I thought I'd post this old post as a stand-alone page to let you know a little bit about me. Enjoy.
This is my 100th post on the Being Happy blog. I thought I celebrate by sharing 100 things about me. This is going to be tough for me and some things may just give you just a bit Too Much Information. I don't have the finest filter in the world. Please, to enjoy.
1. I'm married and it will be 29 years in August. (fingers crossed)
2. I have one child, a son.
3. My parents are alive and doing pretty well.
4. My parents are still married and have only been married to each other and they've been married 57 years.
5. I have three younger brothers. Two of them are twins, but they are NOTHING alike.
6. I have three sister's-in-law. All my brothers have only had the one wife. (per brother, we don't share)
7. I live in MD and have lived here, this time, for 16 years. (Yikes, that's a long time)
8. I am a college graduate. I graduated with a bachelor of science in Medical Technology.
9. I'm a secretary. It's what I do for a job. I mean, I'm a woman, but... it's getting pretty metaphysical now...
10. I drive a 1999 Lexus. (I like luxury, but I can't afford it new. There will be more about this later.)
11. My favorite color is red, but I usually wear black.
12. The matron of honor at my wedding and I gave birth on the same day. (I had my son, she had her daughter)
13. I am blind in one eye. (ocular histoplasmosis syndrome, thanks mid-west childhood)
14. I cannot sleep in an unmade bed. If the bed is not made, I need to straighten the sheets and fluff the pillows so I can sleep.
15. I can parallel park better than my husband can.
16. I was born in the Chicago area and grew up in Palos Heights, IL. I heart the mid-west.
17. I married my husband when he was a frocked Lieutenant in the US Navy. Thus, not considered a "Real Navy Wife" as I was not married during AOCS. (now you have lots of things to google to find out what I'm talking about) Btw, I AM/was a real navy wife.
18. I've never withdrawn money from an ATM and I've only made two deposits in an ATM. I don't know my PIN anymore, so it will never happen again.
19. I have a dog. A Jack Russell terrier named Chet the Jet. I don't like dogs.
20. I drink my coffee black.
21. I snore (or that's what my husband says, I have a difficult time believing this)
22. I am left handed. Seriously left handed. I don't think my right hand functions at all.
23. I have pretty teeth and they are quite white, even though I haven't bleached them. And I've never had braces and they are quite straight. I get compliments on them a lot.
24. I haven't been to Europe since the Euro was instated, but I've vacationed in Europe a few times before then.
25. I lived in Naples, Italy for three years. (1984-1987) I loved it.
26. I've never had a cat and I REALLY don't like cats. I don't even like kittens that much.
27. I'd rather eat at home than go to a restaurant to eat, UNLESS it is an AMAZINGLY good restaurant.
28. I stay up way too late. I usually don't go to bed before 11:30 p.m.
29. I've never carried a credit card balance.
30. I voted for Ronald Reagan both times and it's really the only time I felt GOOD about my votes. (I think history will remember George Bush in a good light, too)
31. I have a fairly strong Chicago accent. I don't hear it, but when I listen to Bill Murray in a movie, I feel at home.
32. My guilty pleasure is the Real Housewives of wherever. Although, I like it best with the sound off.
33. I like to cook. I'm OK at it. And my family likes my food.
34. I don't like to bake. I'm not good at it. But I make a killer peach pie.
35. I usually kill plants. I have a ficus tree that has survived me, but this is not normal.
36. I quit smoking 20 years ago. It was the best thing I ever did.
37. I like potato chips better than french fries. Why don't they offer chips more often?
38. My favorite movie is Gone With the Wind (I know, boring) however, Fargo comes in a close second.
39. I can read the Mitford series by Jan Karon over and over again. I love the characters.
40. I stopped watching Oprah 15 years ago, so I don't miss her. However, I used to check to see what her "favorite things" were and decide if I wanted to buy the stock. I did well with Deckers.
41. None of my grandparents had cancer. I'm pretty happy about this. They lived fairly long lives and both my grandpas smoked.
42. I think both sets of grandparents "had" to get married. And they stayed married until they died.
43. My favorite thing to eat is my Spaghetti Carbonara, also known as a heart attack on a plate because my friend had a heart attack after having it for dinner at our home. I don't make it very often.
44. I've suffered from depression in the past, but I think I'm doing pretty well now. :)
45. My watch is a Rolex, but I bought it used. (see, luxury item, not new)
46. I'm organized and I LIKE being organized. I can't think in a messy room.
47. I don't balance my own checkbook. It's not that I CAN'T, but my husband wants to do it and I wasn't doing it often enough for his taste.
48. I don't really like apples that much. Unless you put peanut butter on them.
49. I LOVE blueberries and watermelon. They are my co-favorite fruits.
50. I want to go to China. I don't think I'll ever get there. Maybe we will all be Chinese before I get to China. I mean, we owe them a LOT of money. They may foreclose on us.
51. I don't completely trust vegetarians. And vegans, nope, not at all.
52. I think Ann Coulter is smart and witty, but I wouldn't want to be on her wrong side. (She was so right about John Edwards, you've GOT to give her that)
53. I used to be afraid I'd get fired from my job. Now that I'd be OK if they let me go, I'm pretty sure they will NEVER fire me. It's all in the attitude.
54. I'm a Christian, but I've stopped attending church regularly. I don't feel that good about it though.
55. I can't stand whiners and liars. Really, I can't STAND them. You will have a hard time getting back on my good side if you lie to me. I'd rather have had you slap me.
56. I have never eaten a school lunch. Ever. I went home for lunch all of K through 8. And my high school had split shifts all four years and I was done with classes by noon. I was a commuter student at my 4-year college and never stepped foot in the cafeteria.
57. I used to think Johnny Depp was super cute. Now I think he looks like a homeless person.
58. I buy most of my clothes at Ross's Dress for Less. I don't like clothes shopping. I don't know how people can buy clothes on line.
59. I love the days when I come home from work and know there are enough leftovers so I don't have to cook dinner on a weekday.
60. I don't know how single moms do it. I wouldn't have been able to raise my son on my own and work full time. Nope, even 20 years ago I would have been too tired.
61. I'm a terrible speller. I have to look up words all the time. (can you believe proofreading is part of my job?)
62. I'm incredibly nearsighted and now I'm getting old age eyes and need reading glasses. So I can't see far and I can't see to read. I am so grateful for corrective lenses.
63. I can sing. I'm kind of good at it. I've even been paid to do it.
64. I'm not a PC, I'm a Mac. But they make me be a PC at work.
65. I talk to my mother on the phone every morning on my drive to work. My dad answers the phone about half the time, so I talk to him a bit less.
66. I'm lousy at sending cards. I do it, but I'm usually late.
67. I need to smile more. I just don't smile enough. My natural or relaxed expression is a frown.
68. I don't wear make-up to work. I just don't do it. I just don't feel like it.
69. I color my hair. Well, not me, but my hairdresser. I don't want to stop. Ever.
70. I have a girlfriend from grammar school that I've kept in touch with and still consider a "best friend" even though we haven't lived near each other since I married my sailor husband and he took me away. I'm proud of us for keeping in touch. (btw, she was my matron of honor in #12)
71. I can be terse, both in conversation and in email. This is a trait I am trying to change.
72. My favorite flowers are tulips. Any color.
73. My heritage is Dutch. Completely. My husband is Swedish, English, Irish, and something else. My parents consider ours a "mixed marriage."
74. I am a very loyal friend.
75. Holidays, birthdays, anniversaries don't mean very much to me. I have to work at it to remember they mean a lot to others.
76. I'm looking more and more like my mother every day. It scares me. Just a little.
77. I only drink top shelf liquor. So I have a large bar bill. :)
78. I don't talk to my brothers as much as I think I should. But, I call them more often than they call me. I'm not very close with my sisters-in-law, but we get along when we are together.
79. I didn't go to one of my brother's wedding. I was sick with Bell's Palsy and lived in Monterey, CA at the time. His wedding was in Chicago, IL. I still feel bad about this.
80. I'm not afraid of technology, but I'm not geeky. If you teach me how to do stuff with my computer, I can learn. And, I like it.
81. I always ask to be upgraded to first class for free when I fly. And I get upgraded more often than you'd think.
82. I hate to cry. If I have to cry, I prefer to do it in the shower.
83. I don't think I could live in the desert. I start to feel unhappy or down if I don't see trees.
84. I like doing sudokus and crossword puzzles to kill time.
85. I don't read as much as I would like.
86. I almost died from a bleeding ulcer in my stomach. I had to have an emergency blood transfusion. I'm not allowed to take nsaid medications anymore. Bye-bye Aleve.
87. I can see the river from my office window. Sometimes I look out the window too often instead of working.
88. I dislike ironing clothes. My mom ironed EVERYTHING, even sheets. I have a pile of ironing that has been there for a month. :(
89. I don't have a very good relationship with my son. I think he doesn't like me and he thinks I don't like him. I love him more than anything. I don't understand why he doesn't see this.
90. I'm not a fan of shopping, but I miss living near shopping malls. I loved walking around malls and looking at all the stuff. I love the energy I feel inside the STORES.
91. Once I had poison ivy so bad I had it up my nose and in my mouth. I think I got it from someone burning a field with the poison ivy in it. I was a kid, but it was so horrible I still remember it.
92. I've learned a lot about myself through blogging. I think I would have learned more about myself earlier if I could have been better at writing a journal. I just hate writing. I never learned the cursive thing very well because of the left-handedness. Teachers just wouldn't work with me.
93. I've never like teachers. I didn't like them when I went to school. I can barely remember any of their names. They meant nothing to me. I HATED teachers when my son was in school. Getting them to follow his IEP was like pulling teeth daily. And, I find most teachers I know socially to be difficult to be around. They are used to being the smartest person in the room during the working day. I think they forget that when they leave the classroom, they AREN'T ANYMORE.
94. I have an uncanny ability to remember colors. I can match paint colors from memory. *I have no idea of what use this could possibly be.*
95. I startle easily.
96. I've noticed the older I get, the more fearful I feel in new situations and new places. I'm not happy about this.
97. My wedding reception was in my parents back yard. It rained 4 inches in one hour. Can you say deluge? No one left. People STILL talk about my wedding.
98. I think I'm a city girl living in a semi-rural area. I'm ready to live in a city. Soon.
99. My favorite word, right now, is "Super." It can mean so much...
100. My favorite sound is the sound of my husband's truck, pulling in the driveway after work.
