Wednesday, May 12, 2010

100 Things About Me

It's taken me about a month to slowly accumulate these 100 things and then read through them to make sure I didn't repeat myself. Hopefully you enjoy learning some new and quirky things about me. :)

1. I hate confrontation, but will do it if I feel strongly enough.

2. I am often much too nice.

3. I try very hard to never be cruel or to say things I don’t mean or would regret.

4. I am content with how I look 98% of the time.

5. I will not eat peas, sweet potatoes or brussel sprouts.

6. I love broccoli.

7. Bell peppers are one of my new favorite foods, except green ones.

8. My favorite number has always been 8.

9. I own a house.

10. I have a very active imagination and when I was little this translated into believing that a tiny Noah lived in a pipe outside of the bank and I would say hello to him every time we had to run an errand at the bank.

11. Roses are my very favorite flower, but I also love hydrangeas, orchids and tulips.

12. I want to go to Paris in the springtime.

13. I’m proud to say I once went white-water rafting on class 4 and 5 rapids, but I will NEVER do it again.

14. I am slightly afraid of heights.

15. Spiders and bugs freak me out, but I will kill them if no one else is around to do it for me.

16. I used to get strep throat every year and almost had to have my tonsils removed…but now I never get it and instead get bronchitis which I never used to get.

17. I will be your friend forever, with a few rare exceptions.

18. I love to roll down my windows in the car and blast my music super loud – sometimes its Nickelback or the Mamma Mia soundtrack, but sometimes its just instrumental music that stirs my soul.

19. I love to cook and bake, but hate to knead or roll things out.

20. Words of encouragement make me feel loved.

21. Survivor is one of my all-time favorite shows and I never get tired of watching it.

22. I get easily hooked on soap opera type TV shows with multiple characters and storylines, especially if the acting and writing is well-done.

23. I believe that God is in control, all the time.

24. My parents have been happily married for almost 37 years.

25. I met my husband through Match.com on February 25, 2002. His silly-face profile picture made me curious, his romantic profile intrigued me, his deep sexy voice wooed me, and his absolute love and care for me convinced me that I had found the man God had planned for me. We were engaged by June 21 and married on December 21...and though we have our ups and downs I couldn't imagine my life without him and I love him more than ever.

26. I have always loved stickers.

27. Good bread with real butter makes me so happy.

28. I was born on August 28 – the same day as my Auntie Terrianne, my mom’s best friend…and I know about 4 other people with this birth date, but none the same age as me.

29. If I could have multiple clones of myself, I would want one of them to do nothing but read all the time – every book I could ever want to read.

30. I turned 30 last year and found my first grey hairs recently.

31. I would love to someday visit Kerikeri, New Zealand, mostly because of the name.

32. I love to send cards to people I love.

33. I had my first boyfriend in the 8th grade, but didn’t have my fist kiss until my freshman year of college.

34. My first kiss was on the roller coaster Colossus at Magic Mountain – not the best location for a kiss, nor was it a great kiss.

35. I know all the words for the script and soundtrack of Dirty Dancing.

36. My favorite ice cream is soft serve chocolate from Foster Freeze.

37. I love to color.

38. I want to have a garden and grow tomatoes, green onions, shallots, cucumbers, cilantro, thyme, sweet bell peppers (red, orange & yellow), strawberries and raspberries.

39. I collect cookbooks.

40. My favorite food network chefs are Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson, and Melissa d’Arabian…but I’ve been known to enjoy Giada de Laurentiis, Rachael Ray and Tyler Florence.

41. I love reading cooking blogs and am thrilled we live in an age where there are so many people who HAVE cooking blogs for me to read!

42. I love to sing in my car.

43. I need a pedicure.

44. My top three favorite home cooked meals are roast beef with carrots and potatoes, my mom’s spaghetti, and chicken tacos with sautéed red pepper and homemade guacamole.

45. My favorite animal is the orangutan; especially the cute little baby ones with wild orange hair.

46. I hope to always be an annual pass holder at Disneyland.

47. As my niece often asks me…my three favorite rides at Disneyland are: Pirates of the Caribbean, Storybook Canal Boats and Space Mountain.

48. I have a “man book” – ask me what it is.

49. I am so glad they brought back Captain EO and hope it sticks around for a long time.

50. I saw the movie “Fast & Furious” on the day it opened and liked it so much that I went to see it again at a different theater an hour later. Yes, it’s all about Vin Diesel.

51. I really want a new Dell laptop with the OPI color Pompeii Purple and think that it is brilliant marketing for Dell to team up with OPI nail polish.

52. I miss playing the SIMS and hate that my laptop and over 10 years of SIMS history is gone.

53. I like to try new recipes on company and never practice any recipes in advance.

54. I like to collect keychains.

55. On my work keys all the keychains are from vacations that either I or my coworkers have gone on and includes three shoes – a sandal from Mexico, a flip flop from Bali and wooden Dutch shoes from Solvang.

56. I love Mister Rogers. His show was so soothing and memorable and I have collected three books of his sayings that I often quote from in notes to family and friends.

57. I have read Gone with the Wind three times.

58. The first meal I remember cooking was Chicken Cattiatore and I remember we ate outside on the back patio.

59. I love the novel Wuthering Heights and adore the movie version with Ralph Fiennes and Juliet Binoche. It amazes me that a sheltered woman with little relationship experience created the dark and passionate Heathcliff and Cathy.

60. I find it very difficult, if not impossible, to not finish reading a book even if I hate it.

61. I want to be a warm and affectionate person who hugs easily, but it does not come naturally to me although I find it easier when the person I’m interacting with initiates it.

62. I am a people pleaser, but try hard to be who I am in spite of this.

63. I love people who speak with an accent…especially French, Australian or British.

64. I love working with students, especially the library student workers. But I’m always sad when they graduate and leave.

65. I try to always be content in my circumstances, but can get discouraged more easily than I like.

66. My favorite ribs are the Original Baby Back Ribs at Chili’s.

67. I enjoy cooking and baking with my niece and we have matching aprons from Disneyland that we always wear when doing so.

68. My grandpa owned a Foster Freeze when I was a kid and I have many happy memories of that time. I always got a deep-fried burrito with a little fry bag of shredded cheese and to this day that is the only thing I order at any Foster Freeze in memory of my grandpa…other than ice cream that is!

69. I love to eat ice. Crushed ice is my very favorite and I started loving it as a child when my grandpa’s Foster Freeze had it and I would go around eating a cup of ice. It’s hard to find places that have it, but I know of a couple and always enjoy having it when I can. And I would love to own a crushed ice machine in my house.

70. I have been to almost all of the 50 states, but still have a few left to go – Alaska, North & South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire.

71. I prefer to sleep on my left side, with one pillow to cuddle with, one pillow between my knees and a small pillow under my foot – and two pillows under my head.

72. I love flip flops and own at least 20 pairs, but most often wear either my pink or black ones.

73. One of my favorite places in the world is Cayucos, CA.

74. My favorite beverages include icy cold Coke in a can, iced tea with lemon & lots of ice, and Diet Dr. Pepper.

75. I prefer to use a medium point black ink pen, especially at work.

76. No matter how many times I’ve seen them, I always cry when I watch Beaches, Steel Magnolias and The Notebook.

77. I love pictures, photo albums, scrapbooks and picture frames.

78. I love to sit by the ocean, watching and listening, but hate to swim in it.

79. My favorite color is pink and I like to wear it as often as possible.

80. I love how in the movie “The Saint” Elisabeth Shue’s character had little post-it notes all over her apartment & journal – full of scraps of poetry, quotes, lists, etc. I do that a little bit on my computer at work with little post-its with Bible verses.

81. I love to change the color of my hair. It’s been dark brown, auburn, blonde, orangey red (not purposeful but it’s what happens when you add auburn hair dye to brassy blonde) black, brown with blonde highlights and now dark brown with auburn highlights. My favorites have been black and auburn…though I do like it now as well.

82. Though I haven’t been to too many concerts, I have seen – Trick Pony, Brooks & Dunn, Bon Jovi, Daughtry, Bette Midler, Trace Adkins and Toby Keith.

83. When I was a kid, I used to play marine biologist in the pool – water balloons were dolphins or fish, Tupperware blocks that opened were crabs, bricks were sponges, and the pool cleaner was an octopus (though it did look like one, with a floating disk with several long hoses coming off it).

84. My sister and I used to play Oregon Trail – we’d load up the porch swing wagon and deck chair horses with supplies including clothes, blankets, pillows, a Bible, a pitcher of lemon water and a sleeve of Saltines. Each “day” of the trip we’d portion out the crackers and water until they were gone and we “arrived”.

85. Growing up, I was in love with Patrick Swayze. I loved the movie Dirty Dancing and had a poster of him on my wall that was moved so many times (including to college) that all the edges are ragged from pushpin holes.

86. The funny movies I could watch again and again and still crack up are Night at the Roxbury and Zoolander.

87. I don’t like scary things in movies or TV – if it looks or seems too scary for me I’m not ashamed to cover my eyes and even hum to myself if necessary.

88. I used to collect straws from Bakers…I don’t know why. But my collection has come in handy now and then over the years.

89. I would love to take a vacation that centers on eating BBQ all over the South to try the different styles and varieties – brisket is my favorite, especially chopped/shredded and I prefer a sweeter thick sauce to a vinegary thin sauce.

90. I have 1 godson, 6 nephews, 2 nieces and many other children who I love and always send cards and stickers to for major holidays and birthdays.
91. I accepted the Lord when I was 4 years old while listening to a Psalty the Singing Songbook record with my mom and sister.

92. Other than babysitting, being a nanny, tutoring and being a student worker I have only had one real job – the one I have now and have been at for almost 10 years.

93. My favorite breakfast would include French toast, maple bacon, cold milk and maybe some fresh sweet raspberries.

94. I love cucumbers – in tea sandwiches with soft butter; dipped in French onion dip; sliced in a homemade red wine vinaigrette; doused in lemon juice & salt; chopped up in a taco salad with kidney beans, onion, tomato and avocado; or tossed with thinly sliced onion, sour cream, lemon juice, salt & pepper.

95. Some of the books I could reread again and again are: You Shouldn’t Have to Say Goodbye by Patricia Hermes, the Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn (actually basically anything she writes), the Georgia Nicolson series by Louise Rennison and the Chesapeake Bay Saga by Nora Roberts.

96. I collect pressed pennies, Gone with the wind memorabilia, and choose-your-mood magnet sets.

97. I like to talk to myself while driving in the car and no, I’m not ashamed or embarrassed about it.

98. I’ve always loved the smell of coffee, but only in the past year have grown to enjoy the taste of it – though only with a LOT of Crème Brulee creamer or as a hot mocha.

99. Lunch is one of the hardest meals for me. I really dislike leftovers, frozen dinners, and sandwiches so it is always a struggle to find something to pack for lunch. I prefer hot food for lunch, so often resort to fast food but don’t like to spend the money all the time. I have been this way since I was a kid and the only time it wasn’t an issue was in college when I could eat in the cafeteria every day.

100. I like to keep track of the dinners that I make for friends so that I can try new things and not accidentally serve the same menu.