100 (Very Random) Things

Because I’ve been swamped with house stuff and have had little time to write anything cerebral or anything at all, I’m sharing 100 random things about me. I’d love to hear something random about my readers, too. Won’t you divulge your strangest quirk, your claim to fame, your secret passion, and/or anything else you’re pining to share with the online world?

1. I was born in Illinois.
2. But I’ve grown some Southern roots and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.
3. I have tiny feet – size 5ish.
4. Don’t underestimate them by their size. They’re better now since I don’t have to stuff them in pantyhose all daylong anymore, but they used to be odiferous, little things.
5. I love to write.
6. I haven’t stopped writing since I first learned to write.
7. I have a box of journals dripping with melodramatic musings to prove it.
8. I’m a freak of nature – some weird hybrid blend of personalities. A sanguine-melancholic, who, according to the book Personality Plus, can be prone to emotional problems. (Hence, the melodrama.)
9. I married the most even-keel man alive. There’s a reason God said man should not be alone, especially if man (me) is a little loopy and needs someone to stabilize her.
10. I was a horse crazy kid.
11. So horse crazy, in fact, my parents eventually bought me my own horse.
12. I was a very, very lucky kid, too.
13. I lived in L.A. briefly and later auditioned at theatre schools in NYC pursuing a childhood dream of becoming an actress.
14. The desire to entertain is in my blood. My dad has eight siblings. One (James Pankow) is the trombone player for the band Chicago another (John Pankow) is an actor in NYC who used to play Cousin Ira on Mad About You. His wife/my aunt (Kristine Sutherland) played Buffy’s mom on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’ve never seen the show, but a lot of other people have. At my wedding, guests were apparently whispering about Cousin Ira and Buffy’s mom. My relatives are my big claim to fame.
15. I bagged the whole acting idea for myriad reasons and have no regrets, but I do hope to participate in community theatre or at least sing in my church choir again one of these days.
16. I’m a law school dropout (again, no regrets).
17. I graduated from the University of Georgia with a journalism degree (I always wanted to be a writer much more so than a lawyer) in three years (I don’t know why I was in such a big hurry).
18. I somehow ended up on the UGA Homecoming Court in the year 2000. I was the only non-Greek girl on the court and represented Communiversity (a service organization) instead of a sorority.
19. I always wish the Bulldogs well, but I’m not a sports fan. That’s an admission that my fellow alumni won’t take lightly.
20. The rest of my family are sports fans. I baffle them. They baffle me. My mom’s idea of a romantic date with my dad is going to the Cubs’ opener in Wrigley Field. Weirdo.
21. I’m a nerd.
22. I’m a former vegetarian.
23. I still don’t eat steak. Ever. I don’t like it. I don’t like cheeseburgers either.
24. I ran a marathon…
25. …and actually enjoyed it.
26. I’m a cradle Catholic.
27. My husband isn’t,
28. One of my best friends is my younger brother.
29. My favorite color is blue.
30. Madeline’s favorite color is blue, too.
31. Rae’s favorite colors are green and orange.
32. Mary Elizabeth’s favorite color is yet to be determined.
33. My favorite prayers are the Memorare, the Litany of Humility, and the Serenity Prayer.
34. I like chocolate. A lot.
35. I was a certified aerobics instructor. I love fitness, but I ended up not being the greatest instructor. The enthusiasm was there, but the coordination wasn’t.
36. During college, I had the amazing opportunity to study theatre and journalism in Italy and England over the summer. I made some lifelong friends over many cheap glasses of vino.
37. I backpacked through Europe in my twenties and visited more than a dozen cities in 33 days. I was tired and decided trekking through Europe like a pack mule and staying at hostels was not my thing. Neither was ice climbing in Switzerland, but I did it anyway just so one day I could say I did. This is the first time I’ve ever really told anyone (besides family members) that I was stupid enough to pay someone to teach me how to scale an ice cube.
38. I only have one wisdom tooth and it came in just fine, so no painful extractions for me.
39. I never had a cavity until after I gave birth to my first child. My first postpartum dentist visit revealed not one cavity but four. This happened on my birthday, and I cried. It was embarrassing.
40. I’m a natural blond.
41. I’m not a natural gymnast, which people seem to think is weird because I’m blond. I can’t even do a cartwheel.
42. I love to read.
43. I have attached ear lobes.
44. I don’t like to shave my legs and am thankful my hair is light. Unfortunately, my legs sometimes sparkle in the sunlight.
45. I’m prone to worrying about little things too much.
46. But I’m also prone to uncontrollable giggling fits, so it’s all good.
47. My mom is one of my best friends. She’s one amazing woman.
48. My mother-in-law is, too. She religiously reads my blog, but I promise I’d write that even if she didn’t. (Pop and Papa, dad-in-law and dad respectively deserve a shout out, too. So do all of my wonderful family members, including my older brother and my many, many aunts, uncles, and cousins.)
49. One of my closest friends has stuck around for more than two decades even though I bossed her around as a little girl and always made her be Ken because she couldn’t do the Barbie voice right. Now we live a short drive away from each other and our first children (both daughters) were born two weeks apart. She is beautiful on the inside and out. She reads my blog, too, but she knows I how I feel about her.
50. So are two of my other longtime friends. One I met in seventh grade. She was graceful on ice skates. I was not. She tried to teach me how to do a spin. I fell and busted my chin, but I’ve forgiven her. She’s a doctor. She’s also a humanitarian. My other childhood friend was on the National Mock Trial Team with my husband and me in high school. She’s married to a rock violinist and lives in Vegas. She works for Yelp. She’s way cooler than me. I don’t think either of these friends read my blog. They already know everything about me anyway, and I’m sure the pediatrician-friend doesn’t really want to read about tantrums, bowel movements, or weird rashes in her limited free time.
51. My best friend from college owns her own nonprofit dance company. Her husband (also a good friend) is following in my husband’s footsteps and is a radiology resident. She gets my blog posts delivered by via email, but I’m not sure if she has time to take in my logorrhea because she recently gave birth to her first baby. I’m not sure you have time to read this junk either, but I’m grateful that you are.
52. I’ve been blessed with oodles of other friends who watch my back and support me in the parenting trenches. There’s my very close friend who gave birth to insomniacs and also happened to marry a Dr. McDreamy but knows it’s not nearly as dreamy as it looks on TV, and she’s always there to listen to my sleep deprivation rants without judgment. And my crunchy friend from my days in South Carolina. There are my Catholic homeschooling co-op friends. And my friends from my days as a working girl. And let’s not forget all my e-friends who encourage me nearly every day. You, and you, and you! :-)
53. Then there’s my very best friend, my husband, who makes me laugh and can MacGyver anything into submission – from IKEA bookcases to toys that *only* require assembling 2,325 parts. The real thing beats out Dr. McDreamy any day.
54. I don’t iron.
55. I like to cook though.
56. I used to work on the editorial staff of a parenting publication.
57. In high school, I worked at the GAP.
58. I’ve also worked at the American Red Cross, the Medical College of Georgia Health System, and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
59. When I was my family’s sugar mama and freelance writing to pay the bills, I wrote a boring column for a medical trade magazine. I also wrote messages from CEOs in corporate newsletters. But I wrote fun stuff, too, like articles for Pregnancy magazine, bridal guides, and health shorts for Woman’s Day.
60. What I really like to write is fiction.
61. I have a wild imagination.
62. My kids think I’m cool when I use it…
63. …but sometimes my adult sensibility gets the best of me and I lose my sense of wonder and get really serious and boring.
64. Thankfully, my kids remind me that I’m being serious and boring, and I usually try to be silly again.
65. I bite my nails on and off again. I’m currently in the “on” stage, and they’re not looking too nice.
66. The beach is my favorite oasis to find clarity and calm. I’d like to write a novel someday seaside.
67. I watch Mad Men. It’s a guilty indulgence. I love the clothes, and it’s fascinating to have an inside look at the period my parents grew up in and how many cigarettes people used to smoke. Ugh.
68. I like clothes. And shoes. My current fave clothing sources are Ann Taylor Loft, GAP and Old Navy, Lands’ End, and Boden. I really want to splurge on a dress from Shabby Apple (HT: Betty Beguiles) and plan to do so soon. I mean, are those dresses the epitome of perfect loveliness or what?
69. I had an eating disorder in high school and a relapse in college. I went through a terribly awkward chubby phase as a child and got teased and was oinked at on occasion. Even though I’m healthy, and fit nowadays, I still occasionally struggle with my body image because I think of myself as the awkward, chubby girl that never got asked to dance.
70. I’m writing a book. It will be published in 2011. Not surprisingly, it’s about body image and beauty and how we can make peace with ourselves and our looks by leaning more on God.
71. Writing a book is fun – and hard.
72. I don’t shower every day.
73. It’s not because I’m the mom to little kids either. I’ve never showered daily.
74. My husband showers once a day and sometimes twice a day. He thinks I’m a little weird.
75. I’m a compulsive list maker.
76. I like to write poetry, but I’m no good at it.
77. I got engaged at the Grove Park Inn after the most elegant dinner I’ve ever enjoyed. My husband fell to one knee before proposing. It was very romantic. (Much more romantic than our first date seeing Die Hard with a Vengeance in high school.)
78. Not that I have anything against action flicks. In fact, I’m a big fan of the Bourne Trilogy.
79. I’m a drama queen and an attention junkie. But I also need alone time like I need air. I guess that just makes me really needy.
80. I don’t like to talk on the phone much and have never ordered a pizza (except on the Internet).
81. I don’t like big government. I make a moral case against high taxes. Yes, moral. And I’m 100 percent pro-life.
82. The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy should be required reading for all of our Congressmen. I was leaning toward the left as far as social issues when I read this book. It completely changed the way I look at social policy.
83. I’m opinionated, but I have a share of friends who don’t share my worldview and we manage to get along really well.
84. I nurse in public, including at Mass. I love my Modest Mums nursing cover.
85. I could not live without my Ergo (and I promise I’m not getting paid to write that).
86. I’m quasi-crunchy, but I do use disposable diapers. My dad sells them, and I get them for free.
87. My mom-in-law is a lactation consultant. Given that she provides nursing consultations and Dad provides diapers, what goes in our babies and what goes out is all taken care of.
88. I’m married to a doctor who just finished his medical residency (in July 2010). That’s the good news. The bad news is we can no longer defer his $200,000-plus in educational loans.
89. I had braces – twice. During one of the years orthodontia obscured my face I also got a really bad perm. That was not my best year.
90. My first car was a red Mazda MX-3. I drive an Odyssey now. I love it.
91. I’ve always gone to church, but I haven’t always been faithful to the Church.
92. I’m an ENFJ (otherwise known as an idealist). My husband is an INTJ – a Rational Mastermind. We complement one another well.
93. My favorite toys as kid were Breyer horse models. I still have my entire collection and am slowly doling them out to my daughters and other horse-crazy girls I meet.
94. Words like beanie and toot are funny. I’m mature like that.
95. If I’m blessed with more children, it won’t be because I’m trying to have a boy but that I’m trying to follow God’s plan for my family.
96. I’m not afraid of many things, but cockroaches strike pure terror into my heart. One of these huge, crunchy things fell on my head one terrible night when I was asleep long ago when we lived in The Hill area of Augusta, Georgia, which was known for its gargantuan and impossible-to-kill-palmetto-bugs. That incident still gives me nightmares.
97. So does The Exorcist. That’s the only horror movie that made it impossible for me to fall sleep after seeing it.
98. My baby has a very big, stinky diaper. I’m talking nuclear explosion.
99. Good timing since I’m at 99. I’d better go change it.
100. I must be really egotistical because I thought coming up with 100 things about me was going to be really hard. But it wasn’t. At all.