47 things

For my 47^th birthday today, apparently I’m going to be a narcissistic wonder and share with you…47 things about me!  I totally stole this idea off of one of my favorite bloggers, by the way.

1.       I have had 19 different physical addresses in my lifetime, half of which were since my divorce in 2000, and half a dozen of which were since January 2010.  I’m about to add #20 (which is actually a repeat of #16) by summer and I don’t reckon 20 is the final number.

2.       I have belonged to 8 different churches in my lifetime, representing 5 different denominations. 

3.       I have studied Spanish (a year in high school), Greek (10 weeks in college) and Latin (4 years in college).  I remember only bits and pieces of any of it, alas. 

4.       The only time I have ever left the USA was my trip to Switzerland.  I touched base in London (just Heathrow Airport) and crossed the border briefly into Italy while I was there.)

5.       I have seen the oceans on both the east and west coasts.  I only got in the water on the east coast and that was when I was 12. 

6.       I could be equally happy living in the inner city or the most rural country location.  What I never, ever want to do, though, is live in either a ranch style house or one of those suburb neighborhoods where all the houses look the same.  If you like that, cool.  It’s very much not for me.  I can’t explain why other than everything in me goes “yuck” at the prospect.

7.       I don’t speak “money speak.”  At all.  It’s like the worst foreign language ever for me.  I am taking a little class soon to try and help me with that.

8.       My 2^nd toes are shorter than my big toes.  And my pinky toenails are basically too small to be painted.

9.       I can type 100 words per minute with about 98% accuracy, when I’m well-practiced.   Though I took (2 full years!) of typing in high school, I developed this skill/speed mostly while misbehaving on the internet.

10.   I pray in tongues.  Not all the time.  Not in front of people.  I don’t need you to do it.  And I don’t need you to approve of/believe in me doing it.

11.   I wish I could dance in front of people, but I’m way too self-conscious.  I even had one of my least inhibited friends try to teach me how to loosen up.  It didn’t work yet. 

12.   I sing in the shower.  Every.  Single.  Time.

13.   I am allergic to gravity.  It has special power over me that prevents me from jumping more than about an inch off the ground or ever, every climbing a rope or a tree.

14.   I was terrified of heights until this past year.  God took it away from me.  Completely!

15.   My parents had a policy of taking us on vacation every single year, growing up, whether it was something big like going to Disney or something small like camping 15 miles from home.  I believe in this policy and have done my best to continue it throughout life.  Life is too short to be vacation-less.

16.   I am more comfortable among the poor than the rich, among the rejects than the revered, among the rebels than the rule makers.   All this despite my special unintentional “goodie 2-shoes aura” that follows me everywhere I go.

17.   I enjoy urbandictionary.com and Ceilo Green’s “F*ck You” song and the movie Boondock Saints, most especially the little speech on how useful the F word is as any part of speech at all.  I used to be sorry or at least embarrassed about this tendency.  I’m really not anymore.

18.   I love standing at the edge of a mosh pit and watching.

19.   I am learning to love music for music.  I only ever loved it mostly for the lyrics or the attitude, until this past year.  I’m listening to crazy amounts of music without words, these days.

20.   I have never tried an illegal drug, not even once.  But I would have, for a whole lot of years there, had anyone offered, ever (and I had a lot of friends who used, but none ever did offer).  I call that SUPERNATURALLY PROTECTED, when I look back at it.

21.   I lost my virginity 23 days after my 13^th birthday.  It wasn’t against my will.  I still don’t understand why.  (I wouldn’t share that, but I’ve got a hunch someone needs to hear it.)

22.   I don’t play any instrument at all, though I had about 4 or 5 piano lessons once.  I’d play the bagpipes, if I thought I really could.  Nothing’s as cool as live bagpipes.

23.    I prefer my steak as rare as possible, and believe that steak sauce is an insult to well-prepared meat.

24.  Racism makes my blood boil.  I never think it’s harmless or funny, no matter how small or how much the person thinks it’s “not really” racist.  I’m kind of a bitch on this point.

25.  I’d love to do a backpack tour of Europe for an entire season.

26.  My favorite genre of movies is the ones where people are shooting each other and destroying stuff.  Chick flicks are not my thing.

27.  I grew up liberal, and tried being conservative for awhile when people convinced me I couldn’t love God if I didn’t.  I am joyously back to the freedom of being liberal, and I’m not interested in debating it.

28.  I love the Daily Show and the Stephen Colbert Show (watch them on the internet).  When I’ve been too busy to watch, I go back and back until I catch up on all episodes I might have missed.

29.  I talk aloud to myself, absolutely all the time.  People try to make fun of me for it and I just shrug.  It’s impossible to embarrass me on this point.

30.  I want to take ballroom dancing lessons.  I really, really want to.

31.  I love cartoons.  I could watch them all day.  Especially Rocky and Bullwinkle, the Pink Panther, Ren & Stimpy, Mighty Mouse, Dangermouse, and Rocko’s Modern Life. 

32.  I don’t care about “things” and when the conversation focuses in on them, I mentally leave the room from boredom.  I don’t do boredom for more than an instant here or there.

33.  Soy sauce makes me happy.

34.  Ditto chocolate.

35.  I wanted to do some big significant “47” thing today but didn’t get it planned out, so all I’m doing is this list.  But I’m already poking at my imagination to ask what I might start training for now so that on my 50th I can do something huge.

36.  I used to be addicted to porn – that’s not only a “men’s problem.”

37.  I wish that in high school instead of a boyfriend, I’d have chosen being in school plays and being in the foreign exchange program.

38.  I am a food adventurer – not knowing what something is, is a good reason to try it, in my book – and I turn all judgmental and crabby when others are not food adventurers.  I  am sorry about my attitude.

39.  Cooking for others is one of life’s greatest pleasures, in my book.

40.  I feel like I could die from being seen in shorts or, God forbid, a swimsuit.

41.  I make my own laundry detergent.

42.  I think chocolate chip cookies are the only REAL cookies, and all others are just loser impostors.

43.  I worry all the time that I might have bad breath or something stuck between my teeth (and with no sense of smell, I can’t check the breath thing, you know?)

 

44.  Oh yeah, that.  I lost my sense of smell somewhere along the way.  Sometimes it returns for a few seconds, but then it always leaves again.  I haven’t yet brought myself to believe that God might restore it and I’m not interested in having a doctor’s opinion either.

 

45.  I think fall (or AUTUMN, as one friend insists it must be called) is ten times greater a season than all those other ones.

 

46.  I hate watching team sports.  Except for hockey, live and in person.  I love the fights even more than the hockey.  But no, I don’t like boxing or ultimate fighting or wrestling.  Don’t try to figure me out.

47.  I can’t believe how hard it was to come up with 47 things about me!