100 Things

I was inspired by SWOPE Files to write this. It took some doing.

1. I was married on May 24, 2008. This makes me a newlywed.
2. Biker Boy is not my husband’s real name, but just what I call him here.
3. I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
4. I was born in Germany.
5. My parents live in Michigan.
6. I have one sister.
7. She lives in Michigan, too.
8. My best friend lives in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio.
9. I don’t know why she doesn’t move here, either.
10. I listen to country music.
11. I love Garth Brooks.
12. The Harry Potter series was awesome.
13. My laptop’s name is Snowball.
14. In high school, I had a summer job at a place that had an arcade, go-karts, batting cages, mini golf, and bumper boats. I went into the batting cages once to unjam the balls and just as I walked out in front of the shooter, a ball shot out and hit me in the thigh. It left a bruise the size of a cantaloupe. I refused to go in a batting cage ever again.
15. I hate watching movies.
16. Because I get bored easily.
17. I write down everyone’s birthday in my planner and highlight it. If you tell me your birthday once, I will always send you a birthday email or card on your birthday.
18. This birthday card will probably not be on time.
19. I love to teach and see someone’s face when they understand something for the first time.
20. I love socks.
21. My bike has purple, pink, and silver streamers on it.
22. I drive a pickup truck named Monster.
23. During the planning of our wedding, Biker Boy and I only had one fight – it was over the font on the save the date cards. Seriously. Font.
24. I spend hours looking at greeting cards online. Here and here. (See #17.)
25. I like to buy baby things. Baby socks, especially.
26. I like to read books with females as main characters.
27. I am addicted to NPR.
28. Ira Glass and Terry Gross rock my NPR world.
29. I can only mention that I want a dog twice a day. Otherwise Biker Boy will get angry.
30. Fall is my favorite season.
31. Summer is my least favorite season.
32. I used to volunteer for a rape hotline and used to run a domestic violence hotline. I now volunteer for an organization that monitors court cases involving child abuse, sexual assault, and domestic violence.
33. I root for Detroit teams – the Lions, Tigers, and Wings.
34. I don’t like slides or mules or any sort of footwear that flips or flops when you walk.
35. I have never voted for a winning presidential candidate.*
36. I played clarinet in school bands for seven years.
37. I received two varsity letters in high school – one for the aforementioned marching band and one for academic excellence. Honestly.
38. Some of my favorite memories from high school are from band camp and marching band competitions.
39. I bruise very easily.
40. I am very clumsy.
41. A combination of #39 and #40 led me to have to explain to a doctor once that, no, indeed, my boyfriend does not beat me.
42. There are three pictures on my desk – an engagement picture of me and that man I married, a picture of me and my best friend, taken at her baby shower, and a picture of the little guy she gave birth to.
43. I am allergic to the world and am heavily medicated year round to deal with this.
44. I am a bad, bad, bad grad student.
45. I don’t like pickles, Brussels sprouts, or green peas.
46. I just learned that it’s not spelled brussel sprouts. Go learning!
47. If I don’t read before I go to bed, I have trouble falling asleep.
48. When I moved a year ago, I packed a box and labeled it, “Things That Aren’t Filed, Lazy!” That box is still sitting next to my desk, unopened and clearly, unfiled.
49. Biker Boy can not eat gluten.
50. This makes preparing dinner challenging.
51. I was valedictorian of my high school class.
52. I graduated summa cum laude from college.
53. My major was political science.
54. My minor was mathematics.
55. I really like math.
56. In grad school, I have been a tremendous disappointment to myself and others.
57. We have a plant named Lindsey.
58. I have a pig collection. I love pigs. But only pink ones. Cute pink ones.
59. I have watched Dirty Dancing hundreds of times.
60. I waited for more than two months to take my wedding dress to the dry cleaners after our wedding.
61. My favorite flavor of ice cream is butter pecan.
62. I don’t like chocolate. Unless it is mixed with peanut butter.
63. I love grocery shopping.
64. My favorite Pixar movie is Monsters Inc.
65. I cried when I learned that The Bryant Park Project was being canceled.
66. My engagement ring has a sapphire stone.
67. I love all Joss Whedon television shows – Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is also entertaining.
68. I am looking forward to Dollhouse next year.
69. Despite having been stopped for speeding over half a dozen times, I have never received a speeding ticket.
70. I do not drink alcohol. I never have.
71. I don’t wear shorts unless I am working out.
72. I wear skirts instead.
73. I think it would be awful to be a man in the summer with the no skirt business.
74. My husband is a great mimic – he makes animal sounds like nobody else.
75. Denzel Washington and Michael Jordan are on my list of celebrities I would lick if given the opportunity to.
76. I sing to myself all day long.
77. I don’t ever wear a watch.
78. My blood type is A positive.
79. I am allergic to sulfa drugs.
80. ET freaks me out.
81. The flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz freak me out.
82. I have had a kidney stone.
83. In 2004, I had pneumonia so bad I ended up breaking a rib.
84. Both hurt a lot.
85. I love to check the mailbox.
86. I do not know how to swim.
87. I have never broken a bone.**
88. I hate driving.
89. I regularly read trashy romance novels.
90. I have food dreams a lot. About swimming in ice cream, cramming McDonald’s fries in my mouth, and licking bread mostly. Clearly I am denying myself some important foodstsuffs here.
91. I thought Casino Royale was a royally boring movie and turned it off about forty-five minutes into it.
92. The first movie I went to see without my parents was Jurassic Park.
93. I fell asleep in the movie theater during it.
94. I never thought any man would ever ask me to marry him.
95. I imagined I would just be the crazy dog lady down the street when I was old and gray.
96. I pay my bills as soon as I get them in the mail.
97. I like to ride wooden roller coasters.
98. I like to wear shirts and dresses with ruching around the bust area.
99. I am scared of rabbits.
100. My husband is the funniest person I know. He makes me laugh hysterically every single day.

*Updated to add that this is no longer true after the 2008 election.

**Ha ha. Some of us shouldn't be so hasty. Plus, I guess it never occurred to me that a rib (#83) is an actual bone. You know, because they couldn't cast it.