite me, but I rode it anyways. :)


• My favorite holiday is Christmas. I love everything about it- the snow, the smell, the lights, the presents. When I have kids and a family, I'm going to make sure we live in a place that has White Christmases and Christmas will be a big deal with lots of lights and events and family and presents and Santa Claus and such. I want to reinvent the magic I lost from when I was little.


• I love Violent Femmes. I've seen them live at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, CA and it was awesome! My favorite song by them is Add It Up, for the line where he says "day after day I get angry and I will say that the day is in my sight when I’ll take a bow and say goodnight."

70.

• I have a really large vocabulary. Partially because of debate (after I started, my dad said he needed a dictionary to understand what I was saying), partially from reading a lot of big books, and partially because I do a lot of crossword puzzles. I think that runs in the family too. My grandma can do any crossword imaginable and will finish them all. The same goes for my parents, who regularly finish New York Times and Wall Street Journal crosswords at the drop of a hat.


• Several years ago a friend and I wrote a screenplay and entered it in Project
  Greenlight's Screenplay Contest. We wrote over 300 pages in one month, long distance, over the phone. We didn't win, but everyone who commented said our writing was amazing.


• I am a Gemini, and even though everyone says this, I really do match up with the description. "Gemini, the sign of the Twins, is dual-natured, elusive, complex, and contradictory."
• I have two personalities. Not in the MPD sense, but there's a very dualistic and contradictory nature. There's the confident, no-bullshit bitch who knows what she wants, expects the very best out of herself, and refuses to let anything stand in her way. She's intimidating, and mostly exists when I play sports, drive, debate, or work. Then there's the insecure, shy girl who over-analyzes everything, is sensitive to anything that might pop up in her mind, worries about failure, and just wants to be loved.


• As far as looks go, I don't really have a set type for what I like in men. I've liked guys from every look. Personality-wise, they're always exactly the same- Extremely intelligent, Really funny, Moody, Sensitive, and Impossible. Hey, I didn't say it was what I look for, it's just what I always get, and I'm okay with that. It's what works. I think. Hmmm...


• My favorite dessert is Loganberry Pie with vanilla ice cream.


• I once was camping alone and was held hostage in my tent by a bear. It was poking and sniffing at it for about an hour before it finally wandered off. I was freaked out, and I really had to pee, but I didn't feel comfortable walking across the campground to pee with the bear still nearby. That night I felt like the biggest coward ever.


• I've been to most of the states in the US, but have hardly ever left the country. I went to Mexico once and Canada thrice.


• My goal this year is to find a job that pays me more money and spend all next summer traveling Europe.


• Last November I tore my rotator cuff coaching volleyball. We were doing this drill where the girls had to squat with their heads underneath the net without standing up and pass 10 perfect passes in a row back to me. I was hitting the ball at them as hard as I could and after 2 hours, felt my arm snap and I couldn't use it anymore. I researched and found that either it would heal itself or need surgery, so I tried to let it heal, while continuing to coach the team. I took them to semis in the state of CA and still couldn't use my arm. Then a month ago, that's August, it stopped hurting. I played tennis for six hours the other day and it was fine. That's an entire year of healing!
• I think it would be a great adventure to get stuck on a deserted Pacific Island. I think I would do well with the survival stuff, and would write stories in my head the whole time.

80.

• I'm really organized, and it bugs me when things aren't in their proper place.


• I'm not shy when it comes to talking about myself, and am comfortable talking about really personal situations (not with strangers, but with friends). And being naked doesn't bother me...mostly.


• I can wiggle my ears.


• When I was young, I hated reading. Then my dad sat me down one night
  and told me to read more. So I started reading Nancy Drew and romance novels. After my parents made me go to bed I would read with a flashlight for hours. My mom would come by and check to see if she could see light under the door, so I had to be really careful about it.


• When I'm trying to get to sleep and am not that tired, I make up stories and act them out in my head. It's like making my own mini-movie to watch at bedtime.


• I can't draw at the drop of a hat like those really good artists or my brother, but if I have a little time, I can do a pretty decent job. I'm really good at imitating- looking at a cool picture in a magazine and drawing the exact same thing.


• I'm really consistent and not really forgetful. This makes me a good
  employee and is why I've been a manager for years now. When I work, whether it's counting money or closing up shop, I can do the exact same thing every night and not forget a detail from the very start.


• It takes me a long time to fall in love...and a long time to fall out of
  it. Unfortunately.


• My favorite out-to-dinner food is chicken strips with ranch, barbecue
  sauce, and honey mustard.


• I'm addicted to Aquafina. The entire bottom shelf of my refrigerator is full of bottles of it. I wasn't drinking enough water and so I made myself a deal- I will buy myself Aquafina and work a constant supply of it into my budget if I promise to drink at least 4 bottles a day. So far it's worked for about 6 months.


• In 8th grade someone dared me to punch a hole in a dime. It took me two days and two hole-punchers, but I did it. I started wearing it on a chain around my neck. A year later some stupid in-bred hussies told me that it was a gang symbol and I hat to be initiated to wear it...they told me to take it off or they were going to beat me up. I was scared but I knew it was all crap, and refused to back down. So I kept wearing it, and they noticed, tried to bully me into taking it off, and I just ignored them. They left me alone after that. I wore it around my neck for 12 years, seeing it as a sign and reminder of the person I strive to be.
  
  

90.

• I channel with my hands. This means when I'm thinking, my hands are
  somehow reflecting that. When I'm driving, and I sense a car is about to pull out in front of me, I point at it and tell it to stay, without even thinking about it. It always works!


• Even though I have four older brothers, I am basically an only child. They're all so much older than me that I was practically raised without them there. I think it worked out well- I got the attention I needed and didn't worry about competing with my siblings because they were off to college, but I was prevented from being entirely stuck up and spoiled because I had these thugs around to beat up on me and share in the parental goods.


• Four older brothers, all athletic and over 6'2" plus one beefy 6'2"
  dad = one well protected girl. That's right...you don't want to mess with me, cuz after I get done with you, you've got five buff and brawny men coming after your sorry ass.


• My favorite All-Time TV Show is La Femme Nikita. I think Peta Wilson
  is absolutely beautiful. I think Roy Dupuis is really really HOT. I still have Peta Wilson on my computer desktop, and I'd kill to be as beautiful and kick-ass as she is. My second favorite show is Golden Girls.


• I'm hypoglycemic, which means if I go without food for a really long period of time my blood sugar crashes and I feel like my entire body is dying. A meal of nothing but carbs or sugar is like death to me- I'll get a headache, a fever, get all sweaty, feel like vomiting, and get that sick achy feeling you get when you're really really sick (like when you're skin and body just feel really uncomfortable.) So I eat a lot of protein and never really think about it unless I haven't eaten for several hours and am thinking about reaching for something sugary.


• I hate money. I hate that I have to live by it, and I hate the control it has over the world. If somehow I had just enough to pay the bills so I never had to think of them, I think I would be really happy. On the other hand, I find it would be much easier to do all of the things I want to do with my life if I had a job that pays me more money. Hmm...is that hypocritical, or selling out?


• I love plants. My apartment is full of them, and outside I've planted tons of roses and pansies. When I grow up, I want a house with tons of gardens and lawns, full of oodles of roses and every other flower imaginable.


• When I was in second grade I spent a few weeks designing my dream house. I still have the plans, and I intend on building the house (with a few slight modifications) whenever I settle down and have the money to do so. It's got to be on the water, with lots of acreage, near the mountains. It will be an older style, with lots of rooms, a library, and a ballroom. (Somewhere, my mother is saying "And what good fairy is going to clean THAT?")


• I have a really genuine personality. Take it literally. When I'm happy, I seem
  happy. When I'm sad, I seem sad. I usually suck at lying (so my mother tells me) (then again, she always thinks I'm lying). When I don't like someone, it's goes against everything in my nature to pretend to like them. I can be civil, but I can't talk shit about how much I hate someone and then turn around and tell them they're my best friend. I wouldn't say I'm blunt...just obvious.


• I want to find someone who is smart, funny, adventurous, good, steadfast, sarcastic, sweet, and can keep up with me without ever telling me he's too tired, too busy, or just doesn't have the time to do what is right. I want this.

< ? 100 Things # >