The List of 99

Normally, I am not a fan of the narcissistic lists of personal details. Or maybe I should say I’m not a fan of creating them. There’s too much in the world that I want to learn and expereince to spend time repeating things about myself that technically, being myself, I already know. But as I’ve roamed the blogosphere lately I realize that these are the things I enjoy reading when I’m first “getting to know” a blogger. That in reading about other people’s quirks I sometimes learn as much about myself as I do the person I’m reading about.

But when blogging aren’t we always writing about ourselves, our expereinces, our discoveries? So here is a list of 99 things about me, my experiences, my discoveries.

1. I was born in California.

2. I have blonde hair.

3. I do NOT surf.

4. Since the age of 12, a large proportion of people I’ve met while travelling have asked me if I surf.

5. Those questions stopped after I turned 25.

6. My grandparents took me on at least one trip every year from the time I was 4 until I was 15. They taught me how to travel on a shoestring, and how to put aside ego so that you get the most out of the experience.

7. I’ve never lived anywhere except the West Coast of the U.S.

8. I’ve travelled to over half the states in the US and to 13 different countries. I made a point of going to all the places I would not be able to see when I was 60 and retired.

9. No matter how much I travel, there’s always more I want to see and expereince.

10. Sometimes I regret never living abroad.

11. I was accepted to the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme to teach in Japan for a year.

12. I had to turn it down because Mr. A got a super job offer to work as a biologist for Washington state.

13. So far, I love living in the Inland Northwest. There’s almost enough mountains (more is never a bad thing in my mind), and lots of trees, lakes, and trails.

14. Don’t call it the Pacific Northwest or people will glare at you. It’s the Inland Northwest. I think we only get half the title because we only have half the amount of clouds and rain and hippie/grunge folk sitting on the sidewalks.

15. I have variously been employed as a pre-school teacher, copy editor, graphic designer, desktop publishing assistant, martial arts instructor, university lecturer, freelance writer, substitute teacher, and a grunt at a popcorn/candycorn shop.

16. I can no longer eat popcorn or candycorn.

17. I was once sued by a woman with MS because I had the audacity to be in the way when she sped through an intersection without looking where she was going.

18. I’m still pissed about it.

19. I met Mr. A in a martial arts class.

20. His version of how we got together involves me dislocating his jaw with a spinning backheel kick.

21. The truth is that we got drunk one night.

22. We found out the next morning that we’d both had a crush on each other for over 6 months, and had both been trying desperately to find ways to ask the other one out, but failed. 

23. His favorite catchphrase is, “She hits me, that means she loves me.” (insert dopey tone and goofy face here).

24. This was a bad thing to say in front of my graduate advisor’s wife. She’s a domestic violence counsellor.

25. This phrase is usually accompanied by a bear hug.

26. He does this to make me laugh . . . and infuriate me.

27. This is why he does most things.

28. Mr. A and I are both dog people.

29. I like cats, I just don’t want to own one.

30. My college roomates had psycho cats. They bit me for no reason and pissed on my clothes.

31. I hate radishes.

32. Although I can resist sweets, even chocolate, I can’t pass up ice cream. Ever.

33. My hips are a testament to this fact.

34. I can’t do the extreme dieting thing. I’ve tried. 

35. I’m a massochist, but only in certain directions. I can hike 15 miles in a day, or get my butt beat in a sparring match, but I can’t handle food deprivation.

36. I like doing things that scare the hell out of me. It makes me feel alive.

37. This was the rationale when I let a friend convince me to go canyoning down a river in Switzerland. It was the perfect combination of fear and fun.

38. I am an only child.

39. I’ve always liked it that way.

40. It’s a convenient explaination as to why I talk to myself so much.

41. I was an extremely clutsy and uncoordinated child. It was so bad my gymnastics teacher told me to quit and take up dance.

42. I love to dance. Even though I still look silly and uncoordinated.

43. Martial arts is where I learned balance and coordination.

44. This means I no longer fall down as much as I used to, but I still hit my head and shins on things. A lot.

45. I secretly love being thrown across the room. It’s like flying.

46. I’m afriad of heights.

47. I believe ki energy is pesent in and connects all things.

48. I love seeing ducks feed with their little butts up in the air. I think it’s a sign of good luck.

49. I have blamed my farts on my dog, and my kid.

50. I love going skinny dipping.

51. I laugh when I fall down.

52. I laugh when other people fall down.

53. I love the smell of jasmine flowers in the evening.

54. I hate the smell of any type of jasmine-scented  candles or oil.

55. I don’t trust people who are afraid of getting dirty, who don’t laugh at raunchy jokes, or who don’t like animals.

56. I have gone through color phases. Little kid: yellow; pre-teen and teen: blue; college: green; graduate school: red. I’m moving onto orange, and I’m still trying to figure out what all this means.

57. I love eating with chopsticks.

58. I have never broken a bone.

59. I have expereinced symptoms of PTSD.

60. I like to kiss with my eyes closed.

61. I arrived in Paris for the first time the day after Princess Di was killed.

62. I don’t get seasick.

63. After being on the ocean for a long period of time I get “landsick.” If I stop moving I begin to feel the ebb and swell of the ocean and it gives me a feeling akin to vertigo.

64. I am terrified of not being able to breathe. My favorite saying in meditation comes from my hapikido teacher. “When you breathe in, inhale everything around you. When you exhale, recreate the world.”

65. I love garlic. I will eat it raw, pickled, smoked, roasted, any way I can get it.

66. Aspens are my favorite tree. Aspen groves all share the same root stock, and thus each tree is connected to every other tree. (Technically the roots of aspens produce clones so each tree is genetically the same as the next. But the fact that one can argue that a whole aspen grove is one organism is pretty cool.)

67. I have watched my kid shoot milk out her nose. The best part was that after I told her what had happened she tried to do it again.

68. I have discovered that I am most happy when I am not worried about what I have, and am more focused on who I am and on each moment’s beauty. This is usually when I’m camping, hiking or travelling. I’m working on capturing this attitude when at home.

69. Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if Mr. A and I had not had kids. I think Mr. A and I would have been very happy travelling through this life with just the two of us.

70. I can’t wait to see what our journey is like with kids at our side. It excites me to think about all the things we can share with them.

71. I’ve never been very good at carrying a purse. I always end up losing it somewhere.

72. I have been offered a job as a bouncer.

73. I was 125 lbs. at the time. I laughed in the guy’s face.

74. I think puppy breath smells like skunk.

75. I used the sing the lyrics to “Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap,” as “Dirty deeds and the Thunder Chief.”

76. I taught a lesson once where I asked my students to eat mealworms and crickets.

77. Some of them actually did it. But only after I did too.

78. The number 13 has always been lucky for me. It is, in fact, the number of days between my hubbie’s b-day and mine. We’re either destined for each other or this relationship is so bad it’s good.

79. Likewise, black cats have always been GOOD luck for me. I say it’s because my b-day is near Halloween. Others say it’s because I’m a witch. Take your pick.

80. I cry when I’m mad.

81. I fart when I stretch.

82. I like to stretch.

83. I love to travel on trains. Not only do I feel good about taking public transportation but it lets me veg out and think while still accomplishing something. I’m all about multitasking while I sit back and relax

84. I have discovered the meaning of life. My friend and I found it one night while drinking peach brandy in the rain. When we woke up the next moring neither of us could remember what it was, but we knew we had found it. I was so frustrated. I later realized that the secrets of the universe are just elusive by nature.

85. I used to “save” worms from the garden when I was a kid and line them up on the bricks. It took me a long time to realize how saddistic this was.

86. I think marriage is like running a three-legged race.

87. Of all the women I admire, (and there are a few) my mom, my nana, and my grandma Phyllis rank highest.

88. I love making lists. They keep my brain organized. 

89. I prefer it when those lists are geared toward the world outside, toward things I want to see and do. It reminds me to get out of the house.

90. I could easily sit inside reading, knitting, writing, painting, and cooking all day. Especially when it’s cold out. 

91. This is a recent thing. For three years after my graduate degree where the typical regimen was 500 to 800 pages of reading a week, I never wanted to sit down or do sedentary activities again.

92. I am just now, 6 years after graduating, able to read fiction for fun again.

93. I now have a very long reading list going (did I mention that I make a lot of lists)

94. I loose half the lists I make.

95. I want to decorate my current house with paintings and photos that either we’ve taken or our friends have created. It’s a way of connecting with our experiences and with our friends.

96. I will never be too old to wear overalls.

97. I do not believe in coincidence. Too many incidences in my life have proven otherwise. But I do not believe in “a plan,” only that all energy alligns itself in the end.

98. I don’t believe in regrets. The past cannot be changed. If you don’t like what happened before, move in a different direction with self-awareness so that you shape your life how you want it.

99. One of my favorite quotes reads, “When you know who you are; when your mission is clear and you burn with the inner fire of unbreakable will; no cold can touch your heart, no deluge can dampen your purpose. You know that you are alive.”