Another Hundred Things About Me

Since the last 100 were so well received, and since I'm just bursting with character, I thought I'd treat all you Noodle fans to some more special insights into my life! Yay!! If you missed the first 100 things about me, you can find them here: 100 Things About Me

101. I am insanely jealous. And I almost always begin my thought processes by thinking the worst. These two facts about me are bad enough, but when combined, serve to collapse my private little world until someone inevitably drags me back to reality. Thank God.

102. There is a distinct three- or four-year period during my childhood/adolescence that I've pushed so far down into my memory banks that I don't think I'll ever be able to retrieve without the help of hypnosis. Or heavy drugs. Or both.

103. I have three brothers. One is biologically linked, is 5 years older than me, and has been estranged since 1994. The other two are maritally linked, are some number of unremembered years younger than me, and have been strange since 1996, when I met them.

104. I hate endives.

105. When I walk along a sidewalk and people are walking in the opposite direction and are facing me, I love to play that staring game where I gaze up into their eyes until they feel uncomfortable enough to look away. For some reason it gives me great satisfaction.

106. Growing up for years and years, I had this irrational fear of answering the telephone. And I often wouldn't initiate phone calls, either. It really stunted my social life. In college, I got a job as a cold-caller for the fundraising office. I had a social life that flourished at that point in my life. Weird how things change.

107. Most people remember faces but not names. I have trouble remembering the faces, but will almost always remember names, where the person is from, what friends we've got in common, what they studied in college and some strange idiosyncrasies about them. But none of that usually helps, because I can't friggin' remember that I've ever met them before when I see them again.

108. Singing quite loudly and animatedly is one of my favorite activities in which to participate while driving around in an automobile.

109. I didn't get my drivers' license until I was 20 years old. I was too scared. When I finally did go for it, I passed on the first shot, and then proceeded to get a junior license, a senior license and an over 21 license mailed to me all in the same couple of weeks. It was cool.

110. For some reason, when I turned 21 and was legally allowed to drink, I somehow decided that it was boring and, for the most part, stopped.

111. Every once in awhile, I surprise myself by tossing an unplanned "y'all" into a conversation.

112. It doesn't take very much to make me cry.

113. I love lists.

114. Being stuck in traffic usually doesn't bother me. When I get road rage it's often because of some moving moronic infraction of law or common courtesy by another driver.

115. I have only been on one blind date. It was a disaster. He called me a "cheap date" because my vegetarian meal didn't cost as much as his bloody mooing one. He tried to hold my hand when we were walking and put his arm around me when we sat down. It wigged me out. When he took me home and we were sitting talking, and I didn't want to sit next to him because he kept offering to give me back massages, he told me that "just because we may sit next to each other doesn't mean we have to smooch and make out." I told him I understood that. He offered for me to sit next to him again. I declined again. He got mad, told me it didn't seem like I wanted him around, and then thankfully got up and left. He was a minister for a church he'd started himself. Shudder.

116. When people discuss movies and actors, I usually have no idea who or what they're talking about. It's like I'm some deprived tvless idiot with no exposure to media or motion picture entertainment. I kind of like it that way.

117. I have a hearing problem. At first I thought it was just me thinking the worst (see #101), but now I honestly think I have a common ear thing called tinnitis. Every once in awhile, the sound in one ear will blacken out (if hearing can blacken out... but that's kind of the closest description I've got to what happens) and intense, high-pitched ringing will ensue. It's a little uncomfortable and a bit disheartening, but I think I can trace it back to high school when I played in the very loud percussion section of the marching and concert bands. Oh man-- it must have been the crashing of the cymbals.

118. Every couple of months I get this strange desire to remember what my senior prom date's name was and I usually have trouble with it... so much trouble that it often can take up to a week or two to remember. Then when I do, I feel satisfied again. Until the next time I can't remember.

119. I'm having less and less of a problem in my advanced age with letting go of friends and other people in my life who don't treat me very well. Kudos to me!

120. There was this patient I had to admit to the hospital who came for a liver transplant. When I got to the patient's room, there were a ton of people standing around all wearing street clothes. So I asked, "Ok, who here is the patient?" and I looked around, and it suddenly became clear which person was the patient because my eyes fell on a very diminutive looking yellow lady. "Oh," I replied, "you must be the patient." So we went through the admission history and I let her get settled in, and when asking if she had any questions, she said she wanted to know what my neon green rubber bracelet was for (you know, like one of those Lance Armstrong ones, but green). I replied that it's one for organ and tissue donation and she was so excited that they had one for that, and that it was green (her favorite color). At that moment, I knew I wanted to give it to her, but she had to get undressed and into a gown to immediately go down to the operating room. So, about a week later, I had her again as my patient, only this time I was discharging her from the hospital to home. Right before she left, I thought quickly enough to take my green bracelet off my wrist and slip it onto hers. That simple little act made her so happy, and it made me feel great. I hope I can do more simple little acts like that in my life.

121. Garlic + cut up potatoes + olive oil + rosemary + a dash of salt and pepper + roasting pan + 400F oven + 45 minutes = a little pan of heaven.

122. I find that I'm constantly wiping the narsty facegrease off the display screen of my cell phone. Do you have to do that, too? It's so gross.

123. The reaction on people's faces when they find out I'm vegan is great. What's better is the reaction when they find out that my manfriend works at a meat market.

124. I really enjoy multicolored paper clips.

125. I never really know how to spell "separate" and "occurrence" and "ridiculous." Whenever I type those words out, they're consistently misspelled. In fact, the only reason they're spelled correctly here is because I used the spell checker.

126. I have a big mouth problem. I usually say too much. It sometimes pisses people off. Oops.

127. The noises on AIM that happen when people message one another make me feel happy.

128. I hate the sound of the smoke detector... so much so that when I'm cooking and something in the oven burns and the alarm goes off, I usually rip it off the wall.

129. I usually can't be around people if they're wearing perfume that's stronger than the oh-smell-my-wrist-isn't-my-perfume-great?-I-just-love-it type.

130. I've never gotten sea-sick.

131. I have this crazy dislike for women whose thighs I can see between when they're walking in front of me. These feelings are made infinitely worse if they have amazing cleavage.

132. Sometimes when I use those dental-floss-on-a-stick things, they get stuck in my mouth and I feel immediately embarrassed even though nobody else is there to witness it.

133. I hate the word "schlong."

134. I really enjoy writing people letters and sending out cards in the mail.

135. I hate making flash cards.

136. Memorizing stuff just for the sake of memorization sucks.

137. When I was in high school, I was in a band called The People's Republic of Funk as the drummer. We were really ghetto.

138. I'm usually a giant sap and a terrible closet crybaby, but lately more than ever it seems as though I'll get weepy at the drop of a hat. Ugh.

139. When I was little, I used to sit down at the kitchen table before school to eat breakfast. Then, when I got to middle school, I found I didn't have time for that, but my mom didn't want me to go to school without having eaten anything, so she used to send me off on the bus with a banana every day. Eating the bananas was ok for the fist year or so, but after that, I pretty much got sick of them. Instead of saying anything to my mother, I used to try to pawn off my bananas onto my friends. That went on for at least another year and a half almost every single school day. Finally, I think I just stopped taking them to school, but I never said anything to my mom about getting nauseated at the thought of eating another banana.

140. I finally told her about my banana story two years ago.

141. It wasn't until probably six or seven years later that I could even consider eating another banana. I still only have one a couple of times a year, and even that's a stretch. Their smell still sometimes makes me cringe.

142. I have terrible posture.

143. I still own and use a backpack that I bought in 1999. I bring it with me to work every day. It's been to three different countries and a a bunch of different tropical rainforests.

144. I crack my pelvis and my back on a regular basis.

145. The smells of whiteout and gasoline and permanent markers revolt me.

146. Despite my youngish age, I have wrinkles around my mouth and eyes from smiling so much.

147. My fingers are fat.

148. I'm proud of my scars and can tell the story that accompanies each one.

149. Good oral hygiene makes me happy.

150. I read books for fun and I'm not *too* much of a literature snob, but when I don't like a book that I'm reading, I usually have a really hard time putting it down unfinished.

151. I really like stopping my car to let families of geese cross the road.

152. Despite what I try to convince myself and everyone else, I really do care what people think about me.

153. I have had to teach my mother how to pump her own gasoline a couple of times. The lessons were futile as she still can't do it.

154. My manfriend told me once that I'm a lot more complex and fragile than I let on. I think he pretty much pinned the nail on the head.

155. Sometimes I wake myself up with my own snoring. Like, more often that I'd care to admit.

156. Less than ten minutes ago, my mother just uttered the following in response to my... um... gastrointestinal exclamations: "Oh God, you should go live outside in a pup tent in the back yard... then you could fart yourself to glory."

157. I'm really good at giving advice but pretty terrible at taking it.

158. Simple mathematics is not one of my strong points-- I still use my fingers to count.

159. When I was in college, I used to go spelunking (cave diving)... it was awesome!

160. I have never ridden a horse.

161. Taking a ride on a motorcycle is one of the most enjoyable ways to travel along empty back country roads in autumn.

162. I try really hard not to harbor regrets.

163. Despite myself, I find that I'm really great at holding grudges.

164. The smell of cedar always brings back memories of my late gerbils.

165. I'm excellent at expressing myself to people when I've got needs that aren't being met, but mostly to people who don't matter much in the grand scheme of things. With folks who are close to me, I have a hard time confessing that kind of thing.

166. My internal monologue is typically external... or absent. Whichever. Does that make sense?

167. The smell of cooked chicken still makes me salivate. The smell of cooked beef makes me want to vomit.

168. I'm part hyper-in-tune-with-my-body and part hypochondriac.

169. I'm sort of picky about what types of pens I'll write with.

170. I avoid taking over the counter cough/cold/general under-the-weather medicines and pain relievers at all costs.

171. I am not afraid to die.

172. I am afraid about the deaths of the people closest to me.

173. I'm really afraid of being alone.

174. Dill pickles are only palatable a couple of times a year, gherkins are ok a couple of times a month, really good Kosher deli style half-sours are good every minute of every waking hour. Mmmm.

175. I like eating leftover dinner foods for breakfast. Like, cereal isn't usually my first choice in the morning, but spaghetti and broccoli with roasted garlic and olive oil sounds perfect.

176. I like to play rough.

177. I haven't eaten meatloaf since 1994. Thank God.

178. Sometimes I can't help but stare at the Windows XP Home Edition wallpaper of clouds because if I look at it a certain way, all I can see is a strangely coincidental formulation of a cumulonimbus penis.

179. I don't like lollipops that much.

180. Reading magazines targeted at twenty-something women can be entertaining, but I generally find them mind-numbing and marginally boring. And the sex tips are usually so been-there-done-that, too!

181. I really enjoy working with power tools.

182. I can knit with knitting needles, but not that well, and I am not terribly coordinated. When I knit with needles and I drop a stitch, I'm usually not good enough at it to pick up the dropped stitch, so I end up trying to undo the whole row... but then I usually can't undo just the row and I manage to find myself in a situation where I've just unwound the entire garment. Highly unsatisfying.

183. I can knit with this loom I have called the "Nifty Nitter" or something. I'm actually really great at it and I've yet to drop a stitch. Unfortunately, the only thing I can knit with the loom are scarves... long, long scarves. Heh.

184. Every couple of months, I get the urge to start a new and exciting craft. Knitting has really been the only one I've stuck with for any length of time.

185. When the bathroom door or window are open and the shower curtain happens to billow towards me on a draft, I tend to freak out. I hate it when the shower curtain attacks me!

186. Back massages are amazing and I will accept one graciously as often as it's offered. Unless it's offered from a really skeevey blind date.

187. Sometimes if it's late at night and I've just spent the day working, I'll fall asleep on the phone. I usually don't notice I've done it until the party on the other end of the line asks me a question and we both realize I've just answered terribly inappropriately for the context at hand.

188. Procrastination is my middle name. Well, it's not *really* my middle name, but by the way I act, sometimes you'd think it was actually written on my birth certificate.

189. Cherries are my favorite summer fruit.

190. I am really bossy in the kitchen... like, when I'm cooking, everyone out!

191. It's taking me a very long time, but I'm starting to realize that when people offer to lend a hand, that I should accept the assistance.

192. Most of the time, I'd consider myself a giant spaz as stationary architectural objects (like walls and door frames) don't always keep out of my way.

193. When I was younger, I used to collect bandaids. You know, like, what you put on cuts. I'd get them as presents for my birthday and Hanukkah, and when people would go on vacations, they'd bring them back to me from far-off places as mementoes. What a weirdo!

194. I make my own hummus and pesto.

195. I bought a bread machine last year. I only know how to make one kind of bread-- garlic and rosemary yeast bread. Mmmmm. Unfortunately I haven't used the machine since a month after I got it. Heh.

196. Sometimes when I'm driving in my car with my windows down, I feel the need to blast my music and I feel really competitive of the other cars on the road... like my music has to be the loudest, even though nobody else seems to be challenging me.

197. A fairly regular occurrence for me the morning that something big or new is going to happen (like an important exam, a first day at work, or a job interview), is that I get a stomach ache and feel really crappy. Literally.

198. I just sneezed eight times while writing #197.

199. When I've had something weighing on my mind and I finally let it out, the feeling of relief that I get is absolutely amazing.

200. This list has taken me a *very* long time to finish and I don't think I'll be constructing another one quite so involved anytime soon! :)