Wednesday, August 17, 2011

100 things REDUX

The old Bloggity Blog turns 6 years old this weekend!   In honor of that, I'm revisiting my very first 100 things post and updating with my current 100 things.  Old answers are in blue.  When the item hasn't changed, I'll try my best to think of something related to share.  Let the fun begin!

100 Things

1. I have two dogs and one cat who I treat like children - We currently have 2 cats and one dog.  Still treat them like children.
2. I have a boyfriend of 7 years - we got engaged a few months ago.  Still with SB, married two years this September. 
3. I have two Bachelor of Arts degrees - one in Biology and one in Creative Writing. Don't ask.  Still don't ask.  Also don't ask about my student loans which I think I'll be paying until I'm 80
4. My favorite color was blue, but I think it's changing. I'll let you know.  Nah, I still love blue, but am also partial to grey.  
5. I have three tattoos - same.  I would love to be badass and get a full sleeve, but the more I think about it, I can't imagine paying that much for a tattoo.... will most likely at least get my kid's name tattooed on me somewhere though
6. I hate my job so much I want to rip my eyes out. This was actually an alternative title for my blog, but got edged out.   Now I have a job I LOVE LOVE LOVE.  So much so that I can't wait to go back to work in January.
7. My grandfather has been saying I have a memory like a steel trap since I was three. I'm still not sure what that means.  same.  I often find myself pretending I don't remember meeting someone to avoid the moment where they don't remember meeting me.  That's awkward.
8. I like to play with punctuation - the - dash - is - my - favorite.  Still love punctuation play, but currently digging the ellipsis....
9. Within the next year I want to live in a house with a yard.  Maybe?  Been living in our condo for 4 years and it's a bit crowded.  Less excited about a yard now though. 
10. I want the yard so my dogs (who are 10 and 11) can retire in comfort.  Those dogs have since passed.  They liked condo living just fine.  Tess is so lazy I think a yard would be kind of a waste for her.  Or else she would love it.  What do I know?
11. I can hold a grudge like nobody's business.  Still true.  Although now I rarely waste time starting new grudges.  I just drop folks from my life and don't think of them anymore when they seriously tick me off.  Still holding onto old grudges though.
12. I rarely seek vengeance.  I think I could safely say I never do.  It's generally not worth the effort.
13. When I do, I'm usually not as mean as I want to be.  I recently got into an altercation with a sales associate at The Bay wherein I raised my voice and waved a sales sign in her face.  That was the first time I lost my temper in a very long time.  But I still didn't call her a cunt or anything, so I don't think I was mean at all. 
14. My taste usually outweighs my budget by at least 100%.  This is still true, but I am a much better bargain hunter than I used to be, so I can often get the things I want within budget.  Win/Win.
15. I love buying gifts.  Still true - although I have also come to really love making gifts, and this helps with the whole budget thing too. 
16. When I'm upset, I usually crave potatoes in one form or another.  I do less emotional eating now, but more bored eating.  And I still love potatoes. 
17. When I was little I used to talk to myself - my grandfather said it meant I would be rich one day. Still waiting......and still waiting.
18. I'm a slave to TV, and strive every year to cut down my TV watching schedule. I always get sucked in.  DVR has changed my life.  But I still watch too much TV.
19. I hate cooked peas, but love raw ones.  I now like cooked peas!!!  But not from a can.
20. My cat is my favorite pet. Don't tell my dog.  I think I love them all equally now. 
21. I have a hard time saying no. Really.  Still have a hard time saying no, but much better at avoiding ever being asked in the first place!
22. I get jealous of other people's good fortune.  Not so much anymore, but I do feel very guilty when I end up luckier than others. 
23. I don't have a problem saying "I'm so jealous of you".  Still true. 
24. I was born with a hole in my ear.  I thought it may be genetic, but my kid doesn't have one. 
25. My grandmother is still the most influential person in my life, even though she was only part of it for 10 years.  While this is probably still true, there are so many other influences that I value more now than I did before.
26. I have two sisters. I hate when people point out they are my half sisters.  Still this.  And now my sister is having a baby and if anyone ever call her my half-niece I think I'd punch them in the nuts.
27. My dad died when I was 5 months old. I think this should make me sad, but it doesn't. It just makes me curious.  Less curious about him these days for some reason.  More curious about my grandmother.  She seemed more badass.
28. I have best friends from every stage of my life, and can't decide who my maid of honor should be.  I finally chose my sister, had my other sister do a reading, and all of SB's brothers had responsibilities at the wedding too.  It was perfect.
29. I will probably postpone my wedding until I can decide.  I didn't - just postponed until we had the $$$.
30. I'm a clutterbug.  I still have a lot of craft clutter, but keep it to my relegated corner of the living room.  I dream of one day have my own crafting room where I can spread it all out and be as messy as I like. 
31. I'm very sentimental about objects, which greatly contributes to my clutterbuggedness.  I have a new non-sentimental value system.  I am now uber-proficient at chucking shit out - I would rather keep memories in photos than in junk.
32. I usually don't care about grammar on paper, but can't stand it when people speak incorrectly.  I now care about grammar everywhere.
33. I hate reading anything written before 1900.  Probably more true than ever. 
34. I would love to own a bookstore.  I never want to own another business ever again.
35. I've had writer's block for over a year.  Writer's block was broken and will have a story published this fall.
36. I have seen the movie "Whale Rider" at least ten times. I still cry at the end.  I haven't seen that movie in a very long time and now I want to see it ASAP. 
37. REM has been my favorite band since Out of Time. I even love New Adventures in HiFi.  Although I have to say I wouldn't call them my favorite anymore.  I didn't even buy their most recent album.  I feel like this is significant.
38. I've seen REM in concert only twice.  Saw them once more, so total of 3 times.  Each time was amazing.
39. I have one Polish friend who taught me two Polish words: MAŁPA MAJTKI. It means Monkey Panties. She's the best.  I have two Greek friends who taught me a fun little nursery rhyme to sing to the kid, and also the word Nikokira, (spelling?) which, loosely translated, means domestic goddess.  Which is me, some days, especially on Thanksgiving.
40. I have weight issues, and usually put on weight when I'm depressed.  And, as it turns out, when I'm pregnant!  Haven't been depressed in a while, but the weight... it's there!
41. I've put on over ten pounds in the past month.  I put on over 50 pounds in the past year, FTW. 
42. I cry when I'm (mad, sad, stressed) and am forced to have a conversation.  This is still true, and the older I get the more infuriating this is.  Can't wait to have my first fight with M where I end up in tears.  That will be a proud moment, I'm sure.
43. When I'm really mad, I just don't talk.  While this is still somewhat true, I have also gotten a lot better at yelling when I'm mad too. 
44. I can type at least 400 words per minute. Okay, I have never actually really measured. But it's really fast.  I'm pretty sure I can type around 600 words per minute now.
45. I drive a 2000 VW Jetta, and I'm really sad that I didn't trade her in for a new one before they came out with the new model. I guess I will keep her until they make another one as cute as she is.  We recently retired old JVo to the junk yard.  RIP.  Now I love our Subaru, mostly because it has all-wheel drive and kicks ass in the snow.
46. I love choosing new paint colors for rooms.  Although I have discovered that the less time I spend choosing, the more horrible the color turns out. 
47. I get tired of the painting project about halfway through.  And if I can I rope SB into doing the trim work.
48. I always fall asleep in the car.  I am dreading our first drive to NB with M because I feel I won't get in my required amount of sleep. 
49. One of my dreams in life is to own a doggie daycare.  I will never ever ever run my own business ever again. 
50. I hate snow and have seriously considered giving up all of my democratic rights and moving to Cuba. (Sun, beach, rum, cigars, what's better than that?)  Decided St. Lucia would be a better option, so that's the dream now, but still shooting for sunshine. And booze.
51. My tolerance for alcohol is even better than it was in university, and I only drink about 1/15th as much.  I have no idea if this is true because I haven't had much to drink in over a year.  Will have to test this theory when on vacation next month.
52. I love Coke, and Diet Pepsi, but hate Pepsi and Diet Coke.  ooooh, but I LOOOOOOVE Coke Zero.
53. Seeing my own blood makes me feel faint.  I have had 4 blood tests in the past year and didn't faint or puke once.  But I did sweat a lot.  Even the nurse was a bit appalled. 
53. I am terrible at keeping in touch with people. Maybe the blog will help a little.  I have gotten much better at this since the advent of Facebook.  So while it is evil, it is also awesome. 
54. I'm usually shy around strangers, and have been told that sometimes I scare people who don't know me.  This is still true.  Someone recently told me I'm hard to read.  I don't know if that's true or not, maybe I'm just an asshole.
55. When I thought my iPod was broken, I cried in my car.  Then that iPod got stolen.  Then I got a new one, and lost it in the snow on the mountain.  I cried in my car again. 
56. When I fixed my iPod myself, I yelled "Yay, I fixed it." and my boyfriend just said "ah, yeah" and kept watching TV.  Then my employee found my lost iPod and hacked it out of the ice and I brought it home and dried it out.  It still worked, and yelled "Yay, I fixed it." 
57. I need it to be cold in order to have a good night's sleep.  Which is why I will never ever ever live without air conditioning again.  Ever.
58. I just started collecting first edition books.  I have some good ones now!  But I rarely hit up the used bookstores like I used to :(
59. I love Starbucks, and am sad that we don't have more of them in Montreal.  Now they are everywhere, and it's still my favorite. 
60. I'm a world class procrastinator.  Still true, although now that M is here I am more on top of a lot of stuff.  And procrastinate even more on all the rest.
61. I have no discipline.  This is scary now that I'm responsible for another human.  Very scary.
62. I shop to cure depression.  Now I medicate to cure depression.
63. Sometimes trying on clothes makes me more depressed.  This is definitely more true than ever.  Ugh to post-baby spare tires.
64. I love to run and would choose running over any other 1-man exercise.  Still true!  Although I also love yoga now, running is still my number one choice of torture.
65. I hate feet and force my boyfriend to wear socks 90-95% of the time I'm around him, especially to bed.  I have gotten more lax on the foot rules, especially when on vacation, however I'm still disgusted by them. 
66. Sometimes I can't sleep because I think he's trying to trick me and has taken off his socks.  This is the least of my sleep issues these days. 
67. I don't like children. They make me uncomfortable 80% of the time.  In spite of the fact that I have my own kid now, this is still true.  Even she makes me uncomfortable at least 60% of the time. 
68. I'm pretty sure I've seen every single episode of all Law and Order series, including the two-hour special return of Mike Logan on the regular Law and Order that aired in the '98-99 season. I'm so glad he's coming back to Criminal Intent.  I am still a L & O buff.  I am so sad that they are slowly being phased out.  I still watch reruns on Bravo every day. 
69. I get crushes on weird celebrities.  A past favorite was David Letterman.  Currently crushing on Ricky Gervais.  Still better than Danny Devito (who for the record is my BFF's weird crush). 
70. I don't remember much about half the stuff I've studied.  Probably even less now. 
71. I've thought about signing up for one of those pharmaceutical company studies that pays compensatory indemnities.  Although I'm definitely less broke than I used to be, I still think this would be interesting.  Possibly for many, many years to come. 
72. Bad driving annoys me and I often honk and/or give the finger to at least one person on my way to work.  Now that we live in the city proper my road annoyances have expanded to include pedestrians and cyclists.  Why can't people just follow the fucking rules?  Cross on green.  Stop at red.  Cars must use blinkers and check their blind spots.  Bikes can be either treated as pedestrians OR cars, but not both.  FFS.
73. My road rage-ish tendencies have scared at least one of my friends.  This same friend is also scared to cross the road with me now for fear that she will do it wrong and I'll yell at her. 
74. I've never had an accident or a traffic ticket.  I think now I've had two traffic tickets (one for speeding, one for going through a yellow light that turned red cause traffic ahead was too slow) and two accidents (once was rear-ended by an old man, once was my fault and I side-swiped a Brand New car that still had the white stickery stuff on it... ooops)
75. I believe in knocking on wood, and just did so to avoid getting into an accident or getting a traffic ticket this week.  I kinda don't believe in knocking on wood anymore and only do it when I'm around people who do.
76. Turning 20 made me really sad, and I'm scared I'll feel the same about 30.  30 was pretty bad.  For many reasons.  27 was actually the worst, I think. 
77. One of my dogs scares me. He has bit me in the foot on more than one occasion.  That dog croaked last year.  Now I live in a fear-free zone.  But I still miss him a lot and we reminisce about his crankiness often. 
78. I love Italy, especially Rome, and can't wait to go back.  Still this.  Although now I miss Paris most. 
79. I've never been to New York City.  STILL NEVER BEEN TO NYC.  Does this seem soooo wrong on soooo many levels to anyone else but me?  However, NYC is very expensive, and I can think of a million other places I would go spend that money first so that I could travel longer.  I still want to go if I could get a lot of deals.  But the planning is already exhausting to me.
80. I hate golf, but if I played it, I'm sure I'd been one of the people who throws their clubs when they're mad.  I can't remember if I ever told you but SB and I went to the driving range once.  I sucked at golf about as much as I imagined I would, but I did not throw my club. 
81. I own every issue of the last six years of Martha Stewart's Weddings magazine.  Those have been given away/recycled.  But I still watch a whole heck of a lot of wedding shows for someone who got married two years ago.  (and they did come in handy, although not as handy as I thought they would when I started collecting them.  Mostly because of the internet.)
82. I say "That's right" a lot.  Not anymore.  Now we say a lot of "That's what she said".  I hope that never gets old because it's a fun, fun game. 
83. I'm pretty sure I'm a handy person, but am usually too lazy to actually do anything handy.  Turns out I am pretty handy, as proven by 4 years of dealing with keys that were copies of copies of copies that we used for client homes where the locks were at least 30 years old.  I'm still pretty lazy though.
84. I love Winnie the Pooh - less than I did a couple of years ago, but still significantly.  On a scale of 1-10 Winnie and I are probably at like a 4 now.  I'm trying to move away from any cartoon characters in general.  I don't want a kid who is addicted to ONE GUY and everything has to be THAT GUY.  I don't like when kids are walking ads for Walt Disney. 
85. I am obsessed with animals who have long necks - giraffes and ostriches are my favorites.  Still and perhaps even more than ever.  We have goose artwork in our bathroom, the kid has several giraffe toys, and I still want to ride an ostrich at some point in my life.  I have no idea why I love animals with long necks, but I do. 
86. I really want to pet a tiger before I die.  I didn't pet a tiger, but I DID get to hold a BABY LION when we went to Las Vegas.  Sometimes I forget that we did that, and then I remember and I get all giggly. 
87. I only recently overcame my fear of rollercoasters - now I want to go to Disney World!  Now we have a kid and an excuse to go to Disney World!  Too bad we have to wait until she's "this high to ride" to go.  Booooo.
88. I am terrified of deep water and almost drowned while trying to snorkel in Cuba cause I was in such a panic.  Still terrified of deep water, but had a better snorkeling excursion when we went to St. Lucia thanks to a nifty life vest thing.  Now we have M in swimming lessons already so that she won't end up like me. 
89. I'm usually a great judge of character, and when I'm wrong about someone, I'll admit it.  Due to my hermit-like existence as of late, I'm not meeting a ton of new people.  So, not sure if this is still true or not....
90. I hate hypocrites.  I also discovered that I hate when people get cranky at me for being friendly and social.  Because I rarely am, so to be chastised for it really gets me ornery. 
91. The only jewelry I wear are: one pair of earrings, my engagement ring, and the ring Eric gave me the second birthday we were together.  Now I only wear rings regularly.  When we go out I may wear a necklace and earrings.  Bracelets don't fit on my giant man wrists. 
92. I'm terrible at doing my hair. If I'm running late, I get so stressed about it I start to perspire. This makes it even worse.  I've given up on hair doing - I either wear a ponytail or stick a barrette in it.  No blow-drying unless it's winter and I'm running late, and definitely no curling irons. 
93. I don't smoke, but don't mind when people around me do.  Now I have to care more because of the kid, but I'm still getting a bit used to that so sometimes people have to remind me to get my kid out of that giant cloud of smoke right there. 
94. I've partaken in very few illegal drugs and for the most part was unimpressed.  Booze are still best.
95. I love when it rains really hard.  I also love thunder and lightening. 
96. It doesn't matter how many hours of sleep I get - if I have to get up before 10 AM I am usually cranky until noon.  Now my ideal start time is more like 9AM, but I am usually always cranky until noon no matter when I get up. 
97. I no longer have my tonsils, adenoids, and wisdom teeth.  I also made it through birth without an IV, and without the use of drugs or any forceps/vacuums, etc.  And I've never broken any bones.  That's my whole medical history folks. 
98. My favorite fast food is still McDonald's, even though I worked there for like five years.  Wendy's is a close second, and would be first if we lived closer to one, I think. 
99. My goal is to have a job I don't really care about so I can actually get some writing done when I'm at home.  Oddly, I have a job I really care about while I'm there, but that I can actually leave behind when I come home.  And I got some writing done.  Win/Win
100. Sometimes I find very inappropriate things hilarious, and have trouble holding in my laughter.  Now my biggest issue is that SB and I have so many inside jokes and have such a similar sense of humor, that we will both find random inappropriate things hilarious and then we're both trying not to laugh.  We're both going straight to hell. 

4 comments:

Nancy Ross Neil said...

Great post! I finally went to NYC (for the same reasons you list above) a few weeks ago. Still wasn't worth the $ and planning. Feel like I'm the only person in the world who loves the city and didn't "get" NYC. I may try again someday, but for now I long to go back to Paris instead...or Barcelona...Boston...Las Vegas...OK, ANYWHERE buy NYC!

Jules said...

This was a really fun post to work on - so much and yet so little has changed in six years!

I feel like going to NYC we'd be there for very little time trying to pack in a whole lot of touristy stuff and spending way too much money. I would have needed to have been going often since I was a teenager to really love it (hostel traveling, student discounts on sights, living off of subway and it's all done before you're 25 and you can just enjoy the city after that)

Teri said...

I love these kinds of posts! Incidentally, I knew, but forgot, that you're also a huge R.E.M. fan. Yay!

Jules said...

this post was so fun to (re)do - it was fun to see how much I've changed and also how very much the same I am too.

And while I still love REM, I am definitely less enthusiastic about them then I once was. I have no idea why.