100 things, part 1

I take it this was some sort of meme going around lo these many years ago in the blogosphere. Since I've never written a blogger profile or done an "about me" section or anything, and since chances are at least one person that doesn't actually know me reads this blog, I figured I can spend the last two blops of 2006 writing my "100 things" posts.

1. I used to go to church camp, despite considering myself to be somewhere between secular humanist and agnostic.
2. I also went to a church youth group and sang in a choir for a couple of years.
3. I was a high soprano until I was about 16 and couldn't sing those high notes so well anymore.
4. I was a goody two-shoes in middle and high school and got mostly As even through college, but I actually got Cs in penmanship in the 4th grade. This is why I never write in cursive. It's a good thing your 4th grade GPA doesn't count toward college.
5. Also, my mom's a teacher, and has perfect handwriting to which I could never aspire to mimic.
6. I skipped the 2nd grade because I learned to read when I was 3 and it all kind of spiraled down from there.
7. This means I could only legally drink for 2 months in college, though that didn't stop me (my friends were either older or looked old enough to buy booze without being carded).
8. No alcohol, save a few sips of homemade kaluha, ever touched my lips until after I graduated high school.
9. But then I went a little nuts and, shall we say, experimented my freshman year in college. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), everything just made me sick, so I stopped doing any of that illegal stuff in mid-1997.
10. I used to hoard candy because we got it so rarely. I would keep Easter stuff til Halloween, Halloween candy until Christmas, and Christmas candy until Easter. I'd like to say I don't do that anymore, since now I can buy all the candy I want, but I think I bought some Cadbury eggs a few years ago and they sat in our kitchen for over a year.
11. My favorite Girl Scout Cookies are Thing Mints.
12. I like bugs (except the kinds that suck blood, and also cockroaches because they are gross), spiders, snakes, and most creepy-crawly things. Does that make me ungirly?
13. One time I stole one piece of candy from a store (I think it was from that pick-a-mix bin). I was 6 years old. I felt so guilty about it that I couldn't even eat the candy, so I threw it away.
14. One of my best friends from elementary school was a child model. She got her period when we were 9 and it scared the crap out of me.
15. I spent most of my school years reading books all day long. Sometimes I would even read in class, and I even got in trouble for it a few times. I would go days without talking to anyone else (except teachers who asked me questions).
16. This was because I was super unpopular and lonely.
17. I spent 15 years taking ballet classes and was actually quite good. If I'd had the right body type (small frame, lean muscles) I might have even been able to go pro. Someday I might blog about ballet.
18. Tequila is one of my favorite hard alcohols.
19. Despite my fondness for wine, hard cider, and many hard alcohols, I don't drink all that frequently. I'm actually a cheap date.
20. One of the things I love most about Hulk is his voice. Also, I love when he has a really awesome deep belly laugh.
21. I totally hooked up with my travel buddy when I went to Europe in 2000, and I make no apologies for it.
22. When I was a kid I was deathly afraid of growing up, particularly puberty. I actually faked illness to stay home on the day when they played that "this is what happens to girls" movie in 5th grade.
23. When I was a very young kid I was deathly afraid of Gollum from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I saw the Hobbit animated version and had nightmares for years about Gollum. He was my own personal boogeyman.
24. My first kiss happened on my 8th grade day away at Great America. It was with a guy I met there and had only known for a few hours. I still remember his name. The kiss had tongue, and some other kids from my class saw us kissing, and they teased me the whole bus ride home.
25. I have since kissed many people. In fact, I think it's on the order of 30.
26. I haven't kissed anyone but Hulk since June of 2001.
27. Last year, we went to China, fulfilling one of my lifelong dreams. I would go back in a hot second.
28. I grew up in a really really small town, attended middle and high school in a really small town, and went to college at a really big urban public university. It was kind of a culture shock, but I loved every second of it.
29. At said big urban public university, I designed my own major and wrote an honors thesis. It was about the theme of death in American children's literature and how it changed between 1850 and 2000.
30. I'm not actually morbid, however, and would prefer not to think about death.
31. I still love children's lit though.
32. Every year that I get further from having been in school, I feel less and less smart. This is one of the reasons I want to go to grad school asap.
33. When I was in middle school, I loved dolphins and wanted to be a marine biologist. I never really thought about how few people actually get to work with bottlenose dolphins in this country. Madeline L'Engle made it sound so easy!
34. Despite his history of painting on commission for creepy men, I really like Bouguereau's art.
35. Every year, Hulk and I buy toys and books for kids listed on those "giving tree" ornaments at the grocery store. This year we picked up 3.
36. Some years I feel so guilty about not picking up more ornaments that I cry a little.
37. I'm most likely to cry when I'm feeling a really strong emotion - it is more likely to be anger or joy than sadness, actually.
38. My facial hair preference for men is in this order: goatee, trimmed beard, naked, soul patch, moustache.
39. I don't actually like my job anymore, but it's hard to give up such good benefits and vacation time (20 vacation days and 12 sick days a year! Who else gets that?).
40. I work for the government. I never ever in a million years thought I would work for the government. It's a little weird.
41. I can't remember the last holiday meal I consumed during which I was not, on some level, concerned about the number of calories in the food. Maybe I was 10.
42. If you hadn't already guessed, I do have some disordered eating and exercise patterns. I do my best to stay healthy, though.
43. Most of my childhood was spent in and out of doctors' offices for various infections, among other things. I didn't have a very good immune system. Now I try to eat well and exercise in part to keep my immune system in good shape, because I'm less likely to get sick if I eat well and exercise regularly.
44. Two of the four guys I have slept with told me that they'd like me better if I was thinner. During both of those instances I was pretty much the thinnest I've been in my adult life and was probably underweight for my frame.
45. My parents were hippies. My sisters and I each have one regular name and one nature name. They aren't terribly hippieish, though. They also planted a tree for each of us on the day of our births. Mine's a Douglas fir that's now about 25 feet tall.
46. I've never smoked pot. I frequently won "I never" drinking games pulling the "haven't smoked pot" card in college.
47. Once, Hulk and I almost got hit by lightning when we were summiting a 14er. It was probably the most frightening experience of my life.
48. I didn't get my driver's license until I was 25.5 years old. That's right, I've only been driving for 2 years!
49. I was born 9 months and 4 days after my parents were married, and I have been told I was concieved under the influence of psilocybic mushrooms and wine. I told you, hippies.
50. Sometimes I pee in the shower. But I don't do it in other people's showers, or when Hulk is showering with me, because he doesn't like it.

To be continued...